In this thread I really want opinions. This is not not meant to be a loaded question. I have been lurking here on T-Nation for a long time and I feel that lots of people here think that formal education in KINESIOLOGY or EXERCISE SCIENCE is unnecessary or bullshit when it comes to getting big and buff.
(do not beat me up, I understand how important the hard sciences Bio, Chem, and Anatomy and Physiology are)
I had a roommate in college who got a kinesiology degree. He always bragged about how many hot chicks he fucked who had the same major.
He’s a drug addict now.
I think Canada is the only country where kin is a designated health profession. So, if you’re going into kin, Canada is where you’ll want to go to get a job. In the U.S. I don’t think it will get you much farther than regular PT training, but I don’t know for sure.
If you’re just looking to get big yourself, it’s absolutely unnecessary. Dumber people than you have gotten bigger and stronger than you. You don’t need to know why something works to take advantage of it. It helps, but it’s not vital.
[quote]CircaThursday wrote:
formal education in KINESIOLOGY or EXERCISE SCIENCE is unnecessary or bullshit when it comes to getting big and buff.
[/quote]
You don’t need a degree to get “big and buff”. Sure, greater understanding of the human body can help in this pursuit, but there are other ways to obtain this knowledge. I would venture a guess that 95+ percent of people who are “big and buff” do not hold these degrees.
I’m sure these degrees undoubtedly help if you are looking to become a personal trainer/physical therapist. Is this the question you meant to ask? You definitely don’t need a degree for your personal fitness…
What are you asking for exactly? Of course it is unnecessary to get big and buff, I hope nobody is dumb enough to major in it for that reason.
[quote]sufiandy wrote:
What are you asking for exactly? Of course it is unnecessary to get big and buff, I hope nobody is dumb enough to major in it for that reason.[/quote]
Like I said it just seems like lots of big people don’t give a shit about kinesiology. I want to see how many people think its a good science and how many think its pointless.
[quote]CircaThursday wrote:
[quote]sufiandy wrote:
What are you asking for exactly? Of course it is unnecessary to get big and buff, I hope nobody is dumb enough to major in it for that reason.[/quote]
Like I said it just seems like lots of big people don’t give a shit about kinesiology. I want to see how many people think its a good science and how many think its pointless.[/quote]
well it depends what concentration you do under kinesiology. For example my college had ‘Movement Science’ and ‘Exercise and Fitness’. Some courses overlapped but Movement Science actually had some real tough courses with the physical sciences… bio-mechanics, motor control, genetic, organic chemistry, calculus, physics, movement neuroscience, etc.
I changed from exercise science to astrophysics (considering nuclear). Nothing against the former though. Like Andy said, it’s very concentration dependent.
Kine was my first major. Too much work and too competitive for PT assistant type work upon graduation.
I got a “higher up” training cert and it does what I need the KINE degree to do…if not more.
I graduated with a Kin degree and while its not useless, in most cases you will have to continue education for a career. For example, chiro, physio, teaching, etc.
Dave Tate graduated with that degree. look how huge he is, he’s super swole.
Self-justification 101
If you want to be a football coach probably a good degree to have.
If you really want to pursue it then you should.
I don’t think there are any bogus majors. Well maybe Womyn’s Studies, or 18th Century French Lit…unless you’re going to somehow use it by writing 18th Century French literature.
[quote]Nards wrote:
If you really want to pursue it then you should.
I don’t think there are any bogus majors. Well maybe Womyn’s Studies, or 18th Century French Lit…unless you’re going to somehow use it by writing 18th Century French literature.[/quote]
Its according to who is paying the bill.
[quote]cally wrote:
I graduated with a Kin degree and while its not useless, in most cases you will have to continue education for a career. For example, chiro, physio, teaching, etc. [/quote]
Basically this.
My mom works at a physio clinic and the Kins there make $15-20/hour. Part of their job duties includes doing laundry (towels).
It’s like a philosophy degree. If you’re going to study philosophy you better go to law school after.
[quote]CircaThursday wrote:
I feel that lots of people here think that formal education in KINESIOLOGY or EXERCISE SCIENCE is unnecessary or bullshit when it comes to getting big and buff. [/quote]
It IS unnecessary to get a degree purely for self-training, but plenty of people have earned degrees in subjects ‘for pleasure’.
[quote]Nards wrote:
If you really want to pursue it then you should.
I don’t think there are any bogus majors. Well maybe Womyn’s Studies, or 18th Century French Lit…unless you’re going to somehow use it by writing 18th Century French literature.[/quote]
… and the only way to write 18th Century French literature now a days is with a deep and intimate understanding of the flux capacitor and a Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor
[quote]cally wrote:
I graduated with a Kin degree and while its not useless, in most cases you will have to continue education for a career. For example, chiro, physio, teaching, etc. [/quote]
This. While there are a few jobs that just having a Kinesiology degree is good for (Kinesiologist, personal trainer), most of the time people get a Kin degree then go into physio/physical therapy, chiro, teaching, or medicine. I did it because I wanted to be a teacher, needed a degree before teacher’s college, and was interested in Kinesiology. Would be stupid to take it just to get better at getting big and buff though, and 90+% of the courses were not at all focused on that.
[quote]spar4tee wrote:
I changed from exercise science to astrophysics (considering nuclear). Nothing against the former though. Like Andy said, it’s very concentration dependent.[/quote]
There are a lot more job opportunities and research money available right now and in the forseeable future in nuclear/particle physics then in astrophysics. You may want to keep that in mind when choosing your area of concentration, but you won’t really have to do that until you start work in a doctoral program. You can get into doctoral programs for nuclear/particle physics with a BS in astrophysics and vice versa, but you may have to take a few prereq courses before starting actual grad level classes, but you will have to do that with math classes anyway since most physics undergrad programs (even top ones) do a piss poor job of preparing students for grad school as far as required math classes go, so it won’t matter all that much.
I’d love if the OP becomes a particle physicist now and when people ask him how he decided he can say he got the idea while on a bodybuilding website’s forum!