I started my career in the fitness industry as a personal trainer back in 1998.
I got my first job at a gym in Kenosha, WI where the majority of the members were people who just wanted to lose some weight and get in shape.
The problem was, my coworkers were meatheads who mostly only cared about "getting big" and "six pack abs".
Most of them took steroids and spent upwards of $1000 on supplements every month.
I still remember all of the trainers walking around with giant duffel bags full of pill bottles and protein jugs.
I was blown away.
Admittedly. It wasn't long before I also got caught up in the mess (minus the steroids).
Before i knew it, I was taking all kinds of testosterone boosters, fat burners, pills, powders, potions, and all kinds of other crap that I now KNOW were not good for me.
I wanted what my other trainer buddies wanted.
Get big, have abs!
The real tragedy was how we treated our "normal" clients who just wanted to lose weight, be more healthy, and lose some weight.
We would train them like we trained ourselves.
Silly bodybuilding routines, fat burning zone cardio, and tons of supplements (we got commission on those too)
Looking back, it was gross.
If I could, I'd go back and give all of my clients from back then their money back.
We would also preach stuff we were NOT doing...
Like eating more veggies, cutting calories, and doing extra cardio for fat burning.
It was a bizarro world where people trusted us just because of what we looked like.
If you had abs and big biceps...you were valuable.
Most thought we were healthy too, HA!...
I remember one of my trainer friends (he looked like a greek god and took a LOT of drugs) who went into liver failure in his early 30's.
He went was in the hospital for 3 months and almost died.
When I saw him after the three months he looked like a little kid.
In fact, I didn't even recognize him when he walked into the gym.
All his "gains" were gone.
I'm not sure what happened to him after that, but it was kind of a wake up call for me.
I felt bad for my clients because they assumed we had everything figured out when it came to health and fitness.
The truth was, we were the UNHEALTHIEST.
I almost quit the industry entirely.
Fast forward a few years later when I started working for a strength and conditioning coach who had extensive experience working with D1 college athletes.
It was completely different than what I had been doing.
Success in health in fitness was no longer based on how many veins you had in your forearms, but rather, it was measured by your performance.
It was a wake up call (in some ways a reminder) for me that what I had been doing was sooooo wrong.
This was were I needed to be.
It felt so much better.
Fast forward another 20 years (I'm 49) and I've now spent an entire career focused on only performance.
Every system, every strategy, every recommendation from exercises, to workout programming, to food selections, to bedtimes, all revolve around performance.
And performance sits on the foundation of superior health.
Chasing performance is your health first approach to being at your best.
And the best part, your body will also look amazing.
The big lesson, chase performance, not aesthetics.
And if you're looking for a personal trainer, understand that most of them are taught and encouraged to sell "aesthetics" over everything else.
And that they should get their clients those aesthetic results you see online as quickly as possible.
It makes for the BEST testimonials - right?
