Change is coming, accept it or not!

There is a lot of talk about change going on right now in the fitness industry. Credible fitness professionals and exercise scientists and organizations are putting out some pretty extreme stuff right now. I think it is sort of a make or break time for a lot of trainers. Are we all willing to accept everything that 'needs to change'? I don't know if I am willing to take it all in yet myself. There are a lot of things that I have done so far in my programming and with my clients that has seemed to be affective and I haven't really had any adverse affects. Of course, I am the first one out of the trainers and coaches I know that will drop everything I've been doing to accept a 'better method' if it has in fact been proven to be better. I'm all about being better, but I also want to keep training in my style and not be a one size fits all. What would be the point in selling me as a product if I had to say I was just like every other product on the market? When is it okay not to change?
A very reputable man that I follow very closely in this industry, Mike Boyle, has come out with a whole lecture as to why many exercises and exercise programs are becoming a thing of the past. One of these exercises being the common squat. If there is one exercise that I can honestly say everyone has done at least one time in their life is the squat. Everyone knows what a squat is and everyone can execute a squat if asked (note I didn't say they all could perform this correctly, just simply execute). Reason behind this being that it is too knee dominant and we are a society that has been overloaded with knee dominant exercises and now are seeing more knee injuries. On top of this due to a focus on knee dominant programming we have neglected to put focus on hips. So the solution to this is moving away from the thought of bilateral movement and moving into unilateral movement. The science to back this up is the the fact that we are able to load a unilateral squat with more weight than a back squat. This makes sense to me because in a back squat using 1RM weight the first thing to give is never the legs, it's the back. I also find this idea effective with my athlete clients as well. I see major improvement in mobility and muscle growth.
Another point that Boyle brought up was the idea of spinal flexion actually not being that much of a functional move at all. How many times in a typical a day do we actually lay on the floor and do a crunch? Never. I think the only time we actually 'crunch' is to raise ourselves from a lying position to get out of bed in the morning. He also mentioned back injuries due to this sort of movement in the spine. I accept this sort of thought until we start talking about injuries. I haven't known of anyone who got injured doing a crunch correctly. Now in a full sit-up, absolutely, but not doing a crunch. The science behind this stating that our lumbar spine wasn't built for mobility but more for stability for our hips and for our T-Spine (our hips and T-Spine both being used as the mobility joints). I have actually removed all spinal flexion from my programming and moved into other exercises such as the plank or hover and Swiss ball or bar rollouts. The feedback has all been surprisingly positive. Clients with low back pain have reported less pain and every client has reported feeling stronger in their core. I have had one instance where a client was not comfortable doing the rollout because he said it hurt too badly but that may have been an error on my part for starting him on a bar instead of the swiss ball then graduating him to using a bar.
One thing I still see coaches doing with athletes is having them stretch and using foam rollers before workouts. Stretching before a workout has been proven time and time again to be ineffective and dangerous. I wouldn't even consider doing it with the healthiest of athletes. Now the foam roller I'm a little confused on. Why would you have your athletes roll on the foam rollers pre workout? Would it not be more affective to wait until after your athletes have warmed the muscle to roll out the surrounding fascia? Seems like just in the idea of stretching, rolling would be a waste and maybe harmful to begin with it. I also can't say that I have put a whole lot of time into researching yet. Maybe I will find my answer when I dig in deep and look at some scientific evidence. I do believe rolling is great though, I am just on the fence as to when it would be most effective not just for athletes but for my general clients as well.
A lot of trainers and scientists are saying we are becoming too rehab oriented in our exercise programming and that we should save the rehab for physical therapists. My opinion? Exercising is rehab. Just as we rehab a muscle that has been injured and now is weak and needs to be conditioned our bodies have gotten out of shape and weak and need to be conditioned. It's the same thing to me. Maybe this statement was said in response to a question concerning the exercise intensity? I'm not certain but that really wouldn't make sense either considering our job as coaches and trainers is to change peoples' bodies. Change doesn't come from sitting still. Change takes work, hard work.
Like I said, lots of interesting things coming out right now. I did try to condense a little bit as to not make this post too long but still wanted to get the facts and ideas out there from not only myself but other great trainers and coaches as well. You definitely need to Google Mike Boyle and Alwyn Cosgrove and read some of their stuff. It is worth the time. I will definitely continue my research and may come to find some stuff I have said in this post is proven wrong. I will definitely let you know if this happens. Any other good stuff you find also feel free to e-mail me. My e-mail is posted on this page somewhere.
Don't let change be the reason you lose your clients. Definitely put in some time researching and decide what you agree with and what you don't agree with and then research some more. Ultimately the decision is yours. Just don't be afraid to change!