I was discussing unsolicited training advice today with someone I train.
Essentially, since he's started training, people have been volunteering all sorts of training advice to him. Some of it would be good advice if he was more advanced. Some of it would be appropriate advice, if - as he said - they had any idea what he was doing. For example, lifting with bands and chains. That would help him if he was powerlifting with gear, but he's not, he's training for MMA.
It's happened to me as well. People would give me advice about useful exercises, ways to train, supplements to take, routines and rep ranges. Almost universally, these people were not where I wanted to be, nor were they ever where I was. Simply put, they weren't stronger than me and had never gotten much stronger than they were then. Often they had no idea what my sport entails, yet had lots of advice about training. It's dried up as I progressed, but it's odd to see it happen to someone else.
I'm curious...does this happen to everyone who trains? Has this happened to you? I'd love to see some examples of this disparity in the comments section. Do you get advice from people in bad shape about how to be in better shape?
４月だ！まだまだ、やるぜ！…（月）キックボクシング初級＆一般クラス
20 hours ago
With few exceptions, the only type of advice I have ever gotten pertained to adding bulk, whether my would-be mentors knew it or not. Moreover, virtually every single one of them was both less experienced athletically than me and visibly behind me in reaching their fitness goals. For them, it was almost certainly excitement about entering a new terrain, heady and indisputable, that they had never walked through.
ReplyDeleteThe worthwhile advice mostly came from teammates sharing a favorite exercise or from a trainer friend who had known me for a while but was also employed in a gym that specialized in kettlebells and distributed stress exercises so that might've been just a pitch I was willing to catch.
Kid Dynamite!, thanks for sharing that. That's interesting. I'm surprised to hear that you've never gotten the off-the-wall advice that I've gotten sometimes. Thanks again for posting.
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