Where does Chek get off calling his personal training clients patients??? With all due respect to Mr.Chek’s credentials they do not include an MD in fact I do not believe there is a college degree attached to the Chek name. The term patient is used by MD’s and other credientialed health practitioners. Chek is an outstanding trainer but does himself and the personal training industry a TREMENDOUS disservice using this term. One does not need to have a college or medical degree to be an accomplished trainer, self study and empirical data does not equate with 12 years of schooling most MD’s have endured. I’d appreciate anyone else’s thoughts.
The term “patient” is not protected, so you can call 'em that you want… Chek IS training people with pain and dysfunction etc.
I don’t consider Chek to be a typical personal trainer…
Chek’s is very successful in coupling theory and practice.
I have never met an MD that knew his training theory…
i agree completley. i dont call my clients patients but as a trainer i can see why one would. most of the people i see are coming to me because they have a problem with obesity that they have been struggling with for years. a problem that their md could not solve for them after many visits. no you dont need a degree to be a trainer but that doesnt mean that those 12 years of education make you any more skilled in your field than i. come on, we’ve all been to school, and we all know that in college it is about passing tests not learning the material. to be honest i have lost a lot of respect for family doctors since i became a trainer due to all of the horror stories i hear from clients in regards to misdiagnosis of problems or poor advice.
People really need to get rid of this “MD is god attitude”. In this society just because someone is an MD people tend to put too much confidence in them and their views and shutting off everything else.
From: http://www.m-w.com
Main Entry: 2patient
Function: noun
Date: 14th century
1 a : an individual awaiting or under medical care and treatment b : the recipient of any of various personal services
2 : one that is acted upon
Please look up these definitions and understand them.
Kelly is 100% correct. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that like personal trainers, 95% of doctors completely suck. I know that my personal experiences completely support this assertion. It’s time we stop splitting hairs and give credit where credit is due; chances are that Chek is doing far more for his clients/patients than some fat quack in orthopedic shoes ever could.
I am with Kelly on this one as well. How many times does a doctor give people advice on their diet. doctors take one or two nutrition classes. They just tell people to eat 55%C 30%Fat and 15% protien. Most don’t know or care about a proper diet
I too agree with the above consensus. He can call them what he wants, whether in your opinion that is the correct term or not. However, he and his courses concern themselves a lot in rehabilitation of non-athletes (as well as athletes) with muscular/joint related injuries; so I feel the term IS justified anyway.
I’d just like to add that it’s not only in America that the “Doc is God” syndrome is alive and well. Here in Japan, it’s far worse. I went to a doc a while back for something that turned out to be bronchitis. He gave me some medicine; when I asked what it was he told me not to worry about it! I doubt that any Western doc would be that cavalier (although some of them might want to).
Hey, let’s not forget DO’s! They are, after all, about 40% of all physicians (and are much more able to recognize and treat structural dis-ease). Sorry guys, but the noun “patient” should be reserved for those being treated by physicians. I know you don’t want to hear this, but a personal trainer using that phrase for clients, trainees, whatever else you want to call them, just sounds like he or she is trying to be something they aren’t. It’s not appropriate, and it’s not professional. Be mindful of exaggerated claims which may add up to (or claiming to) practicing medicine without a license. And please don’t go too hard on your 'ol doc: there’s just so much to learn, unless a physician purposely sets out to become expert in traing, it’s just not going to happen. Also, please recognize you, as a trainer, are in an advantaged position to effect positive change; the gym is a cooler place to be than an examination room. Know too, there are many trainers who have earned the trust and confidence of physicians in their community, and so may be recommended by same. THAT is what to shoot for.
As far as duty of care goes he’s not hurting anyone and it definately helps check practitioners visualise their goals and get “the patients” best interests in mind. Great marketing gymmic overall.
My opinion is that Chek tries too hard to be a radical. No disrespect, Paul Chek is an excellent trainer with novel ideas but if you read his interviews along with this idea of calling clients “patients” you’ll probably agree that he tries very hard to be different.
Now the MDs are patenting words. Given their successes with rampant drug side effects, they should leave language alone.
Chek- “Nurse, hand me the EZ bar”
Nurse- “Check”
Chek- “Yes?”
Nurse- “No, here’s the EZ bar. Check.”
Chek- “What?!”
Nurse- (slaps forehead w/ bar knocking self unconscious)
Chek- “Hurry, we’re losing the tricep! Get me a dip station Stat!”
Bottle of Myostat- “Somebody called?”
MBE: "Who's on first, what's on second and a Monkey is eating third base. Since 1802. JADABB founder, 2002."
-Eric
Tony, I dont think Paul uses the term patient to impose the idea of him being a doctor, but of his clients needed attention of some kind. Besides, he is one smart mo fo and i know plenty of MD’s that dont know s–t compared to him. I went to a sports orthopedist because of a 2mm disk bulge in my L5. Can u believe this guy told me to never exercise ever again? No exercise of any kind. As I walked out of his office giving the ortho the bird, I immediatley bought Paul Chek’s book Awesome Abs. It did the trick, plus I saved myself surgery and rehab.
A 2mm bulge WILL tend to heal itself (in time), but rehab is definitely preferrable to picking up a workout manual. Actually, studies show that, at the ten year point, people are doing about the same whether they had surgery or not. I note: with all this animosity toward physicians, is it any wonder they have a difficult time dealing with strength athletes?
Does anyone here but SWALE think for themselves? Are you talking about all Doc’s, or Ortho Doc’s? Doctors are expected to know a lot of s–t! CHEK may know more about certain aspects (fitness) than most Doc’s, but that’s only a piece of the puzzle. I’d like to see one of you guys repair a torn muscle!?! Oh, but Doc’s don’t know anything! What a joke! Oh, by the way, CHEK isn’t that great either, he can’t even comprehend basic biomechanical principles to be able to apply them to resistance training exercises. Think about all aspects of a situation before making a quick judgement!
In some sense, I agree. Very few MD’s know much about training. (Exceptions exist… like Dr. Rick Silverman).
However, if you have eye cancer, don’t think anyone but a high-end surgeon who’s study’d and practiced for years is going to save you.
Great MD’s are great at what they do, great trainers are great at what they do. Great people know who to ask about what and show both professions respect.
-Rob
Chek knows a lot, but6 not all of his ideas are accepted by everyhone. He tends to be the great reiterator without proper acknowleding of refernces. Much of his stuff come from Karl Lewitt and Vladamir Janda, but you’ll never hear him say so unless asked. He did not invent all that he says.
Also plenbty of people such as Dave Tate and Mel Siff think much of his work is wrong. I’ve talked to Dave personally. I don’t think Paul has a great grasp on athletes that are very strong. Mel Siff is regarded very highly academically, and disagrees with his ideas on the TA muscle. Paul also caught flack for representing himself as doing ART without learning it. Dr. Leahy himself personally told me that one.
He often has great ideas, I agree with most of his work, but he has a high full of shit quotient in my opinion.
Personally, I wouldn’t use the term “patient” for a “client,” unless I were a medical professional because the term has come to connote the medical context. Is this a “TREMENDOUS disservice” to Chek and the personal training industry? Well, given the low esteem in which personal training industry is held by people on this board, probably not a disservice to the industry. I mean, is a disservice to that industry even possible, what, with its one-weekend certification mills, etc.? But to Chek himself? I don’t know. I’m sure Chek probably has helped people who have been failed by, or would have been failed by, the medical community. I just hope Mr. Chek doesn’t come across as some sort of poseur (and apparently to the poster, he does) and I’m not sure what I would have thought had I come across his use of the term before this post–and now my response is tainted by this post. I think I’d have just shrugged this one off as something I wouldn’t do but wouldn’t get too upset if someone else did it–unless the use of the term caused someone to mistake him for a healthcare provider. But is any seeking his services really confused about this?
As for the doctor bashing. Yeah, doctors are held in too high esteem in the US and Japan, and DO’s don’t get the recognition they deserve. But cut them a little slack on some of this (and I love to bash doctors on lots of other things). There is a tremendous amount to learn to be a physician and it would require specialization to provide the sort of service many t-maggers would expect. I think alot of the resentment toward doctors would be reduced if the profession itself were more modest (a few more “I/we simply don’t knows” would help) and humane (36 hour shifts for residents is supposed to produce compassionate, competent practitioners???). I’ve had my physician (a former registered nurse–good prep for being a doc–who doesn’t do the MDiety trip at all) tell me the risks of steroids, but then, that is all she has been trained to say on the subject, and I’m likely the only patient she’s ever had to ask her about them. Does she have the time to spend the hours researching all the alternative views on everything patients ask her? No. As anyone who is an expert will tell you, expert opinion is quite divided in most fields. (Grad school study was an eyeopener about the lack of consensus in some fields.) As has been noted, other learned professionals disagree with Chek, so let’s cut doctors some slack when they give the “establishment” answers. Unless they specialized in issues of concern to us, we should not expect them to have an appreciation for the alternative perspectives of which we are aware because we all have become specialists.