If you’re interested in improving your health, you should be considering these five factors that have the biggest impact: Breathing, Eating, Sleeping, Thinking, and Movement (B.E.S.T. Me.) If you have not read the blog I wrote on Movement, stop here and go check it out first! In this article, I delved into the phenomenon of an energy trap. We dove deep into what a physical energy trap is and what you can do to overcome it. The other piece of this phenomenon is considered a psychological energy trap. The psychological energy trap occurs in one of two ways. Either you are trapped due to the blockades of self-belief or by the scars cut from past failures. 

 You may incur psychological energy traps if you are not mentally capable of thinking you can be someone that you are not. This sounds odd huh? Don’t be fooled, to change your habits – ultimately means you really have to change yourself. Some are not capable of believing in themselves. I have been there as well. I contemplated changing my habits. I even took some actions to start doing things differently. However, one week later I was back in the peanut butter jar stuffing my face to get that all too familiar comfort of food. I was stuck in a psychological energy trap like a fish in a cast-net, destined for demise. I wrestled internally with myself. I didn’t believe I could be anyone but the lazy overweight person I was. I wasn’t equipped with the hardened mindset of a champion. I did not know perseverance. The pattern of someone who has this psychological trap variety will often experience some results. They will be able to instill some sort of change, but the timeline is brief. Approximately 2-3 weeks and these people are down and out. You are not alone. In a study on people who made New Years Resolutions of weight loss, approximately 80% of people who attempted in 2019 quit by January 19th, 2020. Just under three weeks later almost everybody hit this familiar wall. The common thread is this: most people focus on creating the perfect plan while little (to none) of their time spent is on developing a resilient growth-based mindset. Once the plan gets uncomfortable these people resort back to their comfort zones as I did with my peanut butter jar. As a child I was overweight, I got called out on that. People noticed I was bigger. These people had seared me with the idea that that is who I was. Not just people at school but also people at home. We were a big family. I was a big person in that family. My mindset was fixed on this crippling theory. Now working as a personal trainer for the last six years, it pains me when I see others stuck in this same spot. They will say “it’s my genetics” or “I just have big bones”. These assumptions are false, created from a mind that doesn’t have the capability to see a different future for yourself. This trap is formed from your past-self. How do you get out of a hole others have dug for you? You bury that person. You let them die. Then you can rebirth yourself to who you want to be as a phoenix would. Drop the baggage you once had into that casket. Relieve yourself of the former burdens and walk away from the opinions and doubts you once had. If you can, you can release yourself from this trap (which you may come back in and out of, as I did for years… having a sort of wavering self-belief pattern… knowing I was not my family but knowing I still had qualities attached to me from them.. overtime continuing to shed layers of myself like a snake). If you do not, you are soon to be punished by another classification of a psychological energy trap (where I soon found myself).

If you lack the ability to relieve yourself of former burdens then the other form of a psychological energy trap, which is more emotionally driven, begins to consume you. Due to previous failures, our minds become severely calloused by this (often repetitive) negative experience. This creates a negative relationship with health, wellness, habit change, and yourself (self-doubt, self-hatred, etc.). Soon these people stop believing in the basic principles of energy balance (eating less and moving more). They abstain from engaging in any form of fitness because they don’t want to fail and get burned like before (which may be necessary for some time to rebuild their psychological tolerance to change in the future). Both of these psychological energy traps are common, but they are both correctable through positive reinforcement. Our minds highlight and remember negative experiences greater than positive experiences, this is referred to as Negativity Bias. This bias severely impacts the formation of impressions and general evaluations; attention, learning, memory, decision-making, and risk considerations. Our brain is attempting to alter our behavior to lower our future suffering. To combat this you need to develop a healthy outlook. You must create a space in your brain that allows for risk, and engages in positive reinforcement of your newly adopted habits. To become fitter/healthier than who you are currently will take some level of risk, sacrifice, and discomfort. These must be expected outcomes of change. Therefore, social support (along with small successful changes) is the name of the game here. When you are feeling down on yourself you have someone to talk with who can bring your attention towards the positives, rather than where you mind will focus-the negatives. Maybe you slid back on your diet, but after you talk to someone they remind you that this is the first time you slid back for 2 whole weeks! 14 days of good and 1 day of bad is actually a decent ratio. However, your brain will set its scope to see only the one day of bad. Without social support you could potentially stop and call it quits here. In my experience, these people do take longer to see the optimal results (even me; I got into “shape” at 14, but never really as great as I could be until I was able to conquer my internal battles). These people suffering from this trap are fighting demons left and right. They often do not have the mental capacity to focus on the basic nutritional and exercise strategies because a lot of their fatigue is strained by this energy trap psychologically. This problem is known as “ego fatigue” or “ego depletion”. Ego Fatigue demonstrates that impulse control (willpower) is a finite resource that can be depleted—suppressing impulses and feelings (saying “no”) for some length of time can eventually make those impulses and feelings harder to resist (eventually “giving in” or saying “yes”). This leads folks to have a fine beginning to the day, but as the day continues they lose “willpower” to continue to make good choices. They are energized by day and sabotaged by night. You can think about it sort of like peer pressure. Except in this example, the peer is you. You want something, but you continue to say “no” out loud. Inside you know you want it. Your internal dialogue is tempting you constantly. Just like if a friend of yours continued to probe you, eventually you might give in just to satisfy the social group in order to be liked or respected by them. Soon your self-talk becomes overly heightened because you want satisfaction from the guilty pleasures. You might just give in to this, just as you might when peer pressured. If you are someone who battles with cravings consistently, especially at night (like I once was) this may describe you. The worse time to make a decision for most people is at night as this is when you face the greatest chance of suffering from ego depletion. Do not attempt to walk the grocery store after work to make your selections for dinner. The likelihood of you choosing the appropriate choice for your best health outcome is low. While the likelihood of you giving into some temptations is high, this will repeat the cycle of negative feelings (guilt, stress, self-doubt). You must accurately assess your mental thoughts. These thoughts have a massive impact on your health. They can sabotage you or they can help fortify your decisions to be a new you. You decide.

If you’re interested in improving your health, you should be considering these five factors that have the biggest impact: Breathing, Eating, Sleeping, Thinking, and Movement (B.E.S.T. Me.). Originally highlighted by Paul Chek, these factors are the essential components to building a healthy human being. However, now more than ever we are shackled by societal constraints that disrupt our ability to apply these basic human needs for optimal health. One in Four Americans are working remotely through 2021, and an estimated 22% of the workforce will remain remote by 2025. This is not inherently a bad thing considering the average American has also saved approximately 40 minutes daily of commuting time due to this new work environment. This extra time could be spent integrating more movement into one’s daily routine. However, according to an analysis performed by famemass, people spend an average of 2 hours and 32 minutes per day on social media. Perhaps you were mindlessly scrolling along on one of these addictive platforms prior to stumbled upon this blog. Over the last decade, social media use has increased by 69% (over 1 hour additional each day). More free-time is not correlated to more productivity or better health. This is not surprising given that 73% of Americans are considered overweight by the CDC. Rather than fixing the health issues these people have, they propel them. They sit for long periods of time watching TV, engaging in social media, and working in a desk prison. 

Health paradigms could shift for these people if they engaged in a generous amount of movement instead. This is not a complete fix, but it does offer a great starting point. According to the mayo clinic, the average American walks 3,000 to 4,000 steps a day. This is considerably low. The human body is designed to move. Our body is comprised of a system of bones, muscles, and joints that work in concert to produce a variety of stimulating motions. We wouldn’t lock a dog in a crate all day where it loses the freedom to move. Most would consider this abuse. Yet, we lock our bodies in seats all day. You are abusing your body. When the total movement a body receives is subpar (3,000-4,000 steps and no regular exercise) you can expect a couple of problems to develop. Most notably is a phenomenon I refer to as the “energy trap”. 

A body in motion tends to stay in motion and a body at rest tends to stay at rest. This principle, based upon Sir Isaac Newton’s philosophy, helps us understand why we struggle currently with an obesity epidemic. Let me walk you through the severity of this situation. Say a person born into an obese family (like I was) starts to grow up and by habit adoption begins to gain weight at a faster pace than normal (like I did). This person now faces ridicule for their size, although they had no active cognitive participation in making this choice. This leads to a make-or-break situation. In my case, I decided I wanted to change who I was. This meant shifting my habits, behaviors, activities, and quite honestly – my identity. I grew into a new person. This was the hardest shift for me to make and I still am not perfect by any means. I still binge eat, as a coping mechanism learned from my childhood. However, I can say with accuracy that I am worlds apart from that person who I used to be. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for my other family members. They all are stuck in the “energy trap”. As are most people who are currently overweight or obese.

The “energy trap” is defined as stagnation in your body’s ability to change, due to energy depletion (psychological or physical energy). To better understand this phenomenon, you must first understand energy. Energy, in physics, is defined as the capacity for doing work. Changing our bodies requires work. We must alter our lives to successfully reach optimal health. Here is where people become trapped. The physical energy trap occurs when someone has low energy due to low output. Think of it like an engine. Without the ignition key being turned the engine never gets going. Effort is required to produce more energy. The human body is very similar. In order for your body to produce more energy, you must start by engaging in an activity. We all have experienced a cold that put us on our butts for a couple of days. During this time we are stuck on the couch and do not move much. Considering how little you are moving you feel really crappy, you lack the energy or ambition to do anything. Your joints ache, your back is stiff, and your strength depletes. Although this is an extreme example (due to the introduction of an illness), it does properly illustrate the physical energy trap that most of us have incurred at least once even if we are fit and healthy. The body loses its vigor to do anything while we are at rest. The only thing our body is satisfied by after an hour on the couch is the continuation of rest. Think about when you go to the movies (back before COVID). You sit there and enjoy the film for 2-3 hours. Afterward, you stand up and feel stiff and heavy like a thick rubber floor mat. Your body would prefer to sit again, however, you are required to exit the theater. As you make your way out the exit and approach your car, you begin to feel more mobile and balanced. In this case, you are forced to move, but it doesn’t take long before this movement acts as a lubricant to your stiff joints. This example demonstrates how movement is essential to your body. 

If you find yourself low in energy due to the physical energy trap it is a simple fix. It just requires you to turn the key of the human engine. Stand up and move. It is actionable right away. This is why it is an easier place to begin. It requires a little effort to jumpstart the process but usually, you will find yourself better off for it. The goal should be to pursue a daily step amount. The daily amount will vary depending on if you are interested in losing body fat or if you are just looking to maintain your current fitness. As a good guideline for losing body fat, you should attempt to reach 12-15,000 steps a day. However, if you are just interested in maintaining your current level of fitness 8-10,000 steps seems to be a great place to hang out. These steps ideally are achieved without going on a piece of cardio equipment, but it may be required when it is freezing cold or you have a very busy day. The clients who I’ve coached always have better results when they reach their step goals. They tend to have less soreness, better mental states, and increased energy levels throughout the day. If you are serious about losing weight, know that having a coach to assist you in this process has been shown to produce between 2-3x more weight loss when compared to those attempting it on their own. If you need help, reach out via email at mattptcantrell@gmail.com and I would like to help you lose this weight permanently!

When you go to the doctor you have an expectation for professional care. You are receiving treatment from a well-recognized profession that has a demanding level of education. This high level of education creates a large barrier to enter the market. The average person has to jump through a lot of hoops in order to get into the medical field. Therefore, the likelihood of finding a “con artist” in the medical field is rather low. Most of the “vetting” has already been executed by the cut-throat environment that doctors are trained in. However, we still can find doctors who are running a practice that prioritizes profits over successful patient outcomes. According to a ProPublica study, “On average, across all drugs, (doctors) providers who received payments (kickbacks) specifically tied to a drug prescribed it 58% more than (doctors) providers who did not receive payments”. This results in the patients paying for medication that otherwise might not be necessary. This creates unnecessary side effects (depending on the medication), financial burdens (depending on insurance coverage), and less education on lifestyle interventions which could make a profound impact on the patient’s overall wellbeing and vitality. “More than 700 of those doctors (who received kickbacks specifically tied to a drug/drug company) received at least $1 million.”  Who can blame them when they are drowning in student debt? The patients should not be at the mercy of this profitable and unethical practice yet, no industry is immune to this phenomenon. The lower the barrier to enter into an industry is, the higher likelihood that this phenomenon exists within that industry. I am afraid the fitness industry is suffering from this poor practice all too often and as a professional, I’m left heartbroken. Some “mountebank” who has little history of exercise (and no proper knowledge of the human body) all of a sudden becomes a “professional” as they start sharing fitness recommendations. This creates unnecessary side effects (depending on the fitness recommendations: pain, severe injuries, metabolic damage, nutritional deficiencies, poor results, joint problems), financial burdens (depending on the investment: ineffective supplements vs low-quality personal training), and less education on lifestyle interventions which could make a profound impact on the client’s overall wellbeing and vitality (where the real results are to be had, through effective communication, appropriate habit change, and individualized goal-based programming). The courage to face this issue starts with developing a way to distinguish the fitness charlatans from the fitness professionals. 

As an industry, fitness professionals have standards that must be upheld in order to maintain certification that many of the general public is not aware of. To get certified you must successfully pass the 120 question exam (performed at a testing facility), with at least a 70%. The exam questions come from the information demonstrated in the NCCA (National Commission for Certifying Agencies) Certified Personal Training book. Every two years, to maintain certification, we must complete 2.0 CEU/C’s (continued education units/credits). This is equivalent to 20 hours of education directly in the field of exercise/nutritional science. Along with these CEU/C’s we need to keep our CPR license valid as well. The Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) acronym is not well known, but only those who complete the certification process (and continue their education) are able to legally use it. This acronym needs to be just as well known in the general public as an M.D. or Ph.D. This would be a step in the right direction, along with making the certification process more difficult to obtain (changing the pass rate to 95% rather than the current 70%). I want Certified Personal Trainers, just like scientific studies, to be 95% sure of their knowledge. Scientific research has to have a minimum accuracy rate of 95% to be considered true and publishable. These research gatherings hit the news and you later find out about them, but they must be 95% confident in their findings.  Why would you want someone who is only 70% sure of what they are doing to alter your exercise and diet habits? Coaching people can be very dangerous if done wrong as it could lead to the client suffering from pain, severe injuries, metabolic damage, nutritional deficiencies, poor results, joint problems. The first consideration in quality control for finding your fitness information is to make sure they are currently certified. This doesn’t guarantee they are great by any means, but it does serve as a good first step. 

Knowing that the fitness industry already has such low barriers to enter (just a test score of 70% and an average of 10 hours spent on continuing educating each year and at least 18 years old) there is no wonder why the unethical practices and profitability phenomenon exists. Some of these swindlers create supplements, high-jacking the studies to support their product, so you will buy mass amounts of them hoping to see the promising results. Other tricksters will hide their hormone substance abuse, and convince you they got those results by following this “plan”, which you try until you end up burnt-out and overtrained. Some charlatans will take advantage of social media, getting really lean for one photoshoot, which they then leak photos throughout the year as they try to sell you on how to maintain this unrealistic look. Sadly this phenomenon takes many heads in the fitness industry, especially now with the rise of social media and youtube. I remember before these times when it wasn’t so easy to get by being a cheat. I am going to share my insights as to how you (the trainee) can make an informed decision on who to gather your fitness education from, be that hiring a personal trainer, seeking guidance online via youtube, or even reading articles like this one here. You should take into consideration these six items in which that person has performed to decide the level of trust heading into this knowledge exchange: 

(not in any particular order)

1) Formal Education 

2)Exercise Experience 

3)Personal Training Experience 

4)Passion Level 

5)Amount They Charge 

6)Results They Have Helped Others Achieve

Formal Education: a person may have education well beyond the basic certification- including college, specialty certifications, and so on. These people have a greater understanding of the “X’s” and “O’s” of the body. They are better equipped to see the chains in which the body interacts (facial lines, energy systems, anatomy, etc.) They have a greater ability to evaluate what is causing dysfunction, pain, or poor movement. They also may be able to understand why your compensating in certain movements. However, formal education is the analytical part of being a coach. To be an effective coach, communication is key. Often times the more educated someone is the further away they distance themselves from the lay individual. This disjunction can make them ineffective at delivering the appropriate application to a potential client. A good example to show this is a brief story of my first professional client. She was an elderly woman in her late 60’s who suffered from spondylosis and arthritis in her lower back. My goal with her was to elevate her from where rehab had left her at. At the time I was an undergraduate, studying pre-physical therapy, I was chosen to work with her by my manager who had a great deal of confidence in me. Unfortunately, this was the first time I was going to attempt to fix a chronic issue that I was so well studied in. I put her on the best, evidence-based, plan I could. Yet, her symptoms didn’t get any better. I couldn’t get her to move exactly how I dreamed she could. My skills as a coach were not refined enough to have her replicate the movements I desired. I didn’t start her at a low enough regression to really see her results blast off into space. The scientific evidence showed me the proper plan, but without a start lower than what evidence suggested, she couldn’t take flight. This was my first failure as a coach. This fueled me to level up promptly.

Exercise Experience: A person can develop knowledge through other means than just formal education. A great example is through exercise experience. As an individual continues to challenge their body they learn an immense amount about the effect exercise has. They feel the enhanced self-confidence, the greater energy levels, the boost in libido, and much more. This experience is absolutely necessary to coach others, however, it is very limited. Your experience is finite. It is a single anecdote, your experience will always be different than even someone who you think has a similar story. Just starting an exercise program at a different body weight will dramatically change your exercise mechanics, making some exercises more optimal than others for each individual. When I coach clients, I use my exercise experience (feeling the target muscle “burning”) to help guide them to the appropriate exercise choices and communicate the feelings that the exercise should induce. For example, literature states (based on electromyography) that the quads should be more active during a front squat when compared to a back squat, but a client cannot “feel” the quads working during a front squat due to altered mechanics or different anthropometrics. I would suggest we switch exercises or improve on body positioning in order to provide the appropriate “feeling” in the target muscles. Someone may take this exercise experience too far by trying to fit everyone into a specific exercise because “it worked for me, so it will work for you”. This is where you need to proceed with caution. 

Personal Training Experience: As stated previously with my first client, I didn’t have the experience as a coach to communicate what I wanted from her effectively. Over time, working my “coaching muscle” rep after rep with clients allowed me to become a masterful communicator and has unlocked the potential in my clients. The experience you gain while training others is invaluable. You treat each and every person as a case study as you attempt to your craft of getting the best results possible. You are exposed to a large variety of personalities, body types, experience levels, goals, and previous injuries/dysfunctions. You grow as you train more people in general. However, this too has limitations. I remember back when I was a Fitness Manager. In this position, your goal is to build your personal trainers to become the best in the industry. You have weekly meetings to inspire, educate, and talk about what is working and what is not. During the time while I was training trainers I came across a few who did not possess a growth mindset. They didn’t get better regardless of how many clients they had. They never elevated their service. They refused to progress and instead chose to stay with what was already “tried and true”. These people typically were trainers who relied too heavily on their own exercise experience to deliver to others. I remember one trainer was putting a 62-year-old man through a high-intensity circuit-style workout. I walked by to conduct a private session evaluation, keeping to myself. I noticed the man had very poor quality of movement, seemed to be grabbing at his joints, and gasping for air. It was improper and poor service. I spoke with the trainer (who had all of her clients do this type of exercise) and she told me that “I make them do it because it’s what brings results”. After a long conversation, she still didn’t see why it may not be the right fit for the gentleman she was training. Two weeks later she was fired, regretfully. I hated that part of the job. I wanted every trainer to be the best, the top tier. Some people regardless of how much I wanted this for them, couldn’t deliver. They didn’t have a growth mindset to continue to develop themselves as a professional. This happens more than you think, so just because someone has 10 years of experience, this does not mean they will be your best option. This is even more problematic when considering some people nowadays are “online coaches”. This is already much less reliable because you cannot provide a perfect product no matter how hard you try. That is why my online coaching business is reserved for those who I have already worked with in-person. This allows me to understand the client’s movement patterns and habits to better program and progress them, rather than making guesses as most online coaches do. My online coaching platform is more a “graduation” to in-person training.

Passion Level: Passion is defined as a strong and barely controllable emotion. No matter how smart someone is, if they do not have this emotion tied into what they do, they will never care like others do. The passion level of a coach can be easily estimated by watching them from afar. If you watch someone coaching another individual you will quickly understand who is passionate and who is not. The less passionate person will be distracted, unfocused, and appear bored. They look like rep-counters as they stand there unamused and lack energy. The more passionate person will be captivated, focused on the client, and appear genuinely engaged. They look like coaches, intently exchanging in communication on the current experience with the client. A person with more passion will actively seek education. These individuals will crave more information to better equip themselves with the tools to solve the extraordinary. They consistently will grow without needing to be asked by a certification board. They will work harder for you because they care more about you. The coaching experience for them is a project or case study as they attempt to better their craft. Find someone with passion and you will not regret it.

Amount They Charge: Time is money. I am sure you want your time to be valued, as trainers we decide what our time is worth. This can lead to a large gap in the market. Some trainers may want to charge more, but they don’t have the courage. They are insecure about the product they deliver. I always tried to train my trainers “if you had the cure for cancer, wouldn’t you charge a ton for it?” They always agreed “yes, of course, I would”. However many of them were afraid to ask for money. They didn’t believe that they had what the clients needed. They would sell lower time limits (30 minutes vs 60) or lower total amounts (5 sessions vs 20). They were not confident that they were worth as much as the dollar signs on these client’s bills. That is a red flag. The trainer needs to know what they are worth and they should charge accordingly. I believe I have honed in on my craft for many years, sharpening my skills as a coach. I now charge what I am worth and over time my prices will only increase because each and every day I spent countless hours educating myself on how to become better. However, don’t let a high price fool you. There are some people who see the career of a trainer and think “this is a great way to make a lot of money” so these people scoop in and overcharge what they are worth, soon to be out of business by the lack of results or integrity.

Results They Have Helped Others Achieve: The goal of any good coach should be to focus and deliver on what the client wants. Without results, the coach does not exist. Results require a purposeful plan of action that should have progress checkpoints along the way. They should be showing you the roadmap each time you talk and tell you the directions that you are headed. Much like a guide up a mountain, they understand the landscape and know just how to lead you to where you want to go. If they don’t have this roadmap, cut your ties, because the results are nowhere to be found in the future. What isn’t measured, isn’t managed. The results a coach has achieved with others however is not as reliable. Some clients are in a state where they are ready for change and others are not. Some clients come to a trainer expecting that they will see results just because they hired someone, but they are not coachable people and cannot take guidance so the results are hard to come by despite the caliber of coach they are working with. A good illustration here is to think of a celebrity who starts working with a trainer. This celebrity was casted in a role where they need to make a body transition. This is their job on the line. They are more willing to make the changes suggested in order to maximize their chances of success. Therefore they are fairly easy to coach, you just say the words and like magic, these people change. However, the commitment level of that client is not showing that you are a good coach. The thing that really can separate the great coach is someone who can take the low commitment level clients and successfully inspire them to be at a higher commitment level over time. This requires an individual who is masterful at habit change and formation and knows the appropriate amount to dose each client with over time.

This isn’t perfect, but it does start to build a vetting process for everyone that they can start using to see if the areas they are getting their fitness knowledge are as credible as they think. The hard part is the illusive facade in which the internet creates is limitless. Everyone decides what others see. We get to pre-approve our message before we send it out. Face to face, this checklist is much easier to follow to find the most credible coach for you. If you are consuming information online the most important thing to think about is context. Ask yourself “what context is this correct in & what context is this incorrect in?” For example, you hear a video speak about how you need to cut carbs. What context is that appropriate and which is it not? If you do not know the answer then why would you follow that advice? If you are someone who is interested in building muscle this may just be the worst thing you could do. Information is context dependant, find an educated professional to start learning the right information and know how to spot misinformation. If you are in need of a coach, contact me at mattptcantrell@gmail.com and I’d love to see if I can help you!