Author: D C

This is from Stephen Covey and I like it so much I had to repost it here. If you haven’t read at least The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First (Principle-Centered Leadership is also very good) then you need to grab those today. Far too few people live by principles like these below and we’re seeing society crumble around us because of it.

Habit One: Be Proactive
I am a responsible person.
I take initiative.
I choose my actions, attitudes, and moods.
I do not blame others for my wrong actions. I do the right thing without being asked,
even when no one is looking.
Habit Two: Begin with the End in Mind
I plan ahead and set goals
I do things that have meaning and make a difference.
I am an important part of my classroom and contribute to my school’s mission and vision,
and look for ways to be a good citizen.
Habit Three: Put First Things First
I spend my time on things that are most important.
This means I say no to things I know I should not do.
I set priorities, make a schedule, and follow my plan.
I am disciplined and organized.
Habit Four: Think Win – Win
I balance courage for getting what I want with consideration for what others want.
I make deposits in others’ Emotional Bank Accounts.
When conflicts arise, I look for third alternatives.
Habit Five: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
I listen to other people’s ideas and feelings.
I try to see things from their viewpoints.
I listen to others without interrupting.
I am confident in voicing my ideas.
I look people in the eyes when talking.
Habit Six: Synergize
I value other people’s strengths, and learn from them. I get along well with others, even
people who are different than me.
I work well in groups.
I seek out other people’s ideas to solve problems because I know that by teaming with
others we can create better solutions than any one of us alone. I am humble.
Habit Seven: Sharpen the Saw
I take care of my body by eating right, exercising, and getting sleep.
I spend time with my family and friends.
I learn in lots of ways and lots of places, not just at school.
I take time to make meaningful ways to help others.

Source: Covey, Stephen R. (2008) The Leader in Me: How Schools and Parents around the World are Inspiring Greatness, One Child At A Time. Free Press, Detriot MI.

It doesn’t surprise me at all but it does disgust me — you can’t do the most basic exercise that a human can do (pick something off the floor) at a major gym chain. Apparently it was about a year ago that Planet Fitness just outright banned deadlifting instead of being wishywashy about it like they have for the last few years.

On the one hand, joining a gym like Planet Fitness isn’t a transformative experience at all. People are expected to be totally ignorant of all fitness knowledge when they join, the gym’s policies insure they don’t bump into anyone remotely knowledgeable while they’re there, and then people quit going in an equally ignorant state. Let’s be honest and admit that these places cater to the ignorant.

Planet Fitness policies insure they stay that way.

Someone in private pointed out that the deadlift is banned there likely because that type of clientele would be injured by deadlifts and then sue the gym. This person is probably right and that directly points to a lack of any notion of personal responsibility on the part of those that workout there and an overlitigious society that supports that lack of responsibility. People these days feel a need to sue over the slightest things. They aren’t responsible for anything that happens to them. So because these people can’t be trusted to deadlift without possibly hurting themselves and sueing the gym, NO ONE can deadlift. Welcome to modern society.

But on the other hand there’s this — AVOID THIS KIND OF GYM! Sorry for the caps but as an independent gym owner, I feel strongly about this. Why would you want to support a place that HATES people like you? They don’t want you. Their ads say you’re pathetic:

And notice how this BS is a “judgment free zone.” What a load of bull. They are totally judging people they don’t like — people like you! The guy who just “lifts things up and puts them down” has more results and more knowledge than all those other people, trainers included, combined. Heck, if I was working out there, I’d get up and follow that guy out the door to wherever he’s going. He obviously knows what he’s doing and he’ll wind up at a place full of knowledgeable people.

I occasionally hear someone tell me that they love what we do, but their Planet Fitness-type gym is, geewhiz, just so convenient. And I’ll talk to these people next year and they’ll look exactly the same, lift the same weights they do now, and have exactly the same level of fitness. And never in a million years would they put those two things together. Sad.

Planet Fitness and gyms like it cater to weak-minded people that will sue over possibly getting injured from real exercises while smaller gyms that cater to serious training often struggle. If you believe in serious training, then avoid the low-testosterone atmosphere and go to a real gym.
There’s a smaller but more serious gym just waiting for you to join. Seek it out and join up.

Confused as to how you should warmup? Here’s what we recommend.

Most fitness equipment is designed, produced, and sold by people that don’t even workout, let alone use their own equipment. So these people often produce bad equipment because they don’t know how to use it. They add things like grips to kettlebells because they don’t understand the kettlebell handle has to rotate in your hand when you swing it. Or they produce cheap versions that ruin your fitness experience, like plastic kettlebells. At Kettlebell Taiwan, our kettlebells cost a little more because we know how to use them and what makes a good kettlebell. We aren’t interested in selling you a cheap piece of junk that will hurt your hand or break or give you a bad workout. The Taiwan fitness market is already filled with cheap junk. People who believe they can tie two water bottles together and try to use them as a kettlebell don’t understand quality and we aren’t trying to sell to them.

We believe that you deserve to have the best and that’s what we sell!

Functional fitness is what I started with and the concepts from this fitness philosophy have built Formosa Fitness into what it is today. But time and experience have clarified some things for me, one of those being quad dominance.

The idea is that people tend to favor the quads in leg movements and will unintentionally try to avoid using the hamstrings and glutes because those muscles aren’t firing due to underuse. Basically, almost everyone we see has glute and hamstring amnesia. Most people treat these muscles as cushions to sit on and nothing else. Since they tend to use the quads more, we call them quad-dominant.

But we’d be better of just calling these people weak and strengthening the whole leg, the quads included. Sure, they aren’t using the hamstrings and glutes but it’s not like their quads are actually strong. They’re stronger than the muscles they aren’t using but that’s only because their posterior chain is so weak. So bringing up someone’s posterior chain isn’t enough. We have to address quad weakness too because once they learn to start using the posterior chain, they often forget how to use the quads!

The idea is that no one untrained is intentionally using ANY muscle. Their bodies are simply using the path of least resistance. But once you start altering that path, you have to teach folks how to use ALL the muscle groups or people will develop imbalances.

So don’t leave quads out of your workouts and if you have for a while, emphasize them until they’re built back up. Don’t let a useful concept blind you to other possibilities!