Hope you are all having a great week!   Mine started out a little crazy with my laptop checking out on the weekend (I am blaming the swine flu) and our water heater leaking all over the basement floor on Monday morning (probably caught the flu from the computer).  Luckily, the week has improved since then.  Getting a little political today (can’t make any great training videos without my laptop):

Ever see an infomercial where they show a before and after photo of someone who did the ‘Three Minute Ab Routine’ and went from 374lbs down to a size two in only 14-days!  I know that’s a load of crap and you know that is a load of crap, well not the FTC is stepping in to say…you cannot sell that load of crap on TV or on the internet. 

So where you used to see that fine print at the bottom of the screen that says something like ‘these results are not typical’ – now the company will not be able to use those results for promotion.  They can also no longer hire actors looking for work, let them use their fitness widget for two weeks and then have the person back to give a testimonial saying ‘Yeah, I could really feel my abs burning after just 4 seconds on the ab widget; I feel slimmer already and it was sooooo much fun to use!’  Then turn around a pay them.

I am also hoping that this will be the end of the “my good friend so-and-so is releasing a new product and it is just awesome – I think you should buy it!”  As you may know there are some people who sell things online who are “super affiliates”, so they earn commission by selling other people’s products.  They try to make it look like they are doing you a favour by letting you know about the latest and greatest, but from now on they will have to identify that they are an affiliate. 

There are more changes, but I have not yet read through the entire document.  Basically it keeps people from lying to you, which I think is a great thing.  If you ever see me promote someone’s product or service on this site, you will know that it is because I think it is an awesome product and I will always tell you if I am getting commission on the sales.  Currently the only products I endorse are John Berardi’s Precision Nutrition because I think John does a much better job of explaining nutrition than I do and Twist Conditioning as a great source for stability balls, agility ladders, etc.  I know them personally and think they do a great job, plus they are located in Canada so the shipping is usually a little easier than bringing products in from the U.S.  Both of them pay me a commission when you make a purchase through my website, but you still pay the exact same rate.

I am glad that this will help level the playing field and lead to more transparency in the fitness industry.  So there is my political rant for the week.