Has the passing of time been good or bad for a personal trainer in Dublin looking to improve his knowledge of training and nutrition?

Twenty years ago the only way to acquire knowledge from true experts was to travel and intern with them, attend live presentations and seminars, direct consultations or to order their latest publications and tape cassettes via mail order.

Has the advent of technology such as the internet, MP3, Podcasts, blog posts, webinars, Facebook, Youtube and iTunes improved or hampered our quest for continuing education?

The advent of technology is both a blessing and a curse.

The fact that one of my earlier education courses in nutrition is dated 1999, included the set of 24 tape cassettes pictured here, shows that I have been in this game a long time.

When I started out as a coach eager to learn about all aspects of strength training, rehabilitation and nutrition, I wanted to learn from the experts in these fields. Being from Ireland I found it necessary to travel abroad to find such experts and intern with them.

The other option was to place an order for their latest publication over the phone or by fax or to continue my learning by listening to a tape cassette in my car in which I termed “automobile university” or on my ghetto blaster in my room.

To the young personal trainers out there, you might have to google what is a “ghetto blaster” or “tape recorder.”

Twenty years ago, it was easy to identify the experts and it was also easier to identify the coaches interested in improving their professional knowledge.It was also harder for the “pseudo experts” to have a voice as it would prove too difficult and costly to publish material.

The experts obtained their knowledge from years of study in university or college and also from a practical standpoint in their clinics or gyms while young coaches would have to be driven and hungry enough to travel extensively around the world to learn from these experts.

Back then, “The Strength Sensei” was known as Charles Poliquin (inset picture) who was relatively unknown outside of the Strength community. There was no Poliquin certification programme.

The only way to learn from the Sensei was to intern with him directly and you scheduled your trip to Phoenix, Arizona, USA to coincide with the NFL pre-season so you would have an opportunity to watch and shadow Charles or his coaches train professional athletes. This picture was taken in one of my earlier internships with the Strength Sensei in 2003.

Today Charles Poliquin is a household name. His articles, podcasts and Facebook videos make his extensive knowledge widely available to all those interested in strength training.

Today, there has never been so much information available but this can be a good and a bad thing.

You have access to MP3 recordings, E-Book downloads, Podcasts, Blog posts, Facebook and Youtube videos, iTunes and recorded webinars.

But today anyone can publish material through their blog and many of the self-proclaimed experts are fresh from their 2 day-weekend, 2 week, 4 week and 12 week “trainer and nutritionist” certifications”.

It’s more difficult to identify the experts.

Some of the older generation experts have not embraced social media and may be technologically inept so you have no access to their wealth of knowledge unless you are prepared to travel to meet them.

But the young buck with his 4-week certification has the ability to share his “knowledge” via videos and posts and integrate them on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Twitter via an app called Hootsuite. The public perceives he is an expert because he has 1000’s of followers and Likes on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

They buy all their Facebook likes from Fiverr for $5. They live in Dublin but when you look at all their “Facebook likes”, it says the bulk of their “followers” live in Israel in the 18-24 year old category.

It is easy to get led up the wrong path.

You follow the “expert weight loss coach” on the web thinking that he has all the answers as social proof says he has thousands of followers on Facebook.

But you end up disillusioned and frustrated that your efforts have lead you nowhere.

In education, one tip I learned from the Strength Sensei was that you need both a funnel and a laser.

A funnel to collect the information, and a laser to pin-point what you want to learn and to identify who is the real expert!

Make sure you choose the real expert who has spent his time improving his academic and practical knowledge and experience or else you will get lost in a Time Warp.

There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.