This post is aimed at fitness professionals and those who hire them. Take it bad, or good, it is what it is. No bullshit attached.

1. Your ability to be in shape for a contest does not prove a thing about how you can handle clients, nor train them.
2. Winning a bodybuilding or physique contest does not give you credentials to do so either.
3. Having thousands of followers on instagram is not something you should bring up in an interview or on your curriculum as a reference of credibility. Unfortunately, it seems to be important in the eyes of a few.
4. Science has many things right as it makes us ask better questions. The quest to find answers always brings up more questions so it is a never-ending quest for precise answer. However…
   ”Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.” – Henri Poincare

5. Toning is for printers, not for muscles.
6. The sooner you realize that most people and magazine covers use filters and Photoshop, the easier it will be for you to stop comparing and wanting to have and want some of those shapes.
7. For those who never did set foot in a gym, Thanks to magazines and special post contest photoshoots, people are somewhat misled into thinking that girls train in G-strings and skimpy tops while man train shirtless and all oiled up. THEY DON’T.
8. Carb back loading, refeeds, or any other “advanced nutritional methods” geared towards making you leaner are not for you unless your bodyfat is sub 10% most of the time. 
If you can’t understand and apply the basics of nutrition first, don’t even try.
9. Whatever body fat percentage you may think you have now, add 3 to 5 %. 69.3%(vi) of the people who come in our office are delusional, the other 39.7% couldn’t care less. When measured, most will tell you that their body fat is way more than it actually is, so they can play the ”not bad” card. Others will guess that their bodyfat is way better than it actually is to excuse their procrastination.
10. Everything you do now has an impact on the rest of your life. Overtraining, working too much, not sleeping enough, crappy nutrition, just to name a few, puts a toll on your body. In 20 years from now, you’ll be saying that ya should’ve had listened.
11. Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get in but difficult to get out.
12. Marathon or long distance, you can’t transfer this ability elsewhere. I have people who make long distance and extreme sports, but a few sets of heavy prowler will make them rethink their whole life purpose…
13. Some people spend so much time observing others that they do not even know who they are or what/who they should be. Before you try to be like everyone else or try to compare yourself, try to find out who you are and find the reason why you are on this earth …
14. If strength training is so simple, why do so many people fail to get results? Good question, eh? Here’s the answer: productive training seems too simple to work, so people ignore the productive systems and look for complex systems that don’t deliver -brooks kubik
15. Most common mistake of people looking to hire a personal trainer? They try to get in shape before they start looking, you know, because they won’t feel judged about being in such a “bad” shape. Your definition of how you should be in shape and how is the exact reason why you should hire a personal trainer in the first place.
16. The scale as an ultimate health marker is none sense. Water makes up 65 to 90 percent of one’s weight, and variation in water content can vary by as much as ten pounds or more from day to day.
17. For those who like to step on the scale after a workout, please don’t. The percentage of mass in the muscles, organs, blood, lymph, intestinal gas and air we carry in our lungs can shift by as much as 15 percent. Intense workouts cause variability on the scale due to factors like hydration status, inflammation, intestinal by-product, urine and blood volume.
18. Fat can’t contract.
19. So endless sets of abs crunches and leg raise train the muscles, not the fat. Oh, the earth is not flat either.
    
20. Less stress = less cortisol
21. Less cortisol = better life
22. Better life = easier to lose fat and gain metabolically active muscle mass
23. Eat more protein. The general recommendation is between 1 to 2 gr. Per pound of weight for him and .75 to 1.50 gr. Per pound for her. I have rarely seen people with a protein intake up to par.
24. Avoid these carbs and bad choices, like sugar, processed foods, cereals and fruits (yes, fruits) for about 2-3 weeks max.
25. No you won’t be ‘’low carbs’’. You just have chosen to eat nutrient dense carbs instead of calorie dense ones.
26. You have to earn cheat meals.
27. Never have a cheat meal with people who piss you off or you can’t stand.
28. Cheat meals should never be taken to the extreme. Over doing it can impair your digestion for more than a few days.
29. One’s food may be the poison of others.
30. One bad habit always has good company.
31. Good habits rarely have bad company. (Think about it)
32. Count calories, just once. For fun, only to realize that you might not be eating enough for the amount of training and calories you can burn in a day.
33. Counting calories is seriously a big waste of time and enough to make you go crazy. Let me make you paralyze by analysis. Let’s say someone wants to reach 2000 calories a day, ran and trained well, felt a little tired but still got through your day. Following day, you got your meals and schedule to the minute so all is supposed to be good. Boss called a meeting (so fuck lunch), still needed to go train to let pressure off, went home after your workout only to realize that you forgot your meals at the office and was stuck eating almost nothing since you did not have time to go do the groceries. Now the meeting got on your nerves and couldn’t sleep. Bad sleep can kill your progress and mess up your appetite for a few days, turning on the binge-eating mode. This is just one example but I think you get the point. Imagine having kids, a professional life, health conditions, bad digestion, etc.
34. Calorie counting is just a waste of time. 500 calories of French fries does not have the same hormonal response on your body as 500 calories of venison steak. Do your best, eat real food, know and respect your portions and again, do your best, for all of you in the real world.
35. The short-term effect of a food may not always translate into greater weight loss in the long term. Believing that there is one single fruit that can help you lose fat is like believing in finding a shortcut to climb mount Fuji. Reality is that nutrient deficiencies are case specific. Food intolerances, environment, activity levels, digestion and many factors come into play when it comes to nutritional advices, it can’t be taken lightly.
36. Don’t trust the scale, trust your jeans.
37. Research[i] has shown that people spend an average of 23 hours[ii] a week on texting, emails and social media[iii]. What is the most common excuse for not being able to eat well and workout??? I DON’T HAVE TIME!
38. You want to achieve your goals?? Write them up, clear and precise.
39. You want to achieve your goals?? Don’t tell them to anybody. It’s proven that as soon as you tell people your goals and they acknowledge and congratulate you, you already perceive it as an accomplishment (due to social acceptance) and are less likely to achieve them.
40. Over thinking the required steps to any goal creates stress. Research[iv] has shown that when you are stressed the brain actually shrinks in size. Over thinkers make an easy task complicated by predicting too many problems.
41. Losers visualize the penalties of failure; winners visualize the rewards of success.
42. With a focus on the problems and pain of the goal, your mind magically deletes the positives, the potential fun and your optimistic outcome. Focusing on the positives deletes procrastination.
43. Watching too much television may leave you brain-dead and at risk of premature death and will take years off your life. Adults who watch TV three hours or more a day may double their risk of premature death from any cause[v].
44. 70% of all patients who come to physicians could cure themselves if they only got rid of their fears and worries. Their ills are very real, and sometimes hundred times as serious. Fear causes worry. Worry makes you tense and nervous and affects the nerves of your stomach and actually changes the gastric juices of your stomach from normal to abnormal and often leads to much more serious conditions such as ulcers and crohn’s disease.’’-Dr. O. F. Gober
45. You might be wondering where is all the research to support these facts. Well, they are everywhere, you can find them the same way I did, research and trial and error, lots of them, but mostly, it’s called life and experience. No amount of credentials or certificates on the wall can match that. If you need validation for all that is written up everywhere, I’m sorry but you will be in for a long and boring life. If you always go were there is an easy path to follow, you will never achieve anything great in your life.
    
46. I followed the path of the elders and great minds who were not afraid to try before research led the way. I paid for their time and learned so much from their experiences. They have learned by trial and error. Success leaves clues.
47. Go back and read #4
48. Are you fooling yourself into thinking that you are busy? Being Busy and being productive are two very different things. Busy is doing things that could wait but easy to do so you choose them first. Being productive is often doing THE thing that needs the most attention and that can lead you closer to greater goals, but often, they are more challenging and draining to do.
49. If you want the worst tips on fitness, health or all things gym, get to the hairdresser. It is proven scientifically that the biggest concentration of fitness professionals is found at the hairdresser, any of them, I’m dead serious.
50. Completely unrelated to point 48, like not at all, you are the average of the 5 people you hang around the most with. It takes just a few bumfucks to lower the I.Q. of a group.
51. No one eats by accident. Peer pressure has a lot to do with it. #48 has a lot to do with your success.
52. You don’t know you are strong until you have to be.
53. Being strong on the bench or squats does not mean shit if you can’t use that strength somewhere else. For me, it was martial arts. Throwing people around, pushing, lifting and carrying them, made me realize that under stress, being strong mentally and physically is the only thing you can rely on. Running for 2 hours won’t…maybe to run away, but still…
54. You don’t actually grow in the gym. You just train until you tap out. You just go at it until you can’t bend your arms anymore. You break yourself. Your job is to recover and regenerate and that’s when you grow mentally and physically.
55. Your buddy’s workout won’t have the same effect on you. Your buddy’s shape has a lot more to do than just the single workout he is doing. There is such a thing as genetic predisposition but in no way, should it be used as an excuse.
56. Talking about genetic predisposition. We are born with a set of genes, which we have power over. You either feed them properly and empower them or you slowly incapacitate them by feeding the problems. Every single day we are bombarded by multiple chemicals, our job is to feed the body in a way that he has all the required nutrients to detoxify and regenerate our cells. If at a young age you can’t figure out that you are stuck with that body for the rest of your life and don’t take care of it, sooner than late it will catch up to you.
57. When you start training, Use the basics, build stamina, improve coordination and body composition. This is called the beginner stage, which is usually 1-2 years into your first programs and objectives. That is if and only if, you go past the January of each year’s new resolutions.
58. After three years you can call yourself advanced only if you master the basic lifts and saw constant progress. Can you do it on your own without the help of professionals? Sure, only if you got the right kind of info. Given point #45 and stayed away from bumfucks and hair salon professionals, you have followed the right path. However, what you need to realize, and you won’t until you have achieved advanced or old timer status, what you do now has and will have an impact on the rest of your life.
59. After more than 20 years of ‘’almost’’ (read manageable) injury ‘’free’’ training, you can be called an old timer.
60. Old timers are those who understood that they need to go back or keep the basics and there is no such thing as time wasting in the gym. They get in the gym, get things done, and get out. It’s not only work, its dedication to a strong life. They know that whatever they do now is a way to delay how fast the grim reaper will come knock on their door.
61. If you understood and apply some or all of the above, you are in for one crazy, strong and healthy ride.

[i] http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4718-weekly-online-social-media-time.html

[ii] http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-07-23/heres-how-much-time-people-spend-on-facebook-daily

[iii] http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Social-Usage-Involves-More-Platforms-More-Often/1010019

[iv] Bremner JD. Stress and Brain Atrophy. CNS & neurological disorders drug targets. 2006;5(5):503-512.

(Vi) , got ya, completely made up.