Advice from Abe Lincoln's personal trainer (@JustinStrelow)

Be Your Own Fitness Instructor

First, let me preface everything in this post and any future posts I may write by shouting from the mountaintop: I am not a medical doctor, personal trainer, or nutritionist!  I have never responded to a late-night “Become a personal trainer!” commercial, nor do I have any certificates of achievement from my local Jenny Craig. However, I was Abe Lincoln's official personal trainer for Halloween so you might want to take notes.

As you may have noted from my sarcasm, I don’t think any of us need any of that!  I say this as a combination of ex-athlete and software developer, both of which have shaped my current outlook on personal health.  Let me explain..

Many moons ago, I played collegiate and professional volleyball.  At competitive levels, the coaches are always trying to get the most out of their athletes.  Being as “hops” (jumping ability) is so important in volleyball, our coach put us all on jump programs.  However, each of us was on a different program!  They actually did needle biopsies on our legs to determine our muscle compositions (quick twitch versus slow, gas exchange rates, and other stuff way above my head).  Each of us 20 or so players then received separate, customized instructions on how to develop our leg muscles… all to do the same thing: jump!  This experience taught me something very valuable about fitness – every individual responds differently to training methods.  Certainly there are basic principles that are just good policy, but we must all tailor fitness to our own bodies.

Thankfully for us, we have the internet!  I truly believe it has everything you and I need to build a good fitness plan for ourselves.  The problem is, 95% of the internet is BS!  Case in point:  I just made that stat up.  And yet it’s on the internet.  And somebody will probably use that stat somewhere.  To take a relevant topic, be sure to eat lots of fruit to lose weight!  But be careful, because fruit will make you obese!  I can justify any “fact” if I’m lazy enough in my research.

Years in my career in software has taught me how to pore through all the idiocy of the web and get to real information.  Most of us rely on googling daily for information, so I’m sure many of you already have somewhat of a critical eye. If you don’t, develop it!  Then use it to help craft that perfect plan to meet your fitness goals.  As pertains to fitness, I generally append words like “research”, “clinical study”, “medical journal”, etc. to my fitness queries to make sure I’m getting accurate information.

It is my personal, unprofessional opinion that neither you nor I need a professional opinion!  A clear fitness goal, knowledge of your body and knowledge of the internet is all you need.  Good luck in your goals!

~ @JustinStrelow