Not having a specific qualification is no reflection of our intelligence or our passion for learning. If anything, it is the reason we are so driven to keep learning and to share what we discover.
Throughout my career, I have occasionally felt like a fraud. Standing on a stage in front of hundreds of fitness professionals, I have often wondered how I came to be there.
My colleague, Mark Laws, is open about the fact that he does not hold a degree relevant to his role. Neither do I, yet we both hold influential positions in the health and fitness industry. We regularly share our knowledge with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people through a variety of media and in person, and we take that responsibility seriously.
Not having a specific qualification is no reflection of our intelligence or our passion for learning. If anything, it is the reason we are so driven to keep learning and to share what we discover.
Throughout my school years, I was told I was “non-academic,” even by my parents, who were both teachers. They meant well, but it left me believing I was not intelligent and should maybe expect a less ambitious career.
Many learners in our workshops quietly take me aside, or call or email me, to explain that their anatomy knowledge isn’t strong and to ask me to bear that in mind when questioning the group. In my 20 years of teaching, I have found this fear of being “found out,” particularly around anatomy and physiology (A&P), to be extremely common.
Everyone assumes everyone else knows more than they do. I find this fascinating, and it motivates me to share the techniques that built my own learning ability, self-belief and confidence.
Most of us passed our Level 2 A&P, only to dread Level 3, where we are expected to recall every muscle attachment. I’ll admit that I once wondered, with some arrogance, why I needed to know where vastus medialis attached when I could already teach someone to squat. I was naive.
I have yet to meet a learner who arrives confident in their anatomy knowledge and then isn’t surprised by how much they have forgotten once we work through the practical tasks. That is understandable. We had no practical reason to remember a specific muscle and its attachment sites. Clients only ever needed to hear “glutes,” “thigh” or “arm,” after all.
When something goes wrong, or when you talk with a clinician or therapist who can recall far more of the theory, it is easy to feel intimidated or inferior.
Please don’t. What Mark and I have shown is that “non-academic” people are not unintelligent. We simply hadn’t yet found a reason to recall the information, or the method that allowed us to absorb it. We weren’t inspired by that particular learning environment.
So how can we build our confidence?
Reading about muscle attachments for hours is exactly what put many of us off in the first place. A better approach is to find meaningful reasons to recall the information, along with methods that make it stick.
Recall builds confidence, confidence makes learning more enjoyable, and enjoyment makes us want to do more of it.
Consider the last time you were injured. You probably know the anatomy of that injury well. You consulted books, researched the details and learned everything you needed to speed up your recovery. You had an important reason to research and remember.
So let’s find good reasons to learn our anatomy, starting with the most accessible topic: movement. If you work in the physical activity sector, you are almost certainly a human movement enthusiast.
At our workshops we meet people just like you (and me), and we deliberately keep things simple. Biomechanics can become complex because everyone moves differently. Factors that influence movement include::
Some of these factors can be changed, and some cannot, but each one means we all move slightly differently.
Here is the guidance we give to learners, beginning with a back-to-basics task about the group action of muscles.
Once you are confident with these skills, go back and learn which individual muscles make up each group. This is where it becomes more challenging, because some muscles perform more than one action.
If you would prefer to learn in a classroom or on a webinar, please follow the link below or send us your details. We will gladly show you how simple it can be to remember the anatomy you need.
Do you want to help your clients move better, move more freely and achieve better results from their programmes?
Find out more about our Diploma in Biomechanics Coaching and how it could make you a more confident personal trainer.
Not ready for the full diploma? Join us for one of our one-day workshops by clicking the link here to see when and where they are running.