One of the reasons I came on board here at M&F was to act as a BS detector for a lot of the erroneous training information that seems to be so prevalent on the internet and elsewhere. I'm honored to have this blog on this site, because I've been a M&F reader since I was a kid, but I'm also thankful for the opportunity to use over a decade of hard-earned experience in the coaching and training business to help this website put out quality, real world training advice.

When you're doing the right things, it'll save you time and money, and it will save you a whole lot of aggravation when you learn how to cut through all the nonsense out there. And believe me, there's a ton of it.

The first thing I'd like to address in my inaugural post here on my M&F blog is the personal training industry. I've been an athlete, and worked as a personal trainer, a strength and conditioning coach and an actual sport coach, and I have some serious thoughts on the matter, some of which probably aren't fit for print in a public forum. As I've already said in this post - and as I've been saying ad nauseum here at Weider (they're probably sick of me by now) - there's so much crap people have to cut through in this industry to get to what works that I really have no idea how people can get off their asses and get in shape nowadays.

That said, here's a list of criteria I suggest you think about when you're either looking for advice on the internet or thinking of spending your hard-earned money on a personal trainer.

1. Who have they trained?
I won't name names here - although I wish I could - but there are a ton of "gurus" out there putting forth information on the internet who haven't trained anyone and haven't gotten results for anyone. All they really have is the benefit of a good web designer and photographer, and they try to "slick" you with promises of "explosiveness" and "sport-specific speed." Do your research. See who they've trained, and more importantly, if they claim to have trained a big name athlete, see how long they trained them and what resulted from that specific training.

2. Builder or babysitter?
If you go on a website, see a picture of a famous athlete and read a whole bunch of text about how this trainer has worked with this athlete and how great everything is, take things a step further and think about whether this trainer is the one who actually GOT the athlete where he or she currently is. Some athletes are natural-born freaks who make professional leagues, then move to new cities and end up in gyms where trainers work with them for a month then take credit for their careers. Find out who builds these guys and learn to recognize the babysitters for what they are.

3. What can they do?
One thing I've always prided myself on, as a coach and trainer, is my own athletic ability. If I want to increase an athlete's bench press from 225 to 315, or 365 to 405, I know how to do it because I've done it myself, FOR myself. There are things you learn in the process of training yourself and being an athlete that you can't learn from seminars, certifications and textbooks. Always be skeptical of taking lifting advice from trainers who can't lift more than you and never have.

4. Beware of gimmicks.
There have been so many "innovations" in the fitness industry over the past few years that it's been nearly impossible to keep track of what's what. Innovation is a wonderful thing, but not always, because what happens is this: trainers want to do whatever they can to get clients, so they'll introduce all sorts of newfangled crap to their businesses, with no idea how to properly program the stuff into a solid regimen. When you want to try something new with a trainer, do your research. See who's been doing the stuff, see what their results have been, and find out exactly where this sort of thing fits into a good training program.

5. When all else fails (or even before), trust the old school.
There's a reason people have been benching, squatting and deadlifting for so many years. It's because the stuff works, even for bodybuilders. Sure, it's not glamorous and it's not as sexy as most people want, but the general idea, at least how I see it, is to put in the unglamorous work INSIDE the gym, so you can look good and show off your results OUTSIDE the gym. Sometimes that's not as complicated as people try to make it.

The whole point I try to make people is that the information is out there, and it's not hard to find. Say what you will about performance enhancing substances, but the old Soviet sports system had it right. They experimented on this stuff with literally thousands of athletes, and they found training parameters that hold true universally. I'll touch on this in later blog posts, but the gist of it is this: know where your advice is coming from.