So I just finished reading the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. If you haven't read it here's a quick synopsis. The story is a based around a society where people live in factions based on a virtue (honesty, selflessness, fearlessness, intelligence and service) they feel is most important. As I was reading the three books it quickly became apparent that this fictional world parallels the fitness industry.
I first starting these divisions in the industry (I guess I always knew they were there, but didn't know how prevalent they were) last year when I went to a Chain Reaction Seminar hosted the by the Gray Institute and Gary Gray. Being in fitness for 7 years at the time I knew Gary Gray as the "lunge matrix" guy. What I didn't know was that these seminars had been around for more than 20 years and Gary Gray is a lot more than the "lunge matrix" guy. At the beginning of the course all of the attendees were asked to introduce themselves and say something about themselves. I mentioned that I was FMS certified. Throughout the rest of the weekend Gary Gray challenged my belief in the FMS.
Gary Gray was very professional in the way he challenged me and was very quick to point out that he thought Gray Cook and the other creators of the FMS were very intelligent, he just felt that there system has some short comings. The problem was that I felt myself defending FMS like they were sending me a pay check every two weeks (by the way they weren't and still aren't). This got me thinking about other things people defend in the industry and why we tend to defend them.
First off though, what are some of the things that tend to draw the biggest defender and therefore arguments? Well we have some of the different systems out there like FMS vs. Chain Reaction (see also TPI vs. Nike Golf). Then you have arguments over the tools that are used: kettle bells vs. barbells vs. dumbbells vs. sandbags vs. ViPRs vs. this list could go on for days. People even tend to argue merits of variations of the same exercise. Worst of all, I've seen arguments on various internet forums about what national certification is the best. Basically fit pros will argue over just about anything and everything if they believe strongly enough in it.
The thing is if you sat down the creators of all the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I don't think any arguments would start (at least no big ones anyway). I actually think they would agree more than they would disagree. So if they aren't the one leading these arguments, then who is? We are. The people who buy into what these people are saying and selling. Once we get behind something we need it to be the "right" thing. Why? It usually isn't because we believe so much in the tool/exercise/system/ or idea. It's usually because we need to be right. Once we publicly back something, the first thing at stake has nothing to do with whatever we backed. The first thing at stake is our reputation and our pride. Nobody wants to back a loser, everybody wants to be on the right bandwagon.
That's thing we have to remember as fitness PROFESSIONALS. Being professional being able to learn from those with different points of view. Being professional means realizing that the tool in your hand might not be the best tool for the job. Being professional means that making that realization doesn't take anything away from you personally. Being professional means going out of your way to find as ways as possible to help your clients reach their goals, whatever they may be. That means that at some point we have to step out and go to seminars led by people we really don't know much about. I would also say that this means that if you think something is so backwards and wrong then you probably should invest some time in learning more about it. More often than not, you'll come away with a better understanding and maybe a completely different stance on the subject. [contact-form subject='[Sensible Health %26amp; Fitness'][contact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/][contact-field label='Email' type='email' required='1'/][contact-field label='Website' type='url'/][contact-field label='Comment' type='textarea' required='1'/][/contact-form]
