By Michael Krueger
I try not to take in too much fitness news and research. By “too much” I mean an amount that makes me confused and crazy. Most of the time that isn’t a problem, but occasionally it is.
Today, for example, is one of those days. My brain is overloaded and overheated. A client made a request that required some research on my part. Well, one thing led to another, and after a couple hours of reading conflicting studies and opinions, my brain hurts.
Why do I do that?
The Problem
There is a lot of information out there and I read a lot of it. The NSCA regularly publishes a journal of new research findings, and historically that had been a regular cover-to-cover read for me; but now, not quite so much. Now I try to confine my reading to research regarding a particular issue or concern at the moment. When I allow myself to stray from that mandate is when I go down a rabbit hole.
For instance, today I was researching a metabolic question. Honestly, that type of research is not my favorite to do. It’s technical and involves a lot of different studies with differing methods and occasionally shadowy sponsors and motives. It also involves chemistry and mathematics, neither of which are my strong suits.
I started to get fuzzy, so I got up and wandered around a little, stretched, and refilled my water bottle. When I returned to the task at hand, I found myself browsing other topics not related in any way to my original quest. I told myself that I would get back to my original focus in a moment, since this other article was “interesting” and would only take a minute or two to read.
Well, as happens, that article led to another and another. Soon, I had more than a page of notes on my legal pad with no end in sight. So, as always, I got up and moved around again. I did some work on the foam roller to loosen up a bit and wandered outside to get some fresh air. The fresh air thing was a ruse, because I was sitting on my screen porch and was getting plenty of air; so you can see, I was in trouble.
After a while, I sat back down and got back to work. It didn’t take long, and I had the information my client requested and a few recommendations on how to apply them to his situation. Then I looked over the notes I had been scribbling down. I realized that even though I strayed from my original subject, I had come upon some good information. It wasn’t germane to what I was supposed to be doing, but it was interesting and may come in handy at a later date.
Then I thought about all the other times I did the same thing. I start one place and end up somewhere else but gained some knowledge along the way. It isn’t always information that I needed right at that moment but stuff that was good to know.
How It Applies
What I’m getting at is when it comes to fitness, it’s easy to get confused and off the track. You may be very content with your program, and then you read something or talk with someone and the doubts start creeping in. You wonder if maybe you are heading in the wrong direction and they know something you don’t. Well, whether or not you’re on the wrong path is a question only you can answer, but whether or not some else knows something you don’t is a given. We all have specialized knowledge and experience, so it never hurts to listen to or read about something that interests you and is new to you.
The problem comes when you give more weight to what someone else says as opposed to your hard-won personal experience. You know more about how you react to a particular physical stimulus better than anyone else. You also know that you are in some ways very different than anyone else.
As human beings, we have a lot in common with every other human being. But we differ slightly from everyone else as well. Add to those differences many years of life, and the differences can be quite astounding. Genetics aside, consider your nutrition, illnesses, injuries, influences, and goals, and you can see how many variables there are that will affect your progress and success over time.
All of these things will affect how you relate to the generalized information that permeates the media as well as the health and fitness world. We are all humans, so we will all eventually die, but that’s about the only general truth that we all share when it comes to fitness and life.
Example
I really like my current mode of training. It’s intense, brief, and infrequent, and it fits my goals and my life. I have no desire to change it up at this time because it’s working very well. I was speaking with a guy I know who was a bodybuilder and power lifter at various times in his life. Despite his pushing 80 years old, he is still active and in good shape even with his two new knees.
He showed me his basement gym. It was nice and served his needs well. He asked me a few questions about his training, and I answered them as best I could. I have never worked with him, so I didn’t have any firsthand knowledge about his past, present, or future goals.
He got a little frustrated by my answers regarding how he could make his workout more effective. I asked him if he enjoyed his training and if he was getting from it what he wanted. He said that he was, and I gave him the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
I went on to explain how if you go looking for a problem, you will probably find more than a couple to torment your mind. If you are doing well, as he obviously was, don’t worry about it. If he starts to notice a lack of progress or an injury creeping up, then it’s time to go searching for answers. Until then, just kick back and enjoy the ride.
He gave me one of those looks that I get often from clients. Nearly everyone, no matter how well they are doing, believes that there is some magic or secret that they are missing. If they can possess this missing piece, the world will open up to them. Well, that’s not going to happen.
By the time I explained that to him, he admitted that he was happy with his fitness but added with a grin that he wanted to be sure he wasn’t missing anything important … he wasn’t.
What to Do
So, while it never hurts to gain new information, don’t allow it to confuse and sidetrack you. It may be just interesting information now, but perhaps at some later time in your training it might apply to an issue you are having. Just don’t invent a problem to go with your new solution.
Getting back to my original premise, if you are happy with what you’ve got and it’s taking you where you want to go, stick with it until it’s time for a change. When you look at your log book, you may find that you took a somewhat circuitous route to get to where you are, but you learned a lot along the way and absorbed even more without even realizing it.
There is no magic and there are no secrets; only discipline and hard work will get you to where you want to be.
No one can sweat and struggle for you…
…this is one trip you have to take alone.
Michael Krueger is an NSCA-certified personal trainer. He got his start in fitness training while serving in the United States Coast Guard. He works with firefighters and others in and around Madison, Wisconsin. He is available to fire departments, civic organizations, and athletic teams for training, consulting, and speaking engagements. He has published numerous articles on fitness, health, and the mind-body connection and was a featured speaker at the IAFC’s FRI 2009 Health Day in Dallas, Texas. E-mail him at MKPTLLC@gmail.
