The Biggest Dipshits...

I originally started to write an article titled “Consider the Source”. I was going to explain that in many cases, fitness experts aren’t really experts at all in terms of fitness. They are experts at selling magazines or creating entertaining television.

But after my last article about the differences between balance and stability and how it should relate to your training, I received a flood of calls and emails. Apparently, the stars of good timing aligned in my favor once again. Because, as if on cue, the “experts” on the TV show “The Biggest Loser” showed themselves to be the mental midgets they truly are, and that their “expert” status is not one of exercise science, but one of exploitation of those more vulnerable than they.

According to several sources, all of whom I trust, the trainers had a client who weighed in the neighborhood of 400 pounds, performing lunges while holding dumb bells, and with EACH FOOT ON A BOSU BALL.

Now let’s examine this logic: You have someone who with every step they take in life, are performing a lunge with 400 lbs. This person is also not acclimated to exercise. (You know those guys in the gym you’ve seen squatting with 400lbs on their back – well generally, those guys are strong. Imagine if they hadn’t worked out in years and were completely new to exercise – now put 400lbs on their back. It’s going to end badly, right? Not according to the biggest loser experts, because THAT’S what they were having their clients do, essentially.)

Now if that isn’t bad enough, these geniuses put weights in their clients’ hands to make them heavier.

Insert picture of me shaking my head.

And for the coup de gratis, now they place their clients on round, unstable surfaces. Not one, but TWO unstable surfaces.

This, my friends is what we call a case of negligence, and it’s a matter of when they will be sued, not if they will be sued. I predicted it with the “CrossFit” crowd, and mark my words on this one – “The Biggest Loser” will be on the business end of a negligence lawsuit eventually.

This type of training is not beneficial, it’s not functional, and it’s not calorie burning – it’s dangerous and is solely used for the purpose to create good TV. (Hence my idea about considering the source…)

Now, if that scenario isn’t crazy enough, I received plenty of emails about the next gem the “expert” on the show graced our good senses with:

According to the bimbette trainer, (I’m going to paraphrase, here:) muscle doesn’t weigh more than fat. That is a myth created by trainers who can’t get their clients to lose weight, and if your trainer tells you that, they are just trying to get your money.

Now I may have heard a trainer make a statement dumber than that – but I can’t think of one right now.

If you’re one of those people who think there are very few things in the exercise world that are black and white, and therefore subject to opinion – I agree with you. I’m one of those people too.

But the issue of muscle density vs fat density is not one which is open for debate in the field of science.

It’s a fact. A pretty commonly known one.

So back to my original idea of considering the source…

Just because someone is on TV, they are not an expert. Just because they appear in a magazine, they are not an expert.

Question everything. Don’t dismiss anything – but question everything. You’ll know a lot more about fitness in the long run.

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