Earlier this week a colleague sent me a very disturbing video. Here it is…

One of his clients kept asking about this “new revolutionary training technique” that was apparently all the rage. The method was called Crossfit, and his client really wanted to try it.

Now, this particular client had a history of falling for the latest fad/gimmick that he stumbled upon and had gone as far as to cut out newspaper clippings about whatever was the “flavor of the month” to show to my friend.

Which drove my buddy nuts!

To make matters worse, this client had a history of training injuries sustained prior to working with a trainer.

Well as the story goes… one morning during their training session, the client mentions that he’s decided to sign up with a Groupon advertisement for some Crossfit classes – you know, to see what this “revolutionary system” is all about.

Despite all the warnings and reminders of his past history of injuries, the client goes through with it and attempts his first Crossfit class the following week.

He got through a third of his workout before straining his quadriceps.

The strain occurred while performing box jumps during the workout of the day (WOD as they call it).

The WODs are a random mish-mash of exercises seemingly thrown together to elicit some sort of training effect. In this case, the effect was injury!

I’ve seen this Gung-ho style of training attempted far too frequently lately, and it only serves as a reminder that many personal trainers lack the understanding of the fundamentals of program design and cease to grasp the value of time-tested principles, like progression, intensity, volume, and periodization.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that someone with a history mired by injury has no business performing repeated 24-inch box jumps for time. That is just bad programming and even worse, bad business!

As a trainer your #1 concern, aside from attaining results, should be keeping your clients safe. To do this, you must have a firm understanding of practical and effective program design.

If you have any personal doubts regarding:

• your ability to create sound programs
• your capacity to get results for clients who are paying good money
• your capacity to create “safe” programs

Do yourself and your business a favor, invest in your education.

I’ve recently released a book titled The Elite Trainer. It’s a comprehensive guide to strength training that will teach you how to write programs to get your clients phenomenal results, and to get them results in a safe manner!

Pick up the book today and put the principles you learn into practice.