Author

Here is a bit of histor about Dr Mel Siff and his journey in writing Facts and Fallacies of Fitness.

A few short words of ancient advice: “Prove all things” (1 Thessalonians 5:21) changed all this for me and set me off on a path of discovery which still appears to have no end.  Some very basic applications of university training in research and logic, coupled with some obliging intuition, very soon revealed that most of these fitness dogma needed serious reappraisal.   During the 1980s, largely as a consequence of my PhD research in biomechanics and exercise physiology at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa (where I was lecturing in Mechanical Engineering), this led me to lecturing widely on issues of safety, exercise ergonomics, injury rehabilitation and scientifically-based training  and being requested by the South African Association for Sports Science, Physical Education & Recreation (SAASSPER) to write a small text on the physiology and biomechanics of safety in exercise.

These early steps were greatly enriched by regular contact with Dr Michael Yessis, American expert on kinesiology and editor of the Soviet Sports Review, as well as by research visits to Russia and some its renowned sports scientists, notably Dr Yuri Verkhoshansky, pioneer of modern plyometrics. This exposure to the training philosophies of Russia and other Eastern countries extended my analytical framework very significantly and culminated in my writing an extensive textbook, Supertraining, to cover the science of all aspects of strength training.  This work especially revealed that many fitness beliefs and training methods are culturally and ideologically determined and biased.  For instance, the West sometimes  rejects Russian methods for political rather than scientific reasons and it tends to regard training programmes for women as being irrelevant to males.    It is beset with numerous paradoxes in health research and care.  For example, despite the vast sums spent on cardiac and cancer research and health education in the West, the incidence of these diseases continues to rise.

Such is the maelström of fitness fact and fiction which involved me in an expedition to make others more aware of the importance of questioning and testing everything that is foisted upon us as truth and knowledge by various authorities.  From 1984 onwards, major fitness organisations in the USA, Australia and England, such as the NSCA (National Strength & Conditioning Association), IDEA and the Exercise Association, invited me to present some of my findings at their annual conferences.   In addition, various departments of physiotherapy and physical education at universities throughout South Africa regularly requested me to lecture or run workshops on exercise prescription, the biomechanics of human movement and injury rehabilitation.  The topics of Facts and Fallacies, Myths and Facts, Myths and Misconceptions (in Fitness, Strength Training and Aerobics) became so popular and I received so many requests for printed versions of this information, that I began to write regular articles in this field for the Fitness & Sports Review International journal edited by Dr M Yessis in the USA.    Continued friendly pressure from students and fitness professionals for this information has carried me down two related paths, namely the Internet system and this book.    Of very special assistance was the fact that my postgraduate brain and biomechanics research enabled me to draw upon my many years of competitive and coaching experience in Olympic weightlifting and martial arts, in particular, to understand and apply in far greater depth many aspects of the art and science of fitness training.

Early in 1995 I started a series of ongoing electronic seminars on Puzzles and Paradoxes (P&Ps) in Sports Science via several specialist user groups in sports science, biomechanics, physical therapy, fitness, athletic training and weights, a venture which produced exceptional response from a readership of over 10 000 network users weekly.  My intention was to promote a readily accessible worldwide forum in fitness and sports education rather than an expensive annual conference in order to enable professionals in related fields to examine and discuss what we really know about fitness, sports science and training.  My P&Ps forum still continues on the Internet and appears on several Web sites.

This book serves as a more popularised practitioner’s version of some of the information distributed on my Internet forum on Puzzles and Paradoxes.  It contains a series of essays and practical guides on many of the topics which I have presented at conferences or used in teaching students over the years.  Before it was published on the open market, it served largely as a internal textbook for students attending the accredited certification courses in strength and conditioning, personal training and aerobics instruction that I initiated and ran for many years through the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

It commences with an extensive list of Facts and Fallacies in Fitness which I have identified from my experiences in the wonderful world of fitness, wellness and sports training.   This compendium is by no means complete, but it serves to illustrate the extent of the dogma which surround the person who is bold enough to consider himself or herself an expert fitness professional.  Most of the fallacies are analysed fairly concisely in this book in Chapters 4 and 5, while others are discussed at length in the essays which follow in Chapters 6 to 22.  All of them intentionally are presented at the beginning of this book to stimulate readers to offer their own comments before reading any further and to analyse the same issues in greater depth after completing the book.  Readers who are interested in contributing or receiving comment on any further facts and fallacies from their own experience are welcome to join the free Internet discussion group (Supertraining) at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/