Month: September 2011

Anyone who has worked with me knows that this is one of my all time favorite metaphors in the training world. In a society obsessed with instant gratification, physical organisms remain stubbornly committed to the principles of farming: plant the seeds, feed and water properly, and be prepared to wait for results.

The longer I’m in the health and hotness game, the more I appreciate the infinite detail of the basic human movements: the subtle nuances of the angle of the knee in relation to the foot in a lunge, the various versions of an anatomically neutral spine in different people, the wrist alignment in a dumbbell press.   There are entire universes of complexity in the simplest movements.

If there’s one thing I can tell you about the fitness industry, it’s this: there are very few things everybody agrees on. From training modalities to nutrition strategies – even to specific foods – you can usually find folks who passionately support or vilify pretty much anything.  So I decided to make a little list of the things on which there’s actual agreement.  It’s not long… but it’s something!

We talk a lot about “Health and Hotness” round these parts.  It’s kind of what we do at MFF.   We make people healthy, and we make them look hot.  The first part isn’t very controversial.  After all, it’s totally acceptable to tell your coworker Nancy you’ve started working with a fitness coach because you want to be healthier.  Tell this same coworker you’re training for “hotness”, and you’re likely to get an eye roll.  Or more likely, a polite but fake encouragement followed by Nancy gossiping and giggling about your new goal to the other ladies at lunch.