Trainers and Trainees, Read This.

Interview with Coach Glassman from Crossfit

The above is an interview with Greg Glassman, the creator of Crossfit. Now I am not saying Crossfit is the best or only way to do things, but all of the key points are there. Like clockwork my clients start telling me a couple weeks in to training that they are stronger, have more endurance, and are even starting to see physical changes. Normally they ask me if that's possible, as their past training experiences have led them to believe it's not. When I began training I was always told clients may feel different after a month, but physical changes take 2-3 months. Or in some of your cases not at all, apparently.
Of course this begs the question, what is the difference between my training and yours? Why is it I have such dramatically quicker results? I really believe that partly it is that if you tell me something I am doing is wrong, and provide good evidence to back up your claim, I will take your advice and change. I have met way too many people who will not, and so they never grow and improve.
My mantra to my clients is "If your body is pushed, it will respond." I see it over and over again. The key is knowing how to push it, and where the line is. If I walk through a modern health club I mostly see a sad state of pure isolation training with clients who lack the ability to truly isolate a muscle, rampant machine usage, and outright dangerous training. Ironically, some of this dangerous training takes place on machines, while my training which involves tire flips, swinging around an iron ball, and throwing heavy bags over your shoulders is actually quite safe.
Which provides a better cardio workout? Riding a stationary bike, or performing sets of high rep push presses? Sadly, most people would probably state that 'obviously' it is the stationary bike. Read the article above to find out why it doesn't even come cloe.