In honor of 2008.....

Seeing as how we are bringing in 2009, I thought I would give everyone my top 8 client excuses/exercise myths I get in honor of 2008, so here goes…………

1. “I don’t want to get bulky and muscular and look like you Matt.” I always get this from women clients and to be honest, I don’t want to look like any of them either. 1 out of 1000 women has enough testosterone present in their body to get as muscular as a male and guess what, when you are 45 and a mother of two, you are not going to look like the incredible hulk no matter what we do.
2. “I don’t want to get too big and strong.” Strangely enough I get this from men. It’s as if getting really big and muscular is easy, which I can assure you it’s not, and it’s like saying I really don’t want to work that hard. The last time I heard this was from a very wealthy business man and when he said this to me, I replied “well Bob that is just like me saying, I don’t want to make too much money, or be too good looking, or too tall.” Of course all these statements are ridiculous.
3. “What exercise will help me get rid of this?” I get this right before someone points to his/her stomach. I tell them to stop doing this, and I imitate me putting a spoon to my mouth and eating. I actually told a very large woman this one time and instantly wondered if this was such a good idea as I soon became afraid for my life and thought she was either going to punch or eat me (wasn’t sure which one.) Honest to god story, she came back 5 months later on a tour of our facility, hugged me and picked me up off the ground and told me I had changed her life. She said she had just lost 40 pounds and planned on losing 15 more.
4. “Too much protein will make my kidneys fail.” Well this non-sense started by feeding patients on dialysis that already had renal deficiencies high protein diets. Then they started saying high protein diets will cause kidney failure. This is like making someone who already has lung cancer smoke a pack a day and then make the claim that the cigarettes caused their cancer.
5. “Which alcohol can I drink that is the least bad for me?” Great grammar I know, but that is the actual question I was asked (I wrote it down!) None. Stop drinking, it all makes you fat and in the words of a wiser man than me, “drunk, fat and stupid is no way to go through life.”
6. “I really want to get toned but don’t want to put on muscle.” Again from women, and I know they mean well but this is really the biggest oxymoron I hear on a regular basis. The only way to get “toned” is to become leaner and more MUSCULAR, which means, you guessed it…….ta da…..adding muscle!
7. “I heard that when squatting, I shouldn’t let me knee go past my toes.” This is also stupid gibberish. True there is a certain point of diminishing returns but watch yourself walk up a flight of stairs, your knee goes at least 30 degrees past your toes every step. My answer to this question is simply next question.
8. “I am on a great cleanse right now, I am drinking honey, pepper extract, and grapefruit juice.” Answer, actually no you are on a diuretic and you are an idiot. A true “cleanse” has probiotics (healthy intestinal bacteria), poop pills (which is a really technical name I promise) and a fiber supplement. Anything else is crap, and no it will not make you crap. It will make you pee and is worthless. Just FYI, anything movie stars do, NEVER DO!

That’s it for my rantin and ravin. Again, I know people mean well, and try hard. The problem is there is too much misinformation out there and we get sucked in. Just try and use some critical thinking skills before drinking the kool-aid on the next new “lose your ass in 2 days” diet where you eat cookies all day and throw up. Till next time………..and have a great new year!