Reasons I Became an Educator

After finishing my degree in human kinetics I really disliked a lot of what I was seeing in the fitness industry as well as in the trainer continuing education space. Here’s what I mean:

1️⃣ I was sick of seeing an audience full of trainers who mainly work with general populations being taught by people who mainly work with athletes, in collegiate setting and in clinics because they’re out of touch with what everyday trainers deal with.

2️⃣ I was sick of hearing so-called experts do nothing but talk about how everyone is broken and dysfunctional – your breathing sucks, your posture sucks, your movements sucks – and essentially scaring trainers away from actually getting people to exercise in a way that will improve their fitness, physique, etc. or achieve any of the goals they came in with and are paying their hard-earned money for.

3️⃣ I was disillusioned by the amount of intellectual dishonesty put on display by many so-called experts who make bold claims with little to no evidence, make claims that scientific evidence has falsified, making too many logical fallacies to count as if they’re good justifications, and asserting their opinions as facts while expecting everyone to take it as gospel because of their resume. Never mind they themselves don’t accept the contradictory opinions of other so-called experts who have just as much of an impressive resume.

4️⃣ I was sick of hearing educators talking to audiences like they’re stupid and can’t make decisions on their own without some providing them with simple-minded view-points and paint-by-numbers rules to follow instead of promoting better ways to think through and solve problems on your own (often teaching memorizing instead of analyzing).

5️⃣ I wanted to get off the merry-go-round of watching trainer trends of specialized, proprietary, sounds really cool training techniques that change every five to ten years being promoted as what makes for a good trainer over creating a better understanding of applying universal training principles and exercise mechanics that don’t go out of date.

6️⃣ I was annoyed by the wide gap between science and practical education where practical based classes had no scientific basis to them and so many science based lectures had little to no practical relevance to them. It’s a mad circle.

7️⃣ I was sick of watching experts create more problems and confusion by using jargon and and trying to rebrand concepts instead of trying to simplify things.

8️⃣ I was tired of watching fitness education become about watching instructors promote their fitness politics and pander to their followers. Everyone who doesn’t follow their thought process and has questions or thoughts of their own were seen as having bad intentions.

I could go on but it comes down to the fact that I’m a contrarian in this field because my main drivers to become an educator where because I simply disliked the direction of fitness education. I have set out to do the opposite of the trainer centered, group thought driven, authority based environment that is common place in fitness. That said I will championin an approach that is client centered, individual and critical thinking driven, scientifically founded and principle based.