I love the gym for many reasons, but sometimes I just like to observe the absolute nonsense that goes on with people working out and more so, with their “trainers.” The gym is better than TV if you pay attention, but it is scary to see what is going on out there sometimes.
Overheard at the gym
- “I don’t trust my trainer” - Huh? You don’t necessarily have to like your trainer, but if you can’t trust your trainer and you are uncomfortable with him/her…you have problems.
- “I know my diet sucks, but I still don’t understand why I can’t lose my fat.” - I know some people are dense, but this statement helps me understand how Bush was elected twice…people just don’t think.
- “My doctor told me to never, ever squat again!” - OK…well that means you can never sit on the toilet again…NEVER get in and out of a car again. NEVER sit down and get up at the kitchen table again.
- “Every time I work with my trainer, I get injured!” - It is time to get a new trainer.
Seen At the Gym
- Overweight, middle-aged woman training client doing squat jumps while holding a 35 pound plate overhead. Trainer was not only responsible for this train-wreck of an exercise, but she was talking to another trainer while her client was about to smash her head in.
- Trainer talking on her cell phone while spotting her client.
- “Chesty” female client doing incline DB bench press while her “GQ” Trainer was spotting her from the font. Guess where his eyes were fixed doing the exercise? (By the way, if you don’t know, this is an exercise that you spot from behind, not from the front…there is only one reason that someone would take the front position to spot here…I think I already mentioned why.
- Trainer making her 50 some year old client perform over 100 jumps in one session, on a concrete floor…after the client performed 3 sets of lunges, 3 sets of squats, 3 sets of step ups. - This is a major injury waiting to happen.
- Trainer making two of her female clients (who were both beginners and overweight) perform dynamic lunge jumps while holding (you guessed it) a large weight overhead
- Trainer making his clients learn to do squats on a bosu ball, with 30 pound dumbbells in each hand.
The scary thing is that I could go on and on…the gym is an interesting place.
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I don’t know how you, as a trainer, are able to go to a public gym. I am just a regular lifter and I find it hard not to start telling people what to do, so I can’t even image what it must be like for you.
I think some of what you observe is not incompetence, but poor communication. It relates to some of your previous blogs (June-12) about clients not telling their Trainers that they hurt, primarily because it is expected to be sore after a training session. Fault lies on both sides of the line. Trainers should not be texting on their cell phones or focused on anything other than their client, and a client needs to communicate expectations and current health status to the Trainer prior to each session. If a Trainer is not aware of an injury, or that the Client has no confidence in their skills, mistakes will happen. Trainers need to be aware that their income is based on client satisfaction, and clients talk…alot. Likewise, Clients need to be aware that trainers only do what they think is appropriate for a client based on provided information. The Trainer and Client must become one force working toward a common goal.
Keith
You are right on. I am a trainer and I see things like this all of the time. So many of the trainers have no clue what they are doing, but seem to get hired based on the way the look rather on what they know. It gets even worse when they seem to make things up as they go. Safety should always be the number one concern! Some of what you wrote about in your blog is not even close to a safe training routine.
Like you, I’ve seen it everything that you can imagine in a gym.
To me, the key seems to be in education. Just because you see someone doing a certain exercise doesn’t mean that you should jump right in and begin doing the same thing.
It truly is better than TV.
Chris Melton
I’m very fortunate to be in a gym with well-educated trainers who all seem to know what they’re doing.
I think the real problem (well, maybe one among many) is with the lack of standardized accreditation in the field. I know my gym requires a certification with either ACE, NSCA, or ASCA, but I also know that there are plenty of “certifications” out there that you can earn in 45 minutes (and a couple hundred dollars) on the internet. Which is terrifying.