FT Questions....

[Scott Stevenson]

Hey Scott,
Sorry for not being able to clarify my previous question correctly, but I read through about 89 pages on this forum and was able to find the answer somewhere in there haha. Im a big fan of yours and listen to all of your podcasts and articles that I'm able to find. Im 18 and have made more progress in my previous 3 years of lifting "very hard and intensely" (very high volume and overreaching as I wasn't able to progress much on lifts and all symptoms of overreaching started to show). People will realize this programs a game changer once they get out of the mentality of needing to be in the gym 6-7 days a week, and I'd be happy to post pics of you want. But a question I have for you;that you may or may not be able to answer is, as somebody who has an extreme passion for learning about everything from training,nutrition,hormonal adaptations,etc to things like the pharmacokinetics of anabolic steroids; what kind of career would you recommend that I pursue? I work at a supplement shop and people are shocked with the wealth of information that I have, especially at my age (not to sound like a douche, as I'm learning new things everyday) and proceed to ask me what I want to do in the future. And every time I get asked that I really don't know what to say, because I have all this information gathered from hours and hours of reading and I don't know what to do with it. Sorry for the long post scott, any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

No worries, man.

Glad you figured out the answer to your question. (I think if go back and re-read it, you'll see that you were basically asking something akin to, "What will happen if I don't have a caloric surplus but I do have a caloric surplus?... " )

Well, from what you've written there, two things jump out at me.

Sorry if this is pretentious, but I'm going by what I see.

1.) You seem to be personable and like people, so working in a service industry might be down your alley, i.e., in the health and fitness arena. This could be as a personal training, coach, gym owner, etc. I'd say health education, but it sounds like you're more of a "meathead" (like me) vs. someone interested in health and wellness of your average person.

2.) I get the sense from the above and the way in which you've phrased your questions (first impressions here) that academia might not be for you, i.e., the pursuit of knowledge for it's own sake might not be entirely satisfying. Folks well suited for that tend to be sticklers for grammar and clarity of expression, whereas I'm not getting that from your inquiries. I AM getting a sense you have a lot of passion for learning, though, so gaining at least an undergraduate degree Exercise Science at a program where one or two of the professors have an interest in strength and conditioning, muscle growth, resistance training adaptations, etc. would be something I'd look into. You might be able to work in a lab and see if you'd have interest in getting a practitioner-based Master's degree.

You'd not necessarily need this level of education, but doing so gives you a path, helps establish connections and looks good for marketing purposes, not to mention *ideally* helps with your level of understanding of human physiology and thus the quality of education you could provide for clients (of whatever ilk).

Another way to get insight into this is to imagine - without limits - how an ideal work day would look to you. Then, find someone (or several people) doing that and contact that person, to see what paths they took to get to where they are.

-S