Hey guys - what does any body know about this guy? Paul Chek.
I started to read one of his books - How to eat, move and be healthy today. I got through one page, nearly, around half way through - just some random page - and man, the holes in his system are Rife… Its either that, or just the way he was wording things was way off mark. However, im pretty sure i understood where he was coming from, and after reading that page, i am now very reluctant to continue reading the book.
Seems he is highly liked in the personal training industry. He words things that make sence - until you actually start thinking about it. So, for the uneducated it makes a world of sence. His ideas on that page i read were just so full of holes you could poke a tree trunk though them.
Perhaps i needed to read more? or perhaps i saved my self $$ and now i am reluctant to buy not only that - but attend seminars held by guys who follow such material…
He did quote Charles Poliquin a few times - from what i have heard, a good coach to get you bigger. some of C.P. ideas do seem rather outlandish?? Perhaps more for client satisfaction and entertainment value than actually being useful? keep the client happy V’s making the client better. However, in gyms (not sporting fields) that is what a lot of clients want. (to be entertained v’s becoming a great athlete).
I am the minority but I think Paul Chek is the man. He has some weird ideas but that’s partly because he’s working alot with odd sports such as X-Gamers and surfers, etc.
Yes, and George W. Bush is fascinating to listen to but for the wrong reasons.
Chek is the training specialist for circus performers, not athletes. I was reading the “Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss to my young son the other night. It had the Cat balancing on a ball, holding a cake on his head and a fish bowl in one hand and some other stuff. Needless to say, we all know who the Cat’s personal trainer was?
This seems to be my dilemma. I run a personal training business in a large gym. To renew your registration and to become insurable so you can continue to train in gyms around here, you need to be continually updating your Training methods. Which is fair enough. Some trainers are crap and need as much coaching as they can get.
However, seems a lot of courses around here are run by guys who Quote paul chek a lot. There are other ones who quote Charles Poliqun - which is ok for things like Squats, dead lifts etc.
Perhaps i will just re-enroll in Uni again and upgrade my Cert to a diploma…
Dwight Philips left his ‘low level’ event coach and Poliquin as a strength coach. Looks like he doesn’t lift much anymore and has gone from champ to chump.
It amazes me how quick everyone is to be so harshly critical of people like Chek and even Poliquin. I guess everyone is an internet expert.
From what i have heard, Poliquin is a very good Strength and Size coach. If you want to get bigger and stronger, he is the guy to see. So i have heard.
Paul chek - his book left me a lot dismayed at his thoughts. Sounds very good if a lay person. Perhaps he has improved since writting that book - a book he should never have written, or at least continue to sell.
I attended a Swiss ball seminar he made up - but not run by him. Good exercises for the below average person (of which my clients in the gym typically fall under). Mostly good for re-hab (but the course didnt really mention this) and typically would be good for young athletes as a pre-curser to weights (again, not mentioned in seminar).
AS good as some of his ideas are - implementing them into a program for person X seems non directed. Then again - if Paul was presenting perhaps it would have been different? Then again, if your name is against a training course, make sure the presenters know it and follow the course outline correctly!!
“The guy right beside you may be a protein type. On the other side you might have a carb type. Yet you’re sitting at a seminar in the year 2006 where they’re telling you an athlete should eat 70% carbohydrate and only 30% fat and protein for best performance! And who’s sponsoring the conference? Fuckin’ Gatorade!”
“A healthy person shouldn’t smell bad when he sweats. Also, if you’re eating more protein than you can process, it produces urea as a byproduct and it stinks. The urine will also develop a strong pungent odor.”
“You can’t do a scientific study on the function of the abdominal muscles without first making sure someone has healthy organs. The organs are superior in the chain of biological function.”
“Neurologically, any time any organ is in trouble, the sympathetic nervous system diverts blood and therefore nutrition away from the muscles into the organ to help the organ heal first. You can get by without an arm and a leg, but you can’t get by without a liver!”
“If you don’t want to have problems, eat real food. Stop eating all this cheap crap. I’ve had multi-millionaires and world-class professional athletes in my office tell me that organic food is too expensive.”
I walk them to the window and point to their $140,000 sports car and say, “Eat that fucker then! Because when you die they aren’t going to bury that son of a bitch with you!”
“One research study showed that today, to get the same nutrition from one head of lettuce as you did 50 years ago, you’d have to eat 20 heads of lettuce from the commercial farms.”
"There was no nutrition degree in the United States until General Mills started the first nutritional programs. Almost every major nutritional program in major universities is funded by a food processing corporation. "
Acording to the article, Eat move and be heatly is a new book… :eek:
He does have some good, sound ideas. Just too much hairy fairy as well.
Any trainer can smash an Olympian in the gym, However, will smashing them produce a desired effect in that persons event?? Doing brand new exercises for an Olympian is naturally going to be hard, is it beneficial though??
The guy is a great marketer. Perhaps we as trainers can learn from his Marketing techniques?
Number 2 says it well - “cat in the hat training” with the guys techniques.
I studied a lot of Chek’s stuff about 10 years ago. Back then his focus was primarily on exercise technique. His Gym Instructor video series is probably the best product he has. In fairness, I think some of his ideas were okay, but I see two major flaws underlying many of his exercise recommendations.
One is he obviously placed way too much emphasis on the Swiss ball. Standing on the ball, especially under load, is the obvious example of taking an okay idea to absurd conclusions. A little can be useful in certain situations, but more is not better. However, it should be pointed out that even Stuart McGill uses some Swiss ball exercises.
The other major flaw is incorrect understanding of spine biomechanics and abdominal muscle physiology, particularly with regard to the role of transverse abdominis and proper range of motion in the spine, as well as loading parameters for the abdominals. He is not alone in this regard. However, for someone who heavily markets himself as an expert in core conditioning, a lot of his training recommendations do not hold up under scientific scrutiny. Stuart McGill’s clinical research has blown most of Chek’s core training ideas out of the water.
Chek’s best stuff is his more conventional material. His most dubious stuff just happens to be his “innovations” which form the basis for much of his marketing. As Tudor Bompa says, be leery of novelty.
I can’t comment on his more recent stuff related to nutrition because I really haven’t paid much attention to him in recent years. However, it seems whenever an exercise specialist starts getting into nutrition that’s when the weird foo foo ideas start popping up.
