Rant -personal & gym trainers

[ferd]

Training has been a very important part of my life for nearly 30 years. I am not a personal trainer and I am sure there are many that are very good and very qualified. But time and time again I see the same thing and I can't take it anymore. I have to rant. I will bet that many of you have seen it too.

A new member joins and a trainer employed by the gym, nearly always someone not long out of high school or going to college, without a clue, shows them around to make them familiar with the equipment and sets up a program for them.

The program consist of, first off, rolling around on the floor on a giant ball. Fine, I understand the purpose of that. Then it's off to bentover dumbbell kickbacks, curls, leg extentions, pecdeck and every single-joint, isolation exercise that is possible. Come back the next time and do it all over again. I nearly choked the other day when I overheard one tell a client that a lateral raise machine was for your lats (it was labeled "Lat Raise").

After the customer is there awhile, they are still doing the same program the "trainer" showed them when they joined. A set of this for one body part, then on to a set of that for another body part, and on and on. No one ever explained the advantages, and benifits, or purpose of multi-joint, compound movements. The concept of working one body part before going on to another, splitting your body up and working it over several days, is completely foreign to them. These poor people are taken for their money, given a pat on the back and sent on their way. As my dad says, "fat, dumb and happy".

I feel much better........anyone else see this?

 

[Metal]

Yeah, I worked as a PT thru college. We're nothing more than a stepping stone. PTs SHOULD know the different variations of which programs accomplish what objectives. Youd be suprised, One may want to do strngth training and the igmo will have em doing majority of cardio.

My beef with PTs are the fat ones. Ever seen a fat PT? I knew one, and she smoked!

 

[pesty4077]

Yeah, I worked as a PT thru college. We're nothing more than a stepping stone. PTs SHOULD know the different variations of which programs accomplish what objectives. Youd be suprised, One may want to do strngth training and the igmo will have em doing majority of cardio.

My beef with PTs are the fat ones. Ever seen a fat PT? I knew one, and she smoked!

Metal, that isn't as bad as when I went to a doctor while in my mid 20's telling me that steriods will kill you, and he smokes. I am 48 and I'm still around, but I don't see him anymore. HMMMMMMM!

 

[abolish the weak]

oh dude, dont even get me started on the morons around here. We got this one guy, he has his clients do pushups with their hands planted on a couple medicine balls. It looks like a great way to royally fuck a rotator cuff, especially for a beginner. Then, they roll around on the rubber ball for about 10 min looking like beached whales. But what I hate the most, is when the dumb fucks throw a ball back and forth when they do abs. It always seems like they do a gazillion worthless half assed reps(of course while I am waiting to do mine), they'd get so much better results if they did them slow and actually contracted their abs.

 

[full_belly]

yep.. im a\ pt (12yrs now) i look back at my limited knowledge the first 3-4yrs.. id say most (75%+) trainers i know are average at best, if not kinda dangerous.. the busy success full ones tend to be the worst,, they overworked and over the job, and just count whilst not controllin tempo or form.. im far too demanding lol, if you dont do it perfectly i shame you into it hehe..

trainers who never had to surmount a substantial physical chjallenge or goal have no idea of the mental and physicasl effort required of thier client to achieve their personal goals..

 

[V3ng3anc333]

i feel you.

i my gym we have a new "trainer" since two weeks. He was a normal gym member with not to much training expierence asking me and my buddy for training / nutrition advice several times. After several trainiers left he magically recieved the "PT - SHIRT" and suddenly he transformed to Mr. Know-it-all.
Recently he walked up to me while i was walking on the tread telling me i was gonna loose all my muscle doing cardio.

 

[wizard of ozz]

At my " OLD " gym , there was a guy in his mid 20's training a rather largish girl who in the 1 year i was there never looked to of lost a single kg ,
buuut.... after almost every exercise they would go outside for a cigerete !!!
She was fat , unhealthy and unfit , he was driving a new BMW
Needless to say he trained quite a few of these heffas .
No Offence " Big girls , you are beautiful "

 

[buldog9]

Roll around on the floor on a giant rubber ball...LOL. Dam thats funny and its so true.

 

[Kcm3000]

the other trainers at my gym dont even know the names for the exercises or the muscles they just pull shit out of their ass and it bothers me so much. they are so incompettant. im quitting tomrrow UGH

 

[blackhole]

ok this may not have anything to do with the post but all this talk of the giant rubber balls reminded me of some old times. my VERY FAVORITE gym that i ever worked out at was called Pine Grove. it was actually a golf-country club. and was the BEST equipped gym within 100 miles. all these rich golf playing yuppies payed enomous membership fees so they had a huge money base to buy stuff. they even had a wall climber and a water slide in the gym. anyways NO ONE ever worked out there except me and my boys. seriously no one used the weights. we would play kickball betweens sets using the track with those huge balls. i mean we acted like kids launching that ball almost into orbit, bouncing all over the place. when we did our warm up sets we would scream at the top of our lungs to see who was loudest. no one ever said a word to us cause no one was there. man i had some good times training at that place