Belts don't teach the everyday athlete how to brace for the storm.
Weight belts don’t show strength. They actually say “I’m weak”.
If you need a belt to pick up a bar in a controlled environment, what will you need when you get your bags out of the car…?
Carrying children, stepping over lego, slipping from a curb, sneezing - life is lived in hundreds of shapes, at different speeds, and from morning to night. For 99% of the time it is highly unexpected and chaotic. You rarely foresee the intense pull on the dog lead as a rabbit runs past, anymore than you remember to slowly bend your knees and pick up the tooth brush whilst carefully exhaling on the way down and bracing on the way back up. In my opinion the best exercises are the ones that prepare you for life. Sometimes this includes competitions and high force production (weightlifters, rugby players, name a sport*), but for the most part it includes grandchildren, long periods sitting, and unusually shaped loads.
One of the most ineffective gym tools you can use is a weight belt. Why? Because it is fundamentally a different breathing model to life and you are adapting your body to a weak kinetic chain and breath work whilst protecting ‘your bad back’ when you Deadlift. **Spoiler, if your back hurts enough for you to need a belt to protect it (or wrist straps, or gloves… stop ranting Tom), then you are too weak for the load. Simple.
Donning a belt requires expertise in the Valsalva maneuver to create intra-abdominal pressure during a rep. Put simply, breath and hold to create massive spinal support to maximise force transfer through the body. If your goal is to lift a heavy 1 RM then it has a place. But if your goal is to look strong and impress the gym (second spoiler, no one is actually watching) then you are mistaking noise for substance.
Less than 1% of gym goers compete in force production events but more than 50% of the population report chronic lower back pain. We are enabling the wrong goals.
My hypothesis is that when you strip back the illusionary sex appeal that going to the gym with a belt boasts, the use of anything that de trains every day movement competency is stupid. I do understand that looking good matters (relief for my wife) but I believe that being pain free and capable of a multitude of speeds and shapes is a far better use of time in the gym for most people than fake output. As a coach I cringe over shortcuts and encourage the path of most effective work.
So instead of using a belt to fake your way through a Deadlift, try our tips on bracing feedback to strengthen your vital midline and get cracking with those suitcases up the stairs.
Why we believe in subscribing to your fitness.
Showing my maturity (read: age) I remember taping the Top 40 from the radio each Sunday so that I didn’t have to buy the CD. Cheap Yorkshireman certainly, but I would argue I wasn’t alone and we were all accepting of the world of musical and television subscriptions. Now in 2023, everything is at our finger tips in consumable subscription models many hundred of hours deep. Want to binge on Netflix? That will be US$ 11 per month please. Want to listen to music all day every day? That’s US$ 7 on Spotify please.
Stepping back from the dopamine entertainment hits to life and careers, raise your hand if your university charged you by the hour? Of course not. What about the schools your children attend? Public or private you still pay at the start of the year in taxes or fees. So why does all this matter and why has 99% of the coach led fitness world got it wrong? Why do most coaches charge by the hour?
Well fundamentally all the examples above and the reason Pinnacle prioritise subscription memberships is that it provides stability and projecting power for the business. The school that has fees confirmed can employ the best coaches and upgrade facilities. The streaming services with the highest number of sign ups can out market the competition and capitalise the industry. But as a consumer it goes deeper than that. We can all relate the wonderful meal that was tainted by paying the bill at the end or the hotel stay that was dwarfed by analysing the invoice and spending the final hour of your holiday in a queue to pay for the experience. Daniel Kahneman notes that the ‘Peak-End rule” is the realisation that memories store the best (peak) of the experience at the end; vis-a-vis, load up the costs and logistics before the event and you will enjoy it all the more by ending more enjoyably.
So in the capitalist world of attention marketing and uniquely also for our mental health, paying upfront is better for us. We agree and strongly advocate for your fitness being a lifestyle subscription instead of a transactional bill on your table!
“OK Tom, so you have made a case for why Spotify is better than individual CD’s and we all know the business model of Apple and crew, but why is this important to fitness?” Well put bluntly, fitness is the last into your schedule and the first out (sense the tone of frustration referring to the rate of cancellations in the industry when “a meeting has come up”). If you are willing to postpone a training session that is directly correlated to a better and longer life for a meeting about some paperwork crap that will be forgotten the moment you leave, imagine how big the barrier is to even commit to a plan that will have success. Put simply, every time you need to pay a bill for the expert fitness coaches you need you question it not based on a 20 year plan, but on a cash flow that day. Is your longevity and health at 60 really something you want to look back on and remember that at 35 a new iPhone was more important? We don’t believe so.
So why is the industry so backward? Why are the most readily available options for knowledge based fitness (coaches) transactional? Because the world doesn’t think fitness is a subscription commitment and something as important as your mortgage. We think it is a nice to have extra or something that 3 x 60 minute sessions will complete each week. Newsflash, it isn’t. If you view fitness as a costed extra you will put it last and miss the best opportunities to be your best self and achieve results when they matter.
But let’s be clear. We are not advocating for cheap, 24 hour unlimited access to a sweaty treadmill in the corner. No. We are advocating for a coaching subscription service that puts your commitment to your health first and combines the business needs for stability and forecasting at the top of the tree with your human emotions to avoid paying for things that take effort.
Regardless of the services and the fee pay, if the value aligns to your budget and fitness needs then you are literally off to the races. By budgeting for a fitness service to be part of your life every day for the next 10 years you are prioritising your quality of life and significantly impacting the results you will achieve and your enjoyment.
Subscriptions enhance utilisation. In entertainment they walk us down a line of lost hours and un-productivity. Flip that model to your benefit. Don’t stop at subscribing for your media diet, keep going and commit to your nutritional, physical, and mental diets. If subscriptions handcuff us into the 3rd hour on YouTube each day, imagine the power of that extra session or extra coaching consult that you have already enrolled to!! We promise that you will get out of bed for the habit you subscribe to instead of the one you pay to attend. Your body and your results will thank you for it.
So ask if you can settle the bill when you arrive next time you go on holiday and enjoy lying by the pool knowing you have paid for it instead of racking up a bill that is going to niggle you in 7 days time. And when you get back convert your fitness packages into subscriptions that commit you to a journey and maximise the brains power for using every bit of something you have already paid for.
Tom is the CEO and Head of Strength & Conditioning at Pinnacle Performance. He now leads a team of full time coaches having spent his coaching career with professional athletes from World Cup Cricketer’s and Footballers, to Sprinters and Triathletes.
Have you been profiled recently?
If your coach isn’t profiling you frequently then you are paying for a companion - get an iPod, they are cheaper and less condescending.
Valid and reliable data is precisely how we move forward in every aspect of our lives. As S&C coaches we hypothesise, we intervene, we scrutinise (more often than not we prove ourselves wrong over time as science and technology improves), and then we start again with a more educated base.
“If your coach isn’t profiling you frequently then you are paying for a companion - get an iPod, they are cheaper and less condescending.”
Valid and reliable data is precisely how we move forward in every aspect of our lives. As S&C coaches we hypothesise, we intervene, we scrutinise (more often than not we prove ourselves wrong over time as science and technology improves), and then we start again with a more educated base. And yet here we are, in an age when the scientific method is forgotten or untaught in schools, or simply ignored because it conflicts with our opinion. When did we become apathetic to fact and prefer shouting louder than the person next to us? When did a photo of a bicep or an up lighting bulb convince us that we were getting fitter? Note to all coaches out there, if you can’t define Valid or Reliable then you need to buy a book. Ahh SPSS.
I am a proud scientist and strong advocate that evidence and facts speak louder than dogma, especially when it comes to physical health and wellness. “If we have data, let’s look at the data. If all we have are opinions then let’s go with mine”. Our hope must be that Jim Barksdale’s words apply to dinner table debate but not the application of science in a fitness world. You telling yourself (or worse, me telling you so you consume more services) that you have lost weight should not be an opinion. ‘Think’ you are getting stronger? Nothing to think about, either you are or you are not.
A simple cyclical process that we teach for our coaches to understand coaching responsibilities
Opinions are everywhere and rarely do our lives revert to black and white evidence. I am grateful that my living and reputation depends on facts and my career journey will be rewarded by education and results instead of publicity spin. If I am worth my salary then you will be achieving your goals. Strip the noise, the marketing, and the filtered before and after photos away and regardless of your goal you should frequently be rewarding your grind with evidenced progress and scientific adaptation.
I am not being seasonally inconsiderate, ’tis the season to be jolly’ and I was. MY body composition goals waited until Jan, not because I am lazy (although I am), but because I refuse to chastise myself over the mince pies and Christmas cake I adore. However I am fully transparent to the hard work I will lose by avoiding the gym in favour of a buffet, and how much more work I will have to do in January. The FACT will is that I gained weight and lost Aerobic fitness. And I dare say a lot of us did so at least there is solidarity in Christmas gluttony. Denying it to yourself or others is futile. You need the humility (and evidence) to change from.
As 2023 starts and all of our athlete members get back under the bar across our multiple facilities and our endurance athletes return to the ergs, we will not be embarrassed or offended by the data. We will be informed. Are you afraid to check your bank balance because you think you have spent too much? Then I guess you are also avoiding the gym "until you are fit enough” too. Note, money and fitness don’t arrive by accident. Educate yourself with data and make sure your coach is doing so too.
So how do we approach January with our paying member athletes across the UK and Asia? We lead informative profiling sessions, communicate what is expected, and educate that testing data is not to show you how unfit you are, quite the opposite. Profiling informs our programming for your benefit. If your coach isn’t profiling you then you are paying for a companion - get an iPod, they are cheaper and less condescending. If you are serious about your health investment then demand you are profiled. Importantly if your goal is body composition then pay for a DEXA, your intermittent paleo keto plant based diet deserves more than 5 skin clips by your PT behind a curtain.
Scientific method improves our industry. Are we all using it informatively?
Tom is the CEO and Head of Strength & Conditioning at Pinnacle Performance. He now leads a team of full time coaches having spent his coaching career with professional athletes from World Cup Cricketer’s and Footballers, to Sprinters and Triathletes.
Gyms as the new religion.
This week I was listening to The Prof G Pod - cast, with Scott Galloway. It is my weekly dive to feel like my commuting time is contributing to something greater than my embarrassing Owl City infliction or worse still the News. Aside from drowning in market insights and business commentary higher level than the trees I walk past, the first listener question in this edition stuck with me and was based from a 2018 Harvard Study on how we gather.
“Are gyms and fitness brands playing a quasi religious role and tactile form of community and transformation through suffering than traditional churches now can? Are fitness brands here to stay and are they the new church for the masses?”
How did Scott answer the question? In short, yes, but with a clear problem that all fitness brands have a responsibility to consider…
Scott: “I really buy into (the) thesis. The need for community and answers has slipped the big brands of Peloton, Soul Cycle, Orange Theory into our lives. The idea of fitness as the new idea church with agency around other people and something bigger is really wonderful. The successful brands (where was Pinnacle’s shout out…?!) accommodate for the top 10% who continued to kill it. But where do those who can’t afford $100’s per month go?”
Enter the bigger community question.
I categorise fitness brands into four boxes.
1) Mass market; cheap; access only; faceless; soulless. You’re better off running around your garden but few do, so a treadmill on a rainy day is worth the $40 you pay to not go.
2) Group cooked; semi coached; freelanced relationships. No need to think about what to do because we have a weekend course in how to treat everyone’s body the same so just do 10 more reps.
3) Transactional; tailored; camaraderie while you pay; accountable. Look more like me, eat less, post about your sweat, expect nothing when the clock ticks past the top.
4) Exclusive; business class; limited edition; aspirational. Fantastic if you’re in but inaccessible for 95%.
Each has its place and everyone wins when expectations and services match. However if you expect tailored science in a group class, or cheap and cheerful for 1-2-1 packages, you will have issues.
But are we still missing the masses? Where are the Youth Clubs, the Running Clubs, the Basketball with mates, the couch to 5k bootcamps? They exist but they are not glamorous and they do not attract the top coaches, in fact they often attract the cheapest (read - free Youtube on a shared phone screen).
As a Company we are as guilty as the rest of the industry and times have been tough enough as it is. Gyms are not a charity and are rarely structured in a committee ownership model. Even more rarely do they pass around an Offering’s plate during the Squats instead of charging a membership. And for this reason I disagree that gyms are the new church.
Instead I do agree that gyms and fitness houses bind the best of human endeavours, drive us to aspire to be the best versions of ourselves (or throw status in the face of those who can’t do a muscle up), and direct our lifestyle into community accountable health. And more power to us all.
So yes, gyms can serve a purpose to unite, bridge, structure, and define our lives, but let’s all remember that the only reason any of us should go to the gym is to challenge ourselves and grow as individuals. If we are expecting redemption because ‘yes bro we do Squat’, then the pearly gates might be an obstacle too high for even the best Spartan athletes. More importantly until we as business owners and industry representatives offer much easier on ramps for the less affluent then I agree with Scott, and suggest that we are no more a church than a Gucci store with a queue outside. We certainly cannot wear the good for the community ‘Pius’ medal and this is not a bad thing either because the gyms that don’t make money die and with it so do the incomes of some and the outlet for many.
Gym’s don’t have to replace churches but we can all do more to give back to the community (like donating to 👉🏼 MOVEMBER) and politely nudge us into building a new relationship and remembering what Zoom for 2 years was like. In person is awesome. Let’s never forget the fear of isolation and ensure that our businesses are inclusive as far as a renters responsibility allows.
I invite you to listen to the Podcast for yourself and see what you think. Consider where you live, your family and community around you, and if in fact your gym has become the centre of your ‘village.’
Tom is the CEO and Head of Strength & Conditioning at Pinnacle Performance. He now leads a team of full time coaches having spent his coaching career with professional athletes from World Cup Cricketer’s and Footballers, to Sprinters and Triathletes.