YOU ARE?

This weekend Sara Cichorek and myself competed in USAPL's push/pull meet in Atlantic City, it was 4th meet of the year and 5th ever. I began to think, am I a "powerlifter" now? I could argue yes, I read about different techniques and ideas about programming and periodization, I plan for my meets and I've even trained a few friends to compete in a few powerlifting meets. I could argue no just the same, its only my first real year trying to compete, with mixed results.

This got me thinking, what makes someone a powerlifter? somebody that competes? i guess you can make that call, but that led me to think about internet "experts". There are a lot of "coaches" out there, a lot of "athletes" and "trainers" (especially in NYC).

To the coaches, if you do not train/coach anybody that does not compete, you are not a coach.

To the athletes, if you do not compete in whatever it is you are training for, you are not an athlete.

To the trainers, if you do not program for your clients you are not a trainer, you just make people sweat.

Competing does not make a person better or worse. But passing off a title that implies expertise is dishonest.