Is Bodybuilding Coaching Advice Scientific and Safe? by Jerry Brainum 9/24

 

 

When I competed in bodybuilding contests in the mid-60s to early 1970s, personal trainers didn't exist, and neither did bodybuilding coaches. Back then, bodybuilders learned what worked best for them through a trial and error system, similar to what Bruce Lee had advised:" Keep what works, and discard what doesn't." Most of our training information came from reading bodybuilding magazines (no Internet existed) and observing what other successful bodybuilders did. Although a form of personal training existed in the ancient Olympic games, in terms of bodybuilding, the first successful personal trainer was Vince Gironda. Vince was a bodybuilder who never fared well in bodybuilding contests because he had an unusually muscular physique. Most bodybuilding competitors who won contests back then were big and smooth, not showing any significant degree of muscular definition. However, Vince differed from the rest in terms of his sharp muscularity, extensive vascularity, and the appearance of superficial veins denoting low body fat levels. "The judges didn't know what to do with me, Vince told me." So, they placed me lower, usually third or fourth, despite my being the most muscular competitor." Vince did win a few "most muscular awards," which used to be awarded to the competitor with the greatest degree of muscular definition.

I first noticed the emergence of personal trainers in the early 1980s. It started with one or two former bodybuilding competitors, then increased as more bodybuilders and others realized they could make some money as personal trainers. However, the problem with many personal trainers that still exist today is that while they knew what worked best for them, they didn't have the depth of scientific knowledge to train others. You don't have to be a scientist to be a personal trainer, but having a well-rounded base of knowledge in kinesiology or how muscles work and nutrition allowed a personal trainer to design exercise programs and diets that were truly more personal and geared to the individual they trained. Too often, I would observe personal trainers giving their clients exercises that were not suitable. For example, having an obese woman do concentration curls for the biceps. While concentration curls are an outstanding biceps exercise, the first course of action to properly train an obese person is to take measures that would reduce their high body fat levels and improve their conditioning so that they can more easily tolerate exercise. Such programs aim to convert out-of-shape people into fat-burning machines rather than the sugar-burners they usually start as. 

To legitimize personal training as a vocation, several organizations offered courses and tests to provide a type of accreditation for personal trainers. The early organizations that offered such courses were aerobic rather than resistance training-based. They offered textbooks to study for their accreditation tests, ostensibly required to obtain a personal trainer accreditation. These textbooks were often hundreds of pages and centered on exercise . . .