This one time I had a moment and skimmed down a couple pages on instagram (usually don’t have the time) and noticed a popular social media fitness buff performing squats with chains that only touched the floor at the bottom of the squat when collapsed forward.

Shieeet! I actually said that out loud as I watched the video. The weight was too heavy and caused this persons knees to cave in, no core engagement through-out the entire exercise, excessive forward flexion turning their “squat” into a good morning, oh and the chains, those winter tire chains… holy f*cking chains Batman!

I decided to view the comments cause we all have bad lifts and we can learn from them… but it wasn’t the case here. After reading all the comments it was clear that this persons ego didn’t allow them to accept the constructive criticism of others. Why would they, they’re the ones with the something thousand followers, what does everybody else know?

This person even encouraged others to try it. Some of the people who commented on the video didn’t have a clue (absolutely no fault of their own) of how bad the squat actually was or the proper use of chains (or even the right kind of chains) and wanted to go out and try it themselves… All it took was 17 seconds on instagram and just like that you’ve just spread stupidity. “Monkey see, monkey do”, which is a big problem that I found in the fitness industry.

Here’s the thing I see people try questionable things in the gym all the time and there is nothing wrong with that because that’s how you learn and find out what works for you. But I’m very observant and sometimes when I see a member doing something that I recognize from a Youtube video that a trainer would consider “fail” I’ll actually ask why they’re doing what they’re doing and where did they learn it.

A lot of times they admit that they saw a popular social media buff on the internet doing it and said it’s a good exercise or whatever… like hip thrusts on the ham curl. Something that can be taken out of context but that’s a different rant.

Now if I tried to correct everybody I saw doing something that may result in injury, or something questionable or simply doing it wrong I’d never have the time to train my awesome premium clients. Just the other day I witnessed someone who’s chronically injured giving workout advice to another person and all I could do was make “that” face.

The person who was working out was doing just fine on their own and the chronically injured guy just spread his stupid advice like the plague from the Walking Dead.

Rather than try what you’ve seen on YouTube, or taking randomly given advice from a person who barely looks like they workout, ask a trainer. Heck, if you found a workout program that you really like why not hire a trainer to show you how to perform the exercises properly?

We all know training can be expensive and a good trainer will tell you that depending on your goals anything less than 3 months is a waste of time but sometimes a trainer will do an odd session here or there if all you need is to learn proper form for a few exercises. Though I believe everyone can use a trainer no matter your fitness level.

Anyways, if it’s the case of training for a minimum of 3 months and that’s all that you’re willing to commit to but training seems to be out of your price range, save up for for a bit and come back when you’re ready. Be prepared with training and nutrition questions, your fitness goals and everything else you want to learn within that time to get the best value for your buck.

It’ll be well worth the money, cause it’ll cost a lot more to pay for a physiotherapist to rehabilitate you back from an injury because you tried something that you weren’t prepared to do. You’ll also learn how to filter a lot of the stupidity around you too.

At this point the only thing left to do to help you reach your health and fitness goals is to find a good trainer. I’ve got some tips on that but I’ll talk about it later in a future post so stay tuned.