If you asked my fiancee (or anyone who knows me well, for that matter), she would tell you that I work all the time.  If I’m not training athletes, I’m training myself, reading research, or writing programs or articles about training. My life pretty much revolves around it – and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it is challenging to get to everything.

To be very honest with you, I’d probably make more money if I just stayed home and wrote articles and books all day.  It’s a direction quite a few folks in this industry have taken, in fact.  You’d be surprised at how many well-known internet personalities in the exercise world don’t see athletes anymore; they just stay home and write about what life would be like if they actually did train people.  Or, they talk about what they used to do when they worked with folks, or what they’ve seen in the research of late.

Now, I’m all for research.  And, given my articles, books, and DVDs, I’m all for sharing knowledge that I’ve gained.  However, I’m a huge believer that you can’t add to the body of knowledge unless you are out in the trenches working with people.  You’d be surprised at how many researchers and writers could never get results in the real world.  Why?  Because people – attitudes, emotions, individual differences, etc. – get in the way.

This is why I have so much respect for those who are “in the trenches” and derive a significant portion of their income from in-person training.    I enjoy articles, blogs, seminars, and products from guys like Alwyn Cosgrove, Mike Boyle, Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, Mike Reinold, Jim Smith, Brijesh Patel, Nick Tumminello, and dozens others because these are all guys who are in the real world working to help people.  Unlike those who just write, they are constantly getting feedback from clients/athletes on what works and what doesn’t; theories don’t go untested.  If I was a consumer, I’d actually go out of my way to make sure the person writing a book or article was actually seeing clients/athletes before purchasing it.

A few years ago, I never would have even thought to make this promise, but the internet certainly changes things.  And, that’s why I’m promising today that I’ll be training athletes for a long time, and the day I stop training athletes is the day that I stop writing and speaking about training, too.