Wednesday, August 27th, 2008...3:44 pm
Certifiable?
Monday’s workout:
Max Effort Front Squats
Lunge Buelers/Farmers Walk. 8 per side/120 feet. 3-4 sets.
KB swings. 90 seconds. How many can ya do?
Today:
Max Effort Bench Press
Ring Fly Outs (see video below). 3 sets of 5-6.
Johann Wolfgang Goerthe New Combo! Have fun.
We know her as trainer Al or Allyson Goble, but the local music world knows her as Allyson Seconds, and here’s what she does when not at the Tribe.
Certifiable?
The demons we choose to battle aren’t always very demonic. Stubborn, we sometimes fight the power without there really being a ‘power’ to fight. One of my many made-up battle was against the concept of certifications. Not only do I currently not have any (at one point in my life I had over 13 of them), I’ve refused the many requests to consider the idea of creating one.
Here’s how this industry works: A person or organization decides that their knowledge is so worth seeking out that people should not only pay out the ass for it, but be rewarded for their effort with a ‘certificate.’ Initially this industry had 3 major players, the American Council on Exercise (ACE), the Aerobics and Fitness Assoc. of America (AFAA) and the American College of Sports Medicine (yep, you guessed it, ACSM). Now keep in mind that 25 years ago, none of these existed (or at least no one cared yet). Eventually, as the fitness industry grew, the big 3, at least one of which a ‘health club’ required for employment as a trainer, morphed into hundreds, over a dozen of which were collected like trading cards by yours truly early on in my career.
Our industry typically offers 2 options. The 2-4 day certification or the 4 year degree. Despite the giant discrepancies in the time frame, I’ve yet to meet anyone who learned how to train or coach people strictly through their degrees. Sadly, they often hold about as much practical water as most certifications.
Keep in mind that, despite the fact that they were usually essential for employment, not a single one of these certs was required by law, as there is no governing body for personal training. In other words, massage therapists, physical therapists, hair stylists and mechanics are all in legal league beyond the training world, since they are licensed and government regulated, while the fitness industry isn’t. This is a mixed blessing. Although the entertainment that quite commonly passes for personal training has not yet caused enough damage to incite the highly litigious, the government hasn’t gotten it’s dirty little claws into the game, deciding who does what with whom.
It also means that anyone can create a ‘certification,’ leading to the vast and confusing world of trainer certifications available to anyone with ducats and a dream. The certification market/racket has a wide range of options. What started as generalizations (the ‘personal training’ cert or the ‘aerobics instructor’ cert) has diversified into a vast buffet of specializations (there are at least 3 different major schools of thought for kettlebell certification alone). They don’t all suck, in fact the information behind a handful of them might be money well spent. BUT, no one outside of the actual industry understands how they work or what they mean. In fact, in the 15-ish years I’ve been doing this, I’ve only been asked about my certifications by non-trainers maybe 3 times. Which begs the question:
Why ‘certifications?’ Perhaps telling a client or potential client that being certified in left-hand-specific gyroscopic sports conditioning biomechanical tectonics will wow them right into my clutches, but chances are they won’t have any idea what that means, or they simply won’t care. At training gatherings we used to boast to each other about our certs, not unlike whipping out our 12th level magic user’s character stats at D&D conventions and bragging about his +6 save against polymorph spells.
But, alas, Joe and Jane Smith don’t care. Somewhere along the way we decided that just learning the info wasn’t enough. We had to PROVE that we learned it. Gimme that piece of paper.
Well it’s happened. The ground has been broken, if only metaphorically, on the Physical Culture certification. The details will be forthcoming very soon, but suffice to say, it will be broader than a specialization, but deeper than any general cert. But that’s all I’m going to say for now.
The DVD
Last week we started filming our upcoming DVD. The cameras will be rolling with some frequency over the next couple of weeks, and I’m inviting anyone who wants to be a part of the process to join us. We’re recording actual workouts, in various locations around Northern California (yup, all over the place). On top of the plethora of program designs featured, each workout will be broken down into individual movements, detailing the instruction of each exercise. This weekend we’ll be filming at an abandoned factory, at our splinter gym Midtown Strength and Conditioning, and in Big Trees National Park, as well as good ol’ Bodytribe.
12 Comments
August 28th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Chip—good stuff buddy. Def interested in obtaining that Physical Culture cert. funny that u mentioned. I have been studying for my NASM exam. Not only for myself & for my clientle, but more so for the pay increase @ my club. One of the many hoops I must jump through to get that ever desired raise. I guess being the top trainer as far as volume and clients trained doesnt count??? Go figure. Keep up the good work. will def be there for Jim Schmitz!! Cant wait. For now back to training clients. have a good day
August 28th, 2008 at 7:38 am
Whoa. Crazy big plans.
Just stop us before we start calling you “Coach.”
August 28th, 2008 at 7:41 am
‘Coach’ then leads to ‘master,’ which then leads to ‘your majesty,’ and frankly I like the sound of that.
August 28th, 2008 at 8:13 am
What about “Your Holiness?”
I’m jealous of your upcoming time at Big Trees… I’m long overdue for a wilderness fix. A few weeks more of craziness, then I’ll be free again…
August 28th, 2008 at 8:54 am
I think that’s a fine idea. Or two.
I also think that the idea of separating the Subculture from the whole ‘coach’ ‘trainer’ heck, even ’sport’ aspect and turning it into a sort of monarchy is definitely where it’s at.
Training will become easier. Because at that point, it’s not about how much I can lift or what certs I carry, or am I ‘ripped’, or what I even know… it’s simple: you will now do 15 renegade kettlebell burpees followed by ten slashers, five times fast because that is my decree. I like it.
So carry on, Chip. You do good work.
Craig Brown
King of Mars
August 28th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Does the fitness world really need another certification?! Not that yours wouldn’t be total awesomeness, Chip.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Veronica is right, all these certs are just silly.
So if we proclaim you King instead (which I think we can arrange) I’d like to suggest we have Physical Subculture Knighthoods.
I always wanted to be Sir Craig Brown, since I was little.
August 29th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Well, the fact of the matter is that outside of select gyms, certs are of value to the trainers (as in it allows for hirings, more pay, more clients, etc., if not necessarily more and better knowledge). If trainers are going to be getting certs, I figure they might as well be getting more useful & forward-thinking certs, like Chips would presumably be.
August 29th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Make no mistake, I’m totally into it, whatever it is or is called! I actually may have landed a part time gig on the strength of my AKC certification- not expected, but cool.
But being a Knight of the Physical Subculture would look VERY cool on the business card….
August 29th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Zac, I think the fact of the matter is that all those certs handed out by this gym and that gym mean nothing to most globo gyms. I’m guessing they want you to got through their own certification (which again won’t mean anything at the next place you apply to) or have a “national” cert (NSCA, NASM, ACE, ISSA)
A cert is basically book knowledge. It won’t mean a thing unless you’ve spent time “under the bar” either as a trainer or as an athlete. So, if I were looking to hire a trainer, the letters after your name won’t mean as much as how long and who you’ve trained and/or trained under.
That’s just my 2 cents which in this economy really isn’t much, is it?
August 29th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I’ve run all the debates through my head. I consider any cert I might be considering simply a crappy piece of paper, but my concept is a longer term, more hands-on and inclusive orientation to a wide range of strength and conditioning elements that are never put together in a package like this. A generalized specialization!
I like the ‘fuck off, fitness industry’ attitude of Gym Jones, offering the non-certificate program (and our representative Josh is there this week). So consider my program NOT a cert program, but rather a LEARNING program, but it might just have a piece of paper available at the end as proof.
Maybe when I’m king (Craig, you’ll be the first to be knighted) I’ll call it a mini-diploma instead.
August 29th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
“my concept is a longer term, more hands-on and inclusive orientation to a wide range of strength and conditioning elements that are never put together in a package like this…consider my program NOT a cert program, but rather a LEARNING program”
Ha! I knew you’d make yours different. That right there is what I left out of my post in hopes that you’d confirm my suspicions.
*bows at your majesty’s feet* (hoping those Chucks have been washed recently.)
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