Sport/Fitness/Dietician Qualifications

dame

The regular posters/helpers here should please post their actual relevant qualifications so that people may better judge how informed their advice is and whether to heed it or not.

Sports Science Degree?
Qualified Dietician?
Physiotherapist?
etc.

Do you do any form of continuous professional development or training to keep your skills up to date?

Perhaps this thread should then be stickied moderators?

g'em

I've seen you posting in PI a few times. Can I ask what psychology degree you have? Or perhaps you are dame M.D., practicing psychiatrist?

Or are you, like many people who post here, passing on learned and tried and tested knowledge in their free time to help others for no other reason than to be helpful?

justsomebloke

why should anyone, we also saw from the stupidity of your posts that qualification means sweet **** all

Kinetic^

T-ha/G'em

---

post the pics to prove your education!!!

dame

I think I actually gave good advice in my original reply to that particular query. Others dragged that one out! I have already stated (in another thread) that I did a short fitness instructors course (3 weeks long) years ago (8) and that I have forgotten most of it by now, beyond the general principles. In a reply I made on a diet query I clearly stated at the bottom that I am not a dietician. I don't claim to be an expert.

Anyone else have any real qualifications in this area?

tribulus

lol so basically we shouldn't post unless we're qualified to, such as a personal trainer I take it?

In other words you want the responses in this forum to be made only by qualified professionals, who are doing their job and giving advice and program design for free?....right

I can understand if someone says they've recently had a triple bypass and want to start exercising, the only proper response there is "go to a doctor" but alot of things, especially the constant threads on improving diet etc. can be answered by anyone with a bit of experience and who's read thoroughly through the stickies. The idea that you need a qualification to tell people to stop eating so much crap is utter rubbish imo.

Phew I'm angry today, must be all the creatine I've eaten :rolleyes:

Hanley

Under the bar experience:
180kg (soon to be 200) squat
140kgx3 Bench press
210kg deadlift
100kg hang power clean
3 years training experience
4x national drug-free powerlifting record holder
2x national drug-free powerlifting champion
Soon to compete at Irish Senior Olympic Lifting Nationals.
20 years old, 90kg.

College experience and "official" qulaifications:
None


I guess that pretty much makes my advice worthless so yeah?

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

justsomebloke

and what happens when people start lying about their qualifications, it is a public forum there is no way of checking the vaildity of what anyone body says.

Truthfully the best advise is to not take what anybody says on a public forum as gospel no matter who they say they are, if there are any ideas that you take from any of the posts go check them yourself.

Do I have a qualification, no. Do I care about that no. cause guess what, the only person I am trying to get fit is me, I have done my own research in to try and improve my own programme and to find out how I can get the best results for me, looking up journals to see if there is any justification to the plans that I follow and the diet that I use. So I am quite pro active when it comes to my programme and finding out the benefits and cons, as they relate to me, of different programmes.

As I said this is a public forum if I wanted to guarantee the responce of a trained professional I would hire one, and that goes for any subject be it, photography, computing or even fitness, as a public forum you take what you can from the advise you get and it is up to you how you use it and you have to make your own judgement whether you think that person knows there stuff or not, qualification or not, and most of the time you have to base your opinion on how other people respond to advise, if a lot of people say it is **** then I will generally would go with their advise.


Oh and one last thing can I ask what is your current level of fitness, what sport activity do you do and how are you progressing in that activity compared to your peers

JayRoc

(Boo, I was hoping everyone would start posting their qualifications so I could join in the boasting!!:D )


Okay, in fairness, this might just be a case of shooting down what could be seen as a reasonable question from someone else, just because of who asked it, and the manner in which it was asked..

The OP's....unconventional....way of dealing with her fellow fitness fans to date may have understandably blinded us to it, but I for one don't consider politely asking someone what qualifications they have, that are relevant to this forum, to be necessarily out of order.

Dame, there are several professional Personal Trainers on the board, those that spring to mind are Transform and Boru, and I'm sure there are more.
Others of us have qualified through the national training centre as PT's and fitness instructors (although t-ha rightly pointed out that this alone does not necessarily guarantee quality of advice), and many have additional pertinent accolades such as Biology degrees, MA black belts, or are trained coaches, but really in this game the most important qualification, in my opinion and I'd imagine most of those here, is hard-fought experience and learning through trial and error.
Right here, you will find competitive power-lifters, fighters, long-distance runners, rugby players, acrobats, and god knows what else.
The wealth of wide-ranging sport, fitness and nutrition experience and knowledge you will find on this board is second to none.


(Edit: Lovely copperbottomed frying pan there Hanley)

Kinetic^

Hanley, there's no way that's you, I've seen you in the gym and you're a n00b, pfft, lies tbh!!!! :rolleyes:

g'em

Hanley wrote:

College experience and "official" qulaifications:
None


I guess that pretty much makes my advice worthless so yeah?

Awww dammit, you have NO professional qualifications?? But you've been coaching me for weeks now. And what have I got to show for it? A squat and deadlift more than comfortably above and beyond the European records and every likelihood that I'll break World Records in both in a few weeks' time in a National Powerlifting competition.

Pfft, some coach you are :rolleyes: With a Masters in Biology you'd have thought I'd know better....

dame

It's all very well saying that people here have a wealth of trial and error experience but the fact is that their experience (and viewpoint) can differ vastly from that of a beginner or a teenager (who quite possible won't have the funds to hire a qualified personal trainer), and they may take any advice given. Not everyone will understand all the various fitness information they may find on the web (and quite frankly might be scared by it) and may thus latch onto any advice. They may then find themselves getting demoralised by trying to keep up with advice/fitness logs on a forum such as this, push themselves too hard and get injured, or just give up because they feel they'll never achieve the standards of others.



If the diet queries can be answered by anyone who has read the stickies (and has a bit of experience), why don't the moderators immediately point them in that direction and tell them to "cut out the crap"?

JayRoc

dame wrote:

It's all very well saying that people here have a wealth of trial and error experience but the fact is that their experience (and viewpoint) can differ vastly from that of a beginner or a teenager (who quite possible won't have the funds to hire a qualified personal trainer), and they may take any advice given. Not everyone will understand all the various fitness information they may find on the web (and quite frankly might be scared by it) and may thus latch onto any advice. They may then find themselves getting demoralised by trying to keep up with advice/fitness logs on a forum such as this, push themselves too hard and get injured, or just give up because they feel they'll never achieve the standards of others.



If the diet queries can be answered by anyone who has read the stickies (and has a bit of experience), why don't the moderators immediately point them in that direction and tell them to "cut out the crap"?

Okay...I officially give up. :rolleyes:
I tried.

g'em

dame wrote:

......

be honest now... are you posting here for a dare?

dame

JayRoc wrote:

Okay...I officially give up. :rolleyes:
I tried.

Your points were taken, but shouldn't people who only have their own trial and error experience state that when advising someone else?

dame

g'em wrote:

be honest now... are you posting here for a dare?

I'm sure there must be a charter somewhere that says you shouldn't misquote others by inserting your own text in as theirs.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

g'em

dame wrote:

I'm sure there must be a charter somewhere that says you shouldn't misquote others by inserting your own text in as theirs.

valid point, consider my hand slapped. but what a worthy contribution to an already pointless thread, thank you.

tribulus

I'm not answering for the mods here but I believe that's what's starting to happen.

If people don't understand something, be it a concept or particular exercise then they should ask!
Surely that's one of the ideas of this forum?

Take the thread today where people were asking about T-bar rows, they were given advice and seemed happy with it.

Frankly I think your attitude to giving advice is far too conservative.
If people show interest and ask questions, they get answered well I'd like to think. There's plenty of experienced lifters as well as qualified trainers here so any incorrect or controversial advice is picked up on and corrected.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

kindle

to be fair this board is well moderated and from what i have seen no-one is giving out OTT advice, the responses that the regular posters who reply to questions give out seem to me to be centred on developing decent eating habits and their training advice certainly seems reasonable and based on real life experience rather than some prescribed formula. Fitness and diet is not a prescribtion different things work for different people.

justsomebloke

dame wrote:

If the diet queries can be answered by anyone who has read the stickies (and has a bit of experience), why don't the moderators immediately point them in that direction and tell them to "cut out the crap"?

actually we used to point everyone who posted to the stickies and as far as i am aware daveirl (the mod) wants everybody to start repointing everyone to the stickies and only after that if they have a question that is not answered by the stickies that only then do you post.

Also if you bothered reading the stickies there is a specific programme set up for beginners set out by a fully qualified trainer, he even lists his qualifications if that is of any benefit to you.

The reason many people are jumping on you is because in the last thread there was many questions pointed at you which you just seemed to ignore and only picked out certain points that you wanted to pick out and when you do that you start looking like a person of your depth which you seem to be.

g'em

out of curiosity dame, are you suggesting that we precede every post with "I'm no dietician/ personal trainer/ have never lifted anything or exercised before but.."?? Or would you like us to send in our CVs to be reviewed?

Heaven forbid anyone reading the boards was intelligent and could make up their own minds as to what's good/ bad advice.

The mods do a fab job here and tbh it's a fairly self-regulated forum. If rubbish is posted it's pointed out very quickly and we make every effort to give appropriate advice to each and every individual situation, or at least the ones in which the stickie information doesn't apply.

brianthebard

Here is me getting my degree in stuffology;



As you can see, I am clearly the most qualified person on the boards. Now form an orderly queue and I'll fix what ails ya.:rolleyes:

JayRoc

It simply wouldn't make any sense for the vast majority of people who give instruction for a living (as opposed to those who just train five days a week for their own benefit and coach out of the goodness of their hearts) to come here and give out advice for free when they could be charging at least 60.00 per hour for it. Why would they?

So, by and large, you're stuck with us amateurs and our questionable experiences. Sorry.


And for the record, I have never,ever heard of someone here falsely claiming to be something they weren't- it's stated often enough what this board is for and what it's not for.

g'em

brianthebard wrote:

Here is me getting my degree in stuffology;

As you can see, I am clearly the most qualified person on the boards. Now form an orderly queue and I'll fix what ails ya.:rolleyes:

Oh how I LOL'd

brianthebard

Thankee g'em, I thought you'd approve. Also its not much, but good luck with the competition it would be amazing for you to beat the record. Any chance this competition will be on youtube afterwards?

JayRoc

brianthebard wrote:

Thankee g'em, I thought you'd approve. Also its not much, but good luck with the competition it would be amazing for you to beat the record.

Damn right. World records; Prepare to be broken. (Sorry Dave, OT)

g'em

brianthebard wrote:

Thankee g'em, I thought you'd approve. Also its not much, but good luck with the competition it would be amazing for you to beat the record. Any chance this competition will be on youtube afterwards?

Hopefully I'll have something up alright - all depends on how good Dragan/ JayRoc is with a camcorder . I'm not really 100% counting on the WR being broken (I'll be trying of course!!), but if I can get the ER for squat + DL I'll be a very happy bunny!

King of Kings

g'em wrote:

I've seen you posting in PI a few times. Can I ask what psychology degree you have? Or perhaps you are dame M.D., practicing psychiatrist?

dame - That's actually a valid question that you have refused to answer.
If people should have some qualifications for this board then surely you should be excluded from the PI - where you dish the dirt with impunity on a regular basis unless qualified to do so.

I don't have much fitness experience. I was doing MA for many years karate, Kickboxing and jujutsu (where i was BB level)

I've been in the gym about 15 months and my strength ,fitness & body have improved no end through my dedication to training and diet.
I owe a lot to the people who post here for advice and encouragement.

They might have no qualification but they walk the walk. Better that advice than going to an obese doctor looking for advice on how to lose weight.
Cos there is no knowledge like experience - it kick certs and diploma asses every time - and you'll find that true in all walks of life and if you were half as knowledgeable as you claim to be on PI you'd know that already.

t-ha

dame wrote:

Your points were taken, but shouldn't people who only have their own trial and error experience state that when advising someone else?

I have done many times, when I felt it was important for the person recieving advice. But to be honest it's simply not practical to keep saying it every time I post. Anyone who has spent any time on the board or read many of the threads will know I'm not a PT. They'll also know that I read alot of fitness, anatomy, physiology and sports science text-books as well as scientific papers on the subject and that I take the time to research my responses and make sure they're correct/up-to-date before posting them. I'm always prepared to stand over my posts & provide references for any information I post if asked.

Put it this way, if you wanted to tune up your car or install new parts to get it to run better, would you get the help of a dedicted car enthusiast with no formal qualifications, or a qualified mechanical engineer, part of whom's degree course would have dealt with automotive related material?

At the end of the day, I post to stop people from going the wrong way with their fitness endevours, or to question or add to advice given here. I don't have to do it, and certaintly amn't paid to. It would not affect my own personal training and development in the slightest to stop, and I would have no problem doing just that if I felt that that was what people wanted. However from what I can see, and the PMs I get, I don't think that is what people want.

dame

jsb wrote:

actually we used to point everyone who posted to the stickies and as far as i am aware daveirl (the mod) wants everybody to start repointing everyone to the stickies and only after that if they have a question that is not answered by the stickies that only then do you post.

Also if you bothered reading the stickies there is a specific programme set up for beginners set out by a fully qualified trainer, he even lists his qualifications if that is of any benefit to you.

The reason many people are jumping on you is because in the last thread there was many questions pointed at you which you just seemed to ignore and only picked out certain points that you wanted to pick out and when you do that you start looking like a person of your depth which you seem to be.

Your earlier post was actually the best on here. I know that professionals would obviously prefer to see the person and give their tailored advice then for a fee. That would be the best option for anyone seeking advice (who could afford it).

The reason I didn't respond to every single point earlier was because I'd have been there all day/night and the way it was going anything at all would have been jumped on and the personal insults were flying.


Yes, if stating something which is your own personal opinion then you should say so, IMO. Something along the lines of "In my experience I have found....". I don't think that's too much to ask.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

dame

King of Kings wrote:

dame - That's actually a valid question that you have refused to answer.
If people should have some qualifications for this board then surely you should be excluded from the PI - where you dish the dirt with impunity on a regular basis unless qualified to do so.

It's accepted that the PI contains opinions, that's what people are generally looking for. Nobody there claims to be a psychologist or expert. Of course it's the same with any forum but in this one people seem to claim they know more than others without showing how/why. Just my opinion!



By the way, good luck with competition, g'em.

dame

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Fair enough.

brianthebard

dame wrote:

It's accepted that the PI contains opinions, that's what people are generally looking for. Nobody there claims to be a psychologist or expert. Of course it's the same with any forum but in this one people seem to claim they know more than others without showing how/why. Just my opinion!



By the way, good luck with competition, g'em.

No one has ever claimed to be an expert, unless they are in fact experts. If g'em tells me something that has something to do with biology I tend to believe her. A question like "whats good for X muscle" or "how can I lose weight" are responded to with opinions. Thats a given, there's no need to say that. But experience counts for a lot here. If g'em tells me how to do a deadlift or dragan tells me how to do a lift of any description I take their opinions on board, cause I know they have the experience to back their opinions up.

g'em

dame wrote:

It's accepted that the PI contains opinions, that's what people are generally looking for. Nobody there claims to be a psychologist or expert. Of course it's the same with any forum but in this one people seem to claim they know more than others without showing how/why. Just my opinion!

dame like t-ha said those of use who have no "formal" qualifications have never claimed to have them. The regular posters here have been regular for quite some time now so I guess we take it as a given that people know that we've been around long enough and have read/ researched/ put into practice the same things we advise other people on. I'd feel like a bit of a twat if I went around telling everyone what I'm able to do on a constant basis or in every post I write - I got called out on this thread so I did post it here. The nutritional info I give is based on a lot of research into the area and I keep my advise as up to date as possible. If I've tried a certain diet or way of eating I will usually express as much, and there's a few of us who quite happily admit to being our own "guinea pigs" for trying new-fandangled ideas with regards to nutrition and training. When we get results (good and bad) we post about them.

I wouldn't dare be so facetious as to claim that I'm right 100% of the time, but if I make mistakes and they're pointed out to me, I'm the wiser for it - it's a constant learning curve. That's one of the reasons why I stick around here - I learn as much as anyone else does.

dame wrote:

By the way, good luck with competition, g'em.

danke

davyjose

I can honestly say, since coming on boards, that I have learned more and better ways to workout, and diet, than I have in the previous 2 or 3 years. I am ridiculously grateful to the people who's knowledge and experience has been offered, for free, and with very little in it for them.
I'm not sure what the point of this thread is, perhaps someone has axes to grind from a previous thread. But I can say that whilst some of the advice may not always be 100% sound (looking at myself here ), I'm stronger, fitter, have lower bf, and most importantly more injury free (something that has been a constant thorn in my side since I began training) than ever before. So thank you, qualified - and "un"qualified - people. Please don't stop posting.

hunnymonster

If I need to give my "expert" advice on boards, I generally PM the person, give my qualifications and contact details so they can check me out. On the public forum, everything I say is just an opinion.

Dragan

dame wrote:

It's accepted that the PI contains opinions, that's what people are generally looking for. Nobody there claims to be a psychologist or expert. Of course it's the same with any forum but in this one people seem to claim they know more than others without showing how/why. Just my opinion!

Are throwing your toys out of the pram because you got you hand slapped the other day in another thread?

I actually laughed out loud at the irony of someone who I called out in a previous post for saying "you must….." ( as I said at the time, that’s death on a fitness forum, there is no "you must" in fitness circles ) turning around and telling US that we should be making sure everyone knows we are not fitness instructors when the advice you were giving was learned in three weeks ( what was the course, "Mastering the Crossword?" ) over 8 years ago and you were quoting it as absolute truth.

Those posts also showed you were completely unable to communicate what it was you were trying to say, so I can only suggest that on top of going back and studying to be a trainer ( I assume you will so you can continue to post here? ) that you also study a wee bit of English.

Personally I find it hilarious when these occasional "rage against the machine" threads pop up. If I paid attention to them I really wouldn't bother helping anyone…..lucky for me I listen instead to the PM's I get on a daily basis thanking me for advice and keeping me update on people's progress.

Oh yeah, and i know more than you.

hardtrainer

Hilarious. The very notion of stating qualifications. This is a public forum. It is essentially self-regulating. What happens is you get a consensus of opinion over the course of the thread. Surely this is common sense? Opinions differ, but you read them all and make up your mind. Yes, some people are more convincing with their opinion, but that doesn't mean it's gospel and it shouldn't be taken that way.

WRT this forum, what professional qualification would you be satisfied with? Physiotherapist? No thanks, they are useful, but like everything else there is a massive scale in terms of the advice they give. Personal Trainers and Fitness Instructors? I've heard some of the worst and some of the best advice from these. Sports science? It's an education, not a qualification, remember that!

Sports Medicine is about as close as you can get to a relevant qualification, IMO (should state that again I presume, in case you thought that was some legally binding thing) but even so, if the person doesn't have extensive training experience they're really not much use to me. Even doctors can be wrong (some of them frequently are).

IF someone comes to this board for advice, they will, again in my opinion, get a balanced view of the various different approaches/opinions on the subject. Isn't that why they come here in the first place? Anyone can do the research if they wish, it's not hard, but people also want first hand experience and there is no better way to get access to a lot of accumulated experience in fitness than to talk (via the interweb) to the many, many dedicated fitness/training enthusiasts here.

brianthebard

Dragan wrote:

Those posts also showed you were completely unable to communicate what it was you were trying to say, so I can only suggest that on top of going back and studying to be a trainer ( I assume you will so you can continue to post here? ) that you also study a wee bit of English.

Ooh, ooh I can help there, I'll have my degree in a few months!!

Sleepy

TBH Dame, someone stating that they're qualified in something on a public forum is absolutely zero assurance that they know what they're talking about, neither tbh does holding the qualification. I know people that graduated with me in Commerce that couldn't do the books for a sole trader, calculate a profit margin, define a Management Information System, explain Supply & Demand or market a cure for for the common cold.

This is a public forum. It has drawbacks and advantages. The chief drawback is that you have to take everything with a liberal dose of salt (which we all know isn't good for our diets :P) and imho, the chief advantage is you can see other people's interactions, particularly people thanking someone else for advice that they've found useful. I'll train with the guy/girl I see getting kudos for their advice any day over someone who has a piece of paper 'qualifying' them to teach me to train.

And BTW, I'm a complete n00b to this and know less about health, fitness and lifting weights than 95% of the people on this forum. Luckily I have common sense though

HardyEustace

Surprised that no one else has noticed but when you say

dame wrote:

Anyone else have any real qualifications in this area?

Sorry dear, but a course that lasts a couple of weeks is not a qualification.

That's like equating a sommelier with someone who's done a six week wine appreciation course!

dame

HardyEustace wrote:

Surprised that no one else has noticed but when you say




Sorry dear, but a course that lasts a couple of weeks is not a qualification.

That's like equating a sommelier with someone who's done a six week wine appreciation course!

Tampering with another person's post. The only italicised part was the word "real", thus implying I didn't consider my own course (which I did for my own benefit) to not be a real qualification.

dame

Dragan wrote:

someone who I called out in a previous post for saying "you must….." ( as I said at the time, that’s death on a fitness forum, there is no "you must" in fitness circles )

"You must work muscle groups in pairs" makes perfect sense, especially for a beginner as the OP there was.
Sure there may be exceptions to every rule, but that's a fairly safe one.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with my English.

g'em

dame wrote:

Tampering with another person's post.

it wasn't tampered with. when you quote something it all comes out in italics. Bless

dame I think it's fair to say that your opinion on this matter is very much in the minority. For your own sake I think it'd be best not to come back to the thread half-heartedly defending yourself and ignoring the plethora of posters who have presenting valid arguments against your suggestion.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.