Why It Sounds Like I Hate Half the Fitness Industry.

It usually starts the same way. A client, a friend, a friend of a friend asks what I think of some program, some class, the latest thing in their feed. My favorite: “My wife’s trainer has her doing box jumps — why don’t we?” I answer their questions with a few of my own. What’s the benefit? What’s the claim? Is this on top of what you’re already doing, or instead of it? And if they’ve been my client for years, I might add — don’t you listen to anything I say?!?

I hear them out, and usually I find there’s a safer alternative, or the claim is overblown, or it just isn’t the right fit for them. Sometimes all three. And I tell them so.

Now I’m the bad guy.

They liked the idea of the new thing. They were tired of guessing. They wanted this to finally be the answer — and here I come, ruining a perfectly good fantasy with a few inconvenient questions. “Okay Boomer,” someone will say. “Have your take.” But almost every time, once I explain my thinking, their irritation gives way to something like: “Oh, well, I never thought about it that way.” So let me walk you through how I think.

Why “Exercise” Has Become a Meaningless Word

The fitness industry is enormous, competitive, and very good at selling. Novelty gets rewarded more than results. After thirty years in this business — long enough to watch the same programs go out of style and come back around again — I’ve learned that almost every claim carries a kernel of truth, which is exactly what makes the bad ones so hard to spot. You’re not being foolish when something sounds convincing. It’s designed that way.

It doesn’t help that the word ‘exercise’ has been stretched to cover nearly everything. Lifting weights. Stretch class. Yoga. Wobble boards. Walking the dog in a weighted vest. A full-body suit wired with electrical currents. It all gets filed under the same word, as if it’s all doing the same job. It isn’t.

When I use the word exercise, I mean something specific: deliberate, structured work designed to build strength safely, in a way the body can recover from and repeat for years. Specific stimulus, specific outcome, real adaptation over time. There’s a good reason to be strict about it — strength is the single best protection against frailty, injury, and decline as you age, and you don’t get that from a word that means everything.

Everything else — sports, hiking, tennis, dance, cycling, chasing your kids around the yard, and yes, cardio — is recreation. Activity. Some of the most valuable stuff a person can do for their body and their mind. It just isn’t the same thing as exercise and judging it by the same standard is where most of the confusion starts.

The Three Questions I Ask Before Recommending Any Exercise

Is the goal to build strength?

If yes, the criteria are narrow. Does it meaningfully load the muscle? Can it be done in a controlled way? Can you progress it over time without the wheels coming off? Is it the safest option available? Most popular exercises don’t hold up well here. Something else almost always does the job better and safer.

Does it deliver what it promises?

A lot of what gets sold promises benefits that sound great on the surface. Some of it delivers. A lot of it doesn’t. The question isn’t whether the activity is hard or popular or fun. It’s whether the specific benefit being advertised shows up in your life. Often it doesn’t.

Is it worth it for this person?

Goals matter. Age matters. Injury history matters. Time and recovery capacity matter. A great choice for a twenty-five-year-old competitive athlete can be a terrible one for a fifty-five-year- old who just wants to be capable into their seventies. The same activity can be the right call for one person and the wrong one for another. Miss that, and people get hurt or waste years on the wrong things.

Most of what I push back on comes down to some mix of these. Sometimes the activity itself doesn’t hold up, no matter who’s doing it. More often, it just isn’t the right thing for this person, right now. Two quick examples of the questions in action.

Are Barbell Squats Worth the Risk?

On paper, the barbell squat is the king of the gym — arguably the most effective single exercise ever invented for building overall strength. It loads nearly every major muscle group at once, under heavy weight.

And I rarely program it for anyone. A loaded barbell sits across the back of your neck and shoulders, compressing hundreds of pounds straight down through your spine. Every rep depends on near-perfect technique, and as fatigue builds, technique drifts. Add the asymmetries every body carries, the years it takes to master, and the consequences when it goes wrong — major, life-changing spine injuries — and you’re looking at one of the highest-risk movements in the gym. Competitive lifters take that on willingly; the sport demands it. For most other people, the math doesn’t add up. You can build very nearly the same strength with far safer tools. The squat passes the first question with flying colors and fails the third for almost everyone who’d ever consider doing it. For the few who really want it and are willing to take the risk, it’s unmatched. For everyone else, it’s the wrong tool — and a dangerous one.

Does Balance Training Work?

The claim behind balance training — wobble boards, BOSU balls — is that getting better at balancing on these objects prepares you for real life: walking downstairs, catching yourself when you trip.

Let me tell you about my friend Stephan. Stephan owns a boat and is always on it. The man has the best balance I’ve ever seen on a person — choppy water, sudden swells, the deck pitching underneath him, and his feet just stick. Meanwhile I’m grabbing for railings, sliding into seats I didn’t mean to sit in, and sometimes on my hands and knees so I don’t go overboard.

I also train Stephan. One of the things we do is a basic lunge — step forward into a long stride, bend the front knee until the back one hovers near the floor, drive back up. Not complicated, but because you’re on one leg at a time, it takes some balance not to tip over. He’s terrible at it. The man with the best sea legs I’ve ever seen struggles with a movement plenty of beginners pick up in a few weeks.

Balance development is specific. Thirty years on a moving deck didn’t transfer to a lunge in the gym, and no amount of wobble boarding would make him better on the boat. When someone sells balance drills to be steadier in everyday movements, the drills aren’t the path. Strong legs, a strong core, and regular movement do more to keep you upright than any wobble board ever will.

How to Evaluate Any Exercise Yourself

Notice what those two questions did. They left you with a way to think — a way to look at anything the industry throws at you and ask whether it builds strength, whether it delivers what it claims, and whether it makes sense for you. That much you can do on your own, for the rest of your life.

The questions, though, are only half of it. Asking the right question doesn’t guarantee the right answer. Whether an exercise loads a muscle safely, whether there’s a better tool for the job, what the safest way to build strength even is — that’s where experience matters, and where a good professional earns their keep. The goal isn’t to never need help. It’s to know what you’re looking at well enough to know when you do.

What a Smart Weekly Routine Actually Looks Like

Once you stop lumping everything together and start asking better questions, the way you plan your training gets simpler. Think of your week like a sound financial plan.

The bulk of it sits in something safe and boring that compounds: a couple of focused strength sessions. That’s the core holding — not exciting, but it’s the single best long-term investment you can make in your body. Around it, you hedge: walking, hiking, cycling, a sport you love, the activity that brings you to your happy place. And if you want a little high-risk in the mix — a contact sport, something that scares you a bit — fine. Just know exactly what you’re buying.

No reasonable plan is all one thing. And no two plans look alike — yours depends on your age, your goals, your recovery, how much volatility you can absorb. There’s no single right portfolio. There’s the right one for you. The only thing I’d tell anyone to avoid outright is the Ponzi scheme — the stuff promising returns that don’t exist, or quietly stripping value while looking impressive. Some risks are just not worth taking.

No, I don’t hate the fitness industry. It’s given me a rewarding life and a craft I still care about after thirty years. That’s exactly why the sloppy claims and the needless risks get under my skin — because the real thing is amazing, and people deserve to know which is which. Learn to ask the questions, and the next time something promises you the world, you won’t have to take anyone’s word for it — mine included. You’ll know how to ask.

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