There’s No Such Thing As An “Expert.”

From Huffington Post / reprinted from Details.

It’s cringe-worthy each time we are introduced to someone by the media who is identified as a so-called “expert,” as if their word is the final be-all and end-all. The trouble with that is there’s no such thing as an expert; there are only individuals possessing various levels of expertise. And expertise is something we all have. 

The audience’s knee-jerk reaction to such an introduction tends to be that they accept that person’s word even when it conflicts with the individual’s own experience. Always question the “experts.”

Recently, recognizing it as clickbait, I read one of those online articles that had been passed around from website to website bearing the counter-intuitive headline “5 Exercise Machines You Should Never Use at the Gym.” Full of shit as expected, the article's author “K. Aleisha Fetters” warned users against three machines that happen form the bedrock of my own routine.

In her ignorance, the author quotes “training expert BJ Gaddour, C.S.C.S. owner of StreamFIT.com,” who roundly demonized these machines “They’ve been dumbed down to the point that they just don’t do your body much good,” the expert claims. The author goes on to write “Besides parking you on your butt, most machines isolate a single muscle, meaning you’ll burn fewer calories and gain less muscle mass rep for rep.”

What? Girl, the whole idea behind building muscle is to isolate the target muscle, you dummy; that’s how we achieve optimal growth.

The article’s reasoning why each machine named was problematic was laughable, revealing the "experts" had no idea that the form they were using on these machines was wrong. Instead of it dawning on him/her they might be at fault, that their form might need adjusting, it was concluded instead that it was the MACHINE that was the problem.