THE TRUTH ABOUT TRAINERS

Don Lemmon's KNOW HOW, Book Four, is not a personal training certification but a guide to help you better understand yourself, the field, your client, their varying needs and the never ending medical fields. Too many trainers walk around thinking they know medicine after reading a book or two but they clam up when a real doctor is around. If you actually learn what you pretend to know, you will build a business of more clients that see better results than anyone else does in your area. Keep something else in mind; I did not start as a writer. I began as a simple nutrition consultant. I realized immediately that the trainers who worked around me only knew what the magazines fed them and I decided to fill the gap in the existing market with this very book.

I have been in the fitness industry since I first picked up a barbell at age 16. When I felt results, coming from delayed onset muscle soreness, I wanted the entire world to know I was going to be huge one day! Unfortunately, I did not realize that soreness was a bad sign. In addition, when I discovered this fact, I decided the next step was learning as much as I could. In turn, others would learn from me. Never again would someone tell me I was stupid for thinking soreness was a good thing. Never again would someone tell me I was too skinny. Never again, I promised myself… Never again would it happen to me...

Now that we have the Internet there seems to be an army made up of anyone and everyone who has a website claiming to be a guru. Many take drugs, others diet away as much fat as possible for that one photo shoot they use to market their goods while others hide from the camera… Nevertheless, they still suck you in. Do not fall for it.

So, let me give you a tip or two. One, if you run across a website owned by a fitness trainer claiming to be a consultant to the stars or whatever, find out what stars. Do you want to look like any of those stars? Do any of those stars even exist? You can go to my website, click on my testimonials and see names of people I bet you wished you looked like or recognize. On top of that, just because someone says on their site that their clients see results, that does not mean you will too. Often, the stars looked good before the trainer even met them, so nothing changed…

Next, if a guru has a book available for download… RUN. Do you know why this is? Because they cannot afford to publish hardcopy books nor get a real publisher to give them the time of day. It is FREE for them to reproduce a PDF file or an eBook but costs thousands of dollars to make REAL books… Books like you see in book stores, not spiral bound, not stapled in the middle and definitely not for more than what a real book would cost… I have four- hardbound books over 300 pages each. None of the content is repetitive. Each is different and I refuse to sell downloadable copies. It cheapens the work.

Supplements… No trainer worth his weight in sand would recommend products that have fillers, binders, GMO's (genetically modified organisms), corn syrup, artificial flavors, chemicals, or nervous system stimulants… EAS, Metrx, Designer Protein, Muscletech (to name a few) are all companies that use these shady ingredients. What happened to good old-fashioned common sense and eating right? Too often you get sold on the idea someone can tell you "The Truth" about supplements but the truth is, you need basic nourishment, not cake batter, candy bars or things that have just become popular over the past few years.

I know some of these people also try to use a degree (or certification) to profess their abundant knowledge into the secrets of nutrition and exercise but think about this too… If all it took were a degree to be so clever, why are not all people with the same degree selling the same ideas? Why are not all people with the same certification built alike? Why do most physicians look as if they have never exercised a day in their lives? If a person holds the key to true health, you can bet your last dime they will be drug free, and look the part.

The answer to all these questions can be summed up with one statement: Because none of that matters. The truth does not come from riding the bandwagon of assembly line or "cookie cutter" certifications and degrees. I have formal schooling but do I boast of it? No way. I used little of what was offered from institutions of higher learning to get where I am. It amazes me, but it is true. Really… If I needed a special title to teach the things I know, in basic forms you can grasp, then you would need a special title to learn it as well. Titles mean nothing. Applicable knowledge is everything.

For now, if the website your guru preaches from looks like it was put together by a high school student, walk away. If they cannot afford to be published, if they cannot afford professional website design, and if they are either recommending products you know are bad for you or a private label rather than formulating their own goods… This person is not the successful role model you should turn to. I am shaking my head just thinking about them.

Have you ever listened to a personal trainer boasting around the gym about how smart they were, how successful they were and then seen them turn around and drive off in a Pinto, Bondo buggy, or rust bucket? Yeah, hardly the type of clown I would take my advice from either.