Who told you that?

This week was meant to be the week that I was going to outline some real benefits of weight training and how to implement it into your life.

But, in light of some of the reactions that I received to my first article on weight training, I have to address something that’s been bugging me for a while … let me explain.

A recurring response that I seem to give when being asked about a new training gimmick or diet myth is: ‘where did you get this information from?’ or ‘who told you that?’

This is not me being high and mighty but trying to help people think seriously about where they get knowledge from. Two common sources are controversial, namely news articles and ‘some guy at the gym’. Let me address these.

l A controversial article’s job is NOT to give out as much useful information as possible but to entertain. Let’s be honest, most of the time science isn’t very entertaining when it comes to training and diet – a news report on ‘spinach is still really healthy’ isn’t going to break newspaper or magazine sales records or attract numerous hits to a website or blog!

l Many people that I’ve come across that are in great shape have great genetics. Often they look good IN SPITE of what they do. In science, we say ‘correlation does not imply causation’, and, an example of this would be if we came across someone with great abs who ate fast-food three times a week. It does not mean that he got that way because he did so.

The same could apply to a bunch of women that took a certain supplement and were all in good shape. We cannot assume that the supplement alone is the reason that they look like they do.

Hopefully, that makes sense and you will consider the validity of the things you hear thrown about regarding health and fitness.

l Don’t miss my nutrition seminar on Friday at the club. For details visit: https://www.bahrainrfc.net/news-item/nutrition-seminar-this-weekend/