Weak Training advice

Fitness professionals are naturally full of opinions and have numerous recommendations on exercise. And they’ve populated the Internet with blogs spouting their ideas about health and fitness.

There are many trainers, but there are few great trainers. Some of smartest minds in the industry are Todd Durkin http://www.todddurkin.com/, Joe Dowdell http://www.joedowdell.com/, Tony Gentilcore http://www.tonygentilcore.com//and Mike Boyle http://strengthcoachblog.com//. These are the individuals people should be listening to – they’re the experts people would be smart to follow.

Then there are so-called "celebrity trainers" … like Tracy Anderson. I’m not sure how she has become so successful. Maybe because she makes crazy claims or gets celebrity women to think she is actually smart and is getting them results. Or maybe these celebrities – like the rest of the public – just don't know any better.

If you want to get a laugh, check out her website: http://tracyandersonmethod.com/tracy/. Here are just some of her more ridiculous claims:

TRACY’S SITE: The mission of her method is to "strengthen the smaller muscle groups so that these muscles can pull in the larger muscles – which results in a lean figure that is not bulky."
*** Who knew our body's smaller muscles had such power over our larger muscles? Oh, wait … they don't! This statement on her site is not only ridiculous, but it can inspire people to work out in ways that can result in injuries.

TRACY DISCUSSING DANCE CARDIO AND THIGH-BUSTERS: "Doing 20-40 reps of each move pulls away the fat from the muscle – the cardio burns that fat to help diminish the look of cellulite."
*** A certain rep scheme pulls fat away from muscle? Wow. Her claims might be funny … if they weren’t so ridiculous.

TRACY IN LIFE&STYLE MAGAZINE: "We don't want to take away Kim Kardashian's amazing curves, so we just do specific movements to tighten the skin and to pull the muscles tight against the bone."
*** Last time I checked, you can’t pull skin and make it tighter through exercise. I’m no doctor, but I'm just saying. Also, your muscles already surround your bones. Is Tracy going to go inside your body with a wrench and tighten the bolts?

Tracy has a flashy website, she’s fit and she can drop celebrity names faster than an amateur weightlifter can drop a set of dumbbells. But I don't care and either should you. She’s clearly not educated in the field and she doesn't really know what she is doing.

The purpose of this blog post to remind you to pay careful attention to the things you read and hear in the fitness industry. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish my workout so I can pull in my larger muscles and tighten my skin.