Where did you learn your fitness knowledge?

B

Boybert

Cathlete
By this I mean, all that you currently know about proper form, training, eating, etc.

Was it predominately Cathe? Cathe & other trainers? the gym? Family and/or friends? Books?

I'm really just curious what brought you to the stage you are in today.

For me, when I started into my fitness journey back in 92, I pretty much learned weight lifting through the Y staff & didn't really learn from anyone about cardio. I knew about eating healthy but knew nothing of clean eating. I have to say I learned most of what I know today from Cathe (since March 05) and a few wonderful people I met through this site!

So, just curiosity, here :)


Debbie


My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety-seven now, and we don't know where the hell she is.
--Ellen Degeneres
 
I've learned all of mine from this site. From listening to all of you and then researching on other internet sites. Also, from reading BFFM. Of course, I wouldn't have known about that book without reading it here first!
 
In my 20's (20+yrs ago) I became a fitness instructor and had to go thru certifications.... Once I stopped teaching I continued to be intrigued by the fitness / nutrition end so I think I have bought, read and still have every book on nutrition known to woman kind. Since getting involved with Cathe & all of you a year ago my knowledge of muscle and its impact on us has quadrupled! When I read something from one of you I usually go researching to learn more. I'd say that this forum brought my knowledge (& enthusiasm) to the 21st Century!
Thanks to all of you!
 
hmmm...I learned a lot about 'fitness' when I swam competitively from the age of 7 until 22 (at college). I stopped and felt completley burned out - no wonder too because I didn't understand nutrition and was only working out to please other people (the team, coaches, parents etc). I also never had a chance to LIVE! I was too busy in the water, weight room or track about 25 hours a week. My weight yo-yo:d depending on the seasons and there was always so much pressure to lose weight. So, after a lot of weight gain and unhealthy eating, I found my way back slowly and surely by reading and finding a new activity that I enjoyed (starting at around age 26). I also really enjoy this forum and taking care of myself (for me!) once again.:D I will say that my past training experiences did help me to gauge how far to push and pace myself when it came to working out again...and I find 5 hours a week sufficient to make me feel great!
 
When I started dieting and exercising, I knew nothing, but I dove in and tried to learn as much as I could to use it in my plan. I picked it up from magazines, forums, trainers, exercise vids and later the training that I took to be a fitness instructor. Still, I am learning new tid bits here and there all of the time!
 
I started reading a bit around 1978 (yoga mostly). But I didn't really get into in until around 1982, when I took a weight training class as a grad student. One day, the regular instructor was gone (to coach some team on the road) and a woman took over the class. She spent the whole time correcting our form (which the regular dude never did), like on me, I was squattiing with a 'straight back,' as the regular instructor had said, without ever correcting us directly, and she actually showed me what that meant (not "try to stand up straight as you go down' but 'keep the natural curve of your lower back and don't round your back.")

That kind of freaked me out:: that for a few weeks (luckily just that long), I may have been using bad/risky form. So I immediately went out and bought Arnold's Encyclopedia of Body Building, a Rachel McLish book, and a Gladys Portuguese book and started reading.

Since then, I've read hundreds of books (mostly by people with advanced degrees in some fitness-related field), thousands of articles, worked along with countless video instructors, and chatted with many fitness and bodybuilder folks. I tend to go into depth in anything I'm interested in, and read all I can find on the subject.

I also learned some things from my injuries over the years (through PT and just from listening to my body and reading up more on injuries and prevention and treatment).

Of course, I've also learned a few things from this forum as well as others.

As for nutrition: I became a vegetarian (and soon 'nearly vegan' then later all-vegan) in 1976, started working at a whole foods coop at the time, and have read voraciously in the field since then, and learned from many fellow veg*ns.

I use my breaks from teaching (the summer and three weeks in winter) to always expand my knowledge in both areas.

I think if one learns all they know just from workout DVD's/videos, they are doing themselves a great disservice. I can't recall seeing one video instructor that always uses perfect form and avoids all risky exercises. Some are much better than others, but some (Joyce Vedral,, anyone?) use such bad form that anyone following them surely risks injury.
 
Oh, mostly from you, Boybie. ;-) And a lot of other ladies who unfortunately don't post here anymore.

Proper form definitely comes from Cathe.

As far as eating goes, I started with the Zone book, the very first one that came out. Our doctor recommended it and I still refer to it to this day.

The routine cycling part I learned from the husband who used to be my gym buddy in the old days. That seems like another life now.

A lot of what I apply to myself I got through trial and error.

Pinky
 
I joined Weight Watchers 2 yrs ago (again) which helped get my eating under control. But since I have joined this forum, I have learned about the clean eating and have evolved my diet into that (most of the time, anyway).

Exercise, though, is a different story. When I first starting losing weight to get into the Navy, 11 yrs ago, I joined a gym. Part of the package was a trainer for 2 months and from him I learned about proper form when lifting weights. That stuff, I retain. Anyway, I have found that I have become a kind of "form snob" when it comes to lifting and have no problem with going lighter to maintain form. When I was visiting my in-laws a couple of months ago, I joined the local gym for a week. I took several step/weight classes and always seemed to end up behind a woman who had horrible form. She was always sacrificing proper form for heavier weights just so that she could say that she was as "advanced" exerciser in the class.

Like Traci, my knowledge has quadrupled since joining this forum!!!
 
a mix of internet and library research. usually when i have nothing better to do or when i have a question. message boards like this give pretty good info or lead me in the right direction. cathe and tamilee have helped with my proper form over the years.

kassia

http://www.picturetrail.com/ldy_solana

"And do what thee wilt as long as ye harm none"
 
I belonged to a gym years ago and went faithfully every night for almost a year. I didn't learn nearly as much as I have in the few months I've been visiting this site. What's more, I tend to not believe what I read, so I frequently will "double check" info I get here and it's almost always dead on. Plus I've learned a lot from my DD's gymnastics coaches and physical therapists.

Claude


"Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." Satchel Paige
 
I've loved READING about health and fitness since my early teens...Alas, I was a smoker who also drank too much...About 3 years ago I cut WAY back on drinking (maybe 2 a week) and started watching my diet...Started working out to my old vids about 2 1/2 years ago, then found Cathe on Fit TV...Started food combining about a year and a half ago? Quite smoking last year...Never looked better, even in high school when I was in cheerleading. I'll be turning 30 in the spring, and thank goodness I've changed my lifestyle!
MJ
 
I have been active all my life but really got serious about strength training and challenging cardio in the last 8 years. I've learned a lot from Cathe's workouts and this forum. It sparked a greater interest in fitness so I ordered & studied the Ace Personal Trainer manual, spent time reading articles on their web site and in health & fitness mags (Womens Health is my fav). I ordered BFFM to help me clean up my eating.

I also have a very good friend who is a personal trainer that has worked with me on my form and a physical therapist that keeps informed on how to rehab various injuries.

JJ
 
Wow, I haven't given that any thought in awhile. Talk about flashbacks:)

www.ifit.com and Reebok "The Video" with the Reebok step.

I still have the step and video. Still love them...

Plus, I took all the nutritional classes I could get for electives in my undergraduate studies, plus all the gym classes I could muster in...

Carrie
 
I used to be a fitness professional - group fitness instructor, personal trainer, and nutrition/weight management consultant. I've also got a B.S. in Biology/Health Sciences and did some graduate work in Human Genetics. So, I learned most of my fitness, health, and physiology knowledge either in school or further education.

I appreciate Cathe's workouts because she both demonstrates and instructs proper form, and her cueing is fantastic! I have a real problem being in a class/watching a workout that is badly cued - I just can't bring myself to do it, I just get so distracted by the bad cueing. Guess that comes from teaching many step and aerobics classes myself in the old days, LOL!
 
Ooh great thread, and great answers! I like finding out about these things about people. Nosy, eh? :)

My turning point was in 2001 when I had 'slimmed down' to about 320lb and wanted to do more exercise. Until then I just walked on the treadmill very slowly. So I asked a trainer at my gym to show me how to use the weights, and told me I was too fat to do weight training and it would only make me bulk up and feel ever fatter!

But then I found Krista's incredible [a href="http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/index.php"]Womens Weight Training website,[/a] in particular her article [a href="http://www.stumptuous.com/cms/displayarticle.php?aid=37"]No Fat Chicks[/a] about how weight training is actually ideal for bigger folk. So I started pumping iron and not long after that started Body Pump classes which were so helpful in teaching me about good form.

And since then, just trying more and more new things by getting ideas from people online. Yoga to running to Spinning to Cathe. I dunno where I'd be without the internet for such great info... bless!
 
I think I've been studying those topics since I was a teenager. In the beginning, I had to. I was anorexic and the doctor kept threatening to send me to the hospital. Since the hospital is every anorexics worst nightmare (the dreaded IV!), I read everything I could about how much protein, vitamins and minerals my body needed and managed to keep myself out of the hospital. For someone who was eating 1000 calories or less per day, I managed to get most of the vitamins and calcium I needed to stay out of the hospital. I enjoyed the challenge of squeezing nutrition into calories, and to this day avoid empty calories most of the time without even thinking about it.

I took a lot of dancing lessons as a child, and got hooked on the feeling of "using" my body, although I always cut gym in school. I preferred exercising alone. I learned a lot from the Firm, and EVERYTHING about form from Cathe.
-Nancy
 
Here. I didn't know anything about how to eat, what rotations were, what workouts were best for me. Everyone has something good to add. Always learning.

Charlotte~~
 
I also learned a lot here too. Like for nutrition, what books to read. Now I am reading Nancy Clark's Sport's Nutrition book. Very infomative. Form, learned throughout the years. But I learned and am learning from everyone here and also my SIL who is a personal trainer.

Lea
 
> I have found that I have become a
>kind of "form snob" when it comes to lifting and have no
>problem with going lighter to maintain form. When I was
>visiting my in-laws a couple of months ago, I joined the local
>gym for a week. I took several step/weight classes and always
>seemed to end up behind a woman who had horrible form.

I rarely workout with others, being a home exerciser, but I do when I travel and stay in hotels. Every time I have, I always see attrocious form that is hard not to comment on (I don't! But it's hard not to). Just a few weeks ago, I was at a hotel gym and saw, in the time it took me to do one workout: a man leaning way forward on the handles of the step machine, a man clanking weights together at the top of his shoulder press, a woman using too-light weights too fast doing overhead presses (she would have gotten more out of the workout by slowing down or going a bit heavier).

The worst I've seen was a woman with horribly rounded forward posture (who I was sorely tempted to approach and suggest some rhomboid/rear shoulder work to!) who later I saw seated at a stationary bike...hunched over, just reinforcing that horrible posture).
 
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