A Small Rant on the Industry

Last weekend The Fitcast's main topic was "Is the fitness industry getting better?" Unfortunately I wasn't able to take part in the fun, but I wanted to give a few insights here.

Exhibit A:

John Berardi is coming into Boston this weekend. His first trip to the east coast in a little over three years. Outside of the fact that I have a slight "man-crush" on him, I have been looking forward to this weekend because John was actually one of the first authors I started to read way back in the day when I started out in this industry. To say that he has been an influence on me and how I discuss nutrition with my clients is an understatement.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned to a bunch of other trainers that I work with that JB was coming into town for a two-day seminar and that they would get a discount for attending. Guess how many are coming out of 60+ trainers? ZERO. Granted, this also happens to be one of the weekends that many of the trainers are going through MAT training (Muscle Activation Techniques) at the club where I work, so they obviously have a legitimate reason for not going. However, that still leaves 40-45 trainers who seem to have other plans. One trainer in particular said to me, "What do we get for going? Do we get a goodie bag or anything for showing up?" Um, how bout the fact that you get two full days with one of the world's reknowned sports nutritionists!?!?!?!

So now we have gotten to the point where the only way to get personal trainers to further educate themselves and to make themselves better is to bribe them with "goodies?"

This, in my opinion is one major reason why I feel that the industry is getting worse. Now, that's not to say that there aren't thousands of personal trainers out there who go out of their way to attend seminars or read books and try their best to stay on top of things. But I think it's fair to say that that is far from the norm. I just think it's rather dumbfounding that more trainers aren't going to this seminar, given the fact that it's going to be a FANTASTIC weekend to network with some of the top names in the industry: Eric Cressey, Cassandra Forsythe, Jimmy Smith, John Sullivan, Carl Valle, Todd Hamer, and Mike Boyle just to name a few.

I think the industry needs a swift kick in the nuts. That's what I think.