It Depends...

This is the one answer I seem to give people more often than any other. And believe it or not, it really isn’t a cop-out. Because most often the question they are asking is very subjective in nature and not at all one based on a solid background in terms of the information they give me.

This happened this week in fact which is what prompted me to write this little piece. I had a mate call me the other day (I won’t name names but they will know who they are if they read this). They asked me about what rest periods they should be using at the gym as they were having a discussion with their lifting buddy (another mate). I asked him what goals they were working towards. He then proceeded to tell me the workout they were doing. 

If you look closely at the last two sentences you will note that he didn’t, in fact, answer the question I asked. As it turns out they were lifting to get a bit bigger. As such, I gave them the appropriate rest periods and that was that.

But had he said that he was lifting to drop his body fat percentage then the answer would have been a different one. This is why I often end up by answering people with “it depends”. 

It doesn’t matter what the question is, the answer is always the same – it depends. The bottom line is this – whatever question you are asking it always comes back to your goals. There are very few absolutes in the world of fitness. This is a hard concept to get used to at times and can be very frustrating both as a client and as a trainer. But your goals will always reign supreme – the answer should always be helping you to get to where you want to be.

As a trainer, it means that we need to dig deeper into what our clients want, which can mean that clients (or strangers who happen to know you train people) can get frustrated by us seemingly not giving them a straight answer. But if you want quality advice then the question and background provided have to be of similar quality. 

I would always be wary of the trainer who offers blanket advice which covers any situation as there are very few situations where blanket advice is appropriate. The best programmes and advice start at the end – where do you want to get to? Then they work backwards from there.

If you have any (specific) questions that you would like to an answer to feel free to get in touch and I will do my best to help you out.  You can email me at david@360degreefitness.co.nz or alternatively get in touch through my website.
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