Is it just me or are we as a society becoming lazier and lazier when it comes to achieving our health and fitness goals? I hate to rant and rave (Who am I kidding? I love to rant and rave), but it seems as if almost everyone who is anyone is relying now more then ever on modern technology, meal prep services and fitness apps to help them achieve the ultimate physique. Don’t get me wrong, if all these fancy gimmicks, gizmos and gadgets help keep you accountable for your workouts and allow you to stay on track with your diet, then I say stick with it. However ask yourself this – How long can you stick with it? Sooner or later there will be bigger and better apps, more overhyped and oversaturated meal prep services, and technology, well technology will just continue to make us all lazy when it comes to doing things for ourselves.
Now I know what you’re thinking. What gives me, a Personal Trainer, the right to start bashing on these extravagant fitness aids? After all, isn’t hiring a Personal Trainer considered to be a luxury for the rich and famous? Well, that might be the view point held by many, however if you’ve ever worked with a knowledgeable and educated trainer, then you’ll know that Personal Training should actually be considered to be a necessity and nothing less.
Building a Better Body
One of the things that attracted me most to the sport of bodybuilding was that it was an individual sport. Sure, you can hire a coach and/or a nutritionist. And yes, if you’re as lucky enough as I am, you can have some pretty fantastic training partners who motivate you to get to the gym and push you to do those extra reps when you’re tired and feeling weak. But at the end of the day, you and only you are responsible for the results (or lack of results) that you achieve with your physique. For this reason, as a coach and trainer, I’ve never been one to take credit for my clients’ success. The reality is that there is really only so much that I can do to help someone transform their physique and improve upon their health. Yes, I can analyze a person’s physique and create a customized training program designed to help them improve upon their weaknesses, train around their physical limitations and ultimately achieve their target training goals. However I can’t do the workouts for them. I can’t diet for them. And I can’t accomplish their goals for them.
Technology Trainers
More and more companies across the world rely on technology now more than ever to market themselves and become more profitable on a global scale. And the fitness industry is no different. Fitness online apps such as MyFitnessPal, IIFYM Calculator, and Fitbit are just a few of the many popular and widely used applications used by people who want to get fit, healthy and achieve their target training goals. But are these fancy high tech apps really that necessary? I mean is it absolutely crucial that you know exactly how many steps you take in one day or how many calories you burn after one workout? Do you really need a generic workout plan designed by a robot to get the best results? At any point do you ask yourself as to why you are letting an automatic computerized program dictate what you should and should not do in the gym and how many calories you should consume in a day? And if you ask yourself that, then perhaps you should also ask yourself as to how you are gauging your own success with your physique and your health? Or is your fancy fitness app just gauging it for you?
Mindless Meal Prep Services
Meal Prep Services have been around for decades, this is nothing new. However I would suggest that within the last 5 years, Meal Prep Services within the fitness industry have become more popular than ever. This trend seems to be more prevalent within the Millennial Generation and as such, has gained a vast amount of success through social media marketing and advertising on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Now first I would like to state for the record, that I personally do not have any issues with these Meal Prep Companies. I do however take issue with the people who are of my own generation and younger who claim to “not have the time” to make their own meals and therefore rely on these companies to do it for them. I myself work 7 days a week and up to 10-12 hours a day. I don’t do this because I have to, I do it because I want to. I don’t bitch, I don’t complain, I do what I love for a living and I love what I do. Regardless, running a small business does take up a great deal of my time throughout the day and as such, the time that I do have is limited at best. Yet, no matter how busy I am with the day to day operations of running my company, I ALWAYS find time to prep my own food.
I take pride in weighing out and cooking my own meals. I don’t need to rely on some overpriced highly gimmicked Meal Prep Company to do it for me because “I Don’t Have Time” to do it myself.
Take Home Message
It’s not my intention to put down or judge anyone that uses fitness apps to design their workouts or meal prep services to make and deliver their food. However I’m just concerned that as technology becomes more advanced and as services become more accessible, that we as human beings will slowly become less accountable for our own results, both with our bodies and our minds.
So perhaps rather than just follow a program that you find online or have designed for you by some training application blindly, do some research on the exercises that you are doing and understand the science and physiology behind these exercises and the muscles that they are targeting. And instead of having all of your meals prepped for you, be a little bit proactive and make a few of them from scratch yourself. After all, you are the one that’s building and fueling your body, don’t you want to understand what and how you are doing it?
“The greatest gift that you can give yourself is a little bit of your own attention.”
Anthony J. D’Angelo
Yours in Good Health,
Nick Cosgrove
Forever Fit Performance