Author: D C

“We should only be positive. We shouldn’t criticize others.” Take a look at this picture on the left. Look at the label. See anything wrong? The number of carbs listed is 12g and protein is listed as 1gm. Now there are 4 calories in one gram of carbs or proteins. So 12+1=13 and 13×4=15, right? Wait, what? 13×4 doesn’t equal 15, it’s 52. So it’s 52 calories, not 15. The label is wrong.
How do you feel about this? How would you feel if you were trying to lose fat while drinking something like this and found you couldn’t lose weight? Would you like that?
Tell me the truth, wouldn’t you want someone to point this out? Well then how do you do that without being critical? How do you point that out and “stay positive”?
The answer is you don’t. We should point out things that are wrong. That IS positive. Not calling out what is wrong is weak.
At Formosa Fitness and Kettlebell Taiwan, we want you to be strong. We want you to know what’s good and bad. And honestly, don’t you want to know these things? Don’t you want to know when you’re being mislead? I would.
We hope that through reading our articles and following our stuff, you can become a better consumer, someone that is able to discriminate between the good and the bad. So keep your eyes open and keep training hard.

Believe it or not, some people say we shouldn’t criticize other fitness practices. They even criticize us for criticizing others. Isn’t that weird? If we shouldn’t criticize others then why do they criticize us for doing so? Aren’t they actually agreeing with us by doing that? It’s bizarre.
Fact: there is such a thing as right and wrong in fitness.
This picture is proof.
NEVER, EVER hold the kettlebell this way! This is NOT how it’s done. Why? Your thumb is not strong enough to hold up the kettlebell. If you try to hold it like this, you will drop it. This picture comes from a women’s fitness magazine, BTW, where a lot of the general public gets it’s so-called “fitness knowledge.”
So if you’re one of those people who thinks we shouldn’t criticize others, then please hold the kettlebell like this, have it drop on your toes and break them, and then in your ambulance ride to the hospital, maybe you will realize that there is such thing as right and wrong in fitness and you were simply wrong.
As for the rest of us, we’ll keep learning from people that have proven through real results that they’re doing it the right way.

By Dave Chesser
The difference between powerlifting and strength training isn’t widely understood. The difference is strength training is done for beginners with the sole purpose of getting them strong. Powerlifting is joining competitions where you compete in bench, barbell squat, and deadlift. If you aren’t competing, then you aren’t a powerlifter. There’s no need to say “we aren’t powerlifters” if you aren’t competing because no one would think you were anyway.
There seems to be a serious effort in the so-called strength and conditioning field to avoid getting strong on the basic lifts like overhead barbell press, barbell back squat, deadlift, and barbell bench press. The reason is simply this – most trainers are not doing these movements themselves and do not know how to progress them, let alone train clients with them.
Instead, what we’re seeing is a type of dong-yi-dong mentality where you can pretend that rack pulls are the same as deadlifts (they are not), quarter squats are the same as full barbell squats, and half range bench presses as the same as full range bench presses. Many trainers are using movements with a very small range of motion and telling people they’re the same but they clearly are not, as anyone who has done full range movements will tell you.
Many times assistance moves are substituted for the major movements and that’s a huge mistake. The assistance moves only exist to assist the major lifts, not replace them. If you as a trainer are avoiding the major lifts then you’re doing yourself and your clients a huge disservice because the only way to measure strength to any kind of standard is through lifts that have an established standard and that’s the major barbell lifts.
Powerlifting has actual standards for their lifts or the lifts don’t count. If the hip isn’t lower than the knee, the squat doesn’t count. No one cares what a great athlete you were in high school or what you quarter squatted one day in the gym with horrible form. No cares about the deadlift you think you did where your hips didn’t extend at the top or the PR you sent in bench press where you bounced the bar off your chest and had your buddy do half the work in helping you rack it.
So while we aren’t powerlifters (again, something that doesn’t need to be said), the standards set by the powerlifting community serve our purpose in helping us get strong. Without standards, we have no way of knowing if we’re getting strong or not.
In my opinion, trainers that want to talk about strength and conditioning need to stop avoiding the issue and stop reading endless amounts of articles about training and actually spend time under the bar getting experience. Anything less is a great disservice to the clients!

I’ve long told my fat loss clients to eat a high protein breakfast in order to help their fat loss efforts. What happens when a lot of people eat a carb-based breakfast is that they feel full at first. But if they eat breakfast at 8am, they are usually hungry again by 10am, meaning they will snack before lunch and that adds up to more calories. A high protein breakfast will usually help you last until lunchtime without eating a mid-morning snack.
Also, since you didn’t eat at night, your body needs protein first thing in the morning in order to maintain muscle mass. A high protein breakfast will help you keep your gains. It will also assist in burning fat since you aren’t eating carbs for energy.
No time? I tell clients to go to their neighborhood breakfast place and ask for 2-3 scrambled eggs and 2 strips of bacon. Usually people ask for sandwiches or other carbs here in Taipei but the breakfast place will make this if you ask.

I’ve given certs now in Taizhong and Tainan and I’m ready to do more! We need a minimum of five people and you’ll need kettlebells to do the cert — 16kg for men, and 8 and 12kg for the ladies. We can announce the kettlebell cert on our page here and perhaps get others to attend, adding some publicity for your gym, yoga studio, or personal training studio.
We’ve certified 200 trainers now and we’re looking to add happy, enthusiastic people like you to that group. So if this is something you’re interested in doing, let us know and we can schedule it! Thanks!