Negative Training Experience

[catspaw]

Today I bought a session with a personal trainer to check out my form at the gym.

In the last few months I've doubled the weight of several of my lifts, and I figured it was a good idea to do a "check up" with someone and make sure that I wasn't pulling the wrong muscles or just doing exercises altogether wrong. (You're not supposed to deadlift using just your pinky fingers around the bar?! No wonder they turned black and fell off...)

So I called my gym a few weeks ago and made this appointment, talked to the trainer, I said I'd bring in a list of the exercises in particular that I'd like her to watch and correct. Awesome.

We meet up today and within the first few minutes, I can immediately tell that this is actually a sales pitch in disguise. And by "in disguise" I mean "the sales pitch was wearing one of those fake eyeglasses-and-mustache combos but was wearing a name tag that said 'hello I am a sales pitch'".

"Why are you doing pushups?", she asked, looking at my exercise sheet.

"They're a good exercise....?"

"Hm, this routine, I know you say you like it, but I think you'd benefit more from the chest press. Because you can't add weight to pushups."

"But you can vary the pushups. Do them from a bosu ball. Do decline pushups."

"But you can't add weight to them."

"You can still progress."

"But you can't add weight."

"You could put a weight on your back." (I get snippy when I get annoyed.)

"That doesn't sound safe."

"Look, I'm not interested in changing my routine today. I'm just concerned about form."

"I just don't think you're going to get the results you want from this routine. If we worked together, we could develop a program that could get you the results that you want."

Anyway, after going in circles a little, we finally got around to looking at my form. She said my deadlift form was excellent, which was a pleasant surprise because I was worried that I wasn't lifting properly.

Squats, however, I'm apparently putting too much weight on the front half of my foot and not enough on the heels. "Your calves are doing too much work," she said.

I tried again, this time trying hard to ensure all my weight was on my heel. We were just doing body-weight squats to check out the form without weight first.

"Better," she shrugged. "Let's get you onto the assisted squat machine."

"Actually," I interrupted. "I don't want to use the assisted squat machine. I want to make sure I know how to do the squats without it, and this way I'll be using stability muscles as well."

"No no," she shook her head. "At this point, at your level, you should be using the assisted squat machine to make sure your form is good."

"I'd like good form without the squat machine," I repeated.

"No," she walked over to the machine. "Come here. Let's do a few with some weights."

"Can we do it without the squat machine?"

"I don't think you should be doing it freew eight."

"Everything I read online says otherwise."

"You really should be using the machine. Otherwise you could injure yourself and that would really hurt your goals."

I couldn't convince her to watch me squat without the machine, so eventually we moved on.

At the end of the 45 mins, she sat me down. "I think we should work together."

"I'm sorry," I shook my head. "I'm not interested in working with a trainer right now. I have a routine that I like."

"Right," she shrugged. "But if you're doing the exercises wrong, you could be hurting yourself."

"That's why I bought this hour. So that every so often I can do checkups and see to make sure I'm doing things right."

"You can't correct form in an hour. We would have to work together for a month, two months, to correct form."

"I'm not interested right now. Thanks."

"Okay but you shouldn't lift any heavier than you're lifting now until you work with a trainer for a few months."

"Thank you for your time today, but I'm not interested."

I had to practically scramble away in the middle of her sentence to leave.

And now I feel shitty. Like I'm lifting incorrectly and going to end up hurting myself. Like I shouldn't be going heavier. I know she was just trying to squeeze a sale out of me, but now every time I see her in the gym (which is gonna be often), I'm going to feel self-conscious.

Blargh. I guess the best thing I can do is be careful about my form, keep lifting heavier, until the awesome-glow from the gym outweighs the blarghs from Selly McBuyMySessions Pants.

[Timmy M]

all i can say is just ignore her and practise you're form, sometimes you need an appreciable weight to be able to do a proper form squat etc, (i've trained a few friends and when i've had them do overhead squats they just could' ant do them until they had some weight on the bar, not much but enough to 'feel' the exercise)

also on you're squat form you do need to keep more on you're heels (without leaning too far back) and make sure you're knees don't o pas your toes, try practising just sitting down on a bench/chair and standing up again without using you're hands or leaning too far forward, you'd be surprised how squat-like the movement is

[bigm141414]

catspaw, reading this has reminded me why I have shied away from using personal trainers at the gym (even though I have 4 free 30 min sessions). I have seen how the trainers work with other clients in the gym, and I am unimpressed since they all tend to push real hard for more sessions, telling people that they are too weak to try something, and generally not listening to the client's goals but divining them using voodoo magic of whatever fad is popular (this happens a lot when they stop to ask me about my VFFs).

That said, it appears that the good trainers can be found at crossfit boxes. Hearing the feedback on this forum, plus things I hear from friends and colleagues it does appear that crossfit trainers are more willing to work with someone on things like form and free weights.

[Hrunter]

Wow, that's rough!

Is there a different gym/different trainer you can talk to? Next time you schedule your appointment, see if you can hold off starting the time until they thoroughly understand what your goals are.

Heck, even go back and give 'em a piece of your mind, if you're really interested.

[Eatesalot7]

That sucks... I'm very lucky... the trainers at my gym watch our form and correct us without a session... They'd rather we all lift right and not get injured. They never push sessions on us. That would totally make me feel uncomfortable. I would have also been annoyed, she obviously wasn't concerned with your needs...

keep on keepin' on.

[Guest Carjack]

Most personal trainers are idiots who barely last a year in the business. They might have some merit if they took a personal interest in powerlifting, or if they have a high level cert (NASM, CSCS).

I'll list a few things a good trainer would use instead of squat machines:

Progressive box squats.

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/squatting_from_head_to_toe

Face the wall squats.

Checking your shoes to make sure the soles are not too compressible and the heels aren't raised.

Guiding you through a warm up session from air squats to current training weight and coaching basic form. Hips move first, knees out, etc.

Flexibility assessment.

Overhead squat assessment.

Assistance exercises to strengthen weak points. Examples include:

Sumo deadlift and glute-ham/hamstring raise if your hamstrings aren't up to the challenge.

Cable pull through, dumbbell swing and suitcase deadlift for glutes.

Back extension, good morning and stiff leg deadlift.

Squat stretch with a straight back.

[FiendFyre]

Experiences like this always make me embarrassed to be a personal trainer.

I can't believe someone would be so insensitive to your workout preferences and insist that using free weights is dangerous and will give you bad form. Slap on the headphones and give her the cold shoulder, but don't let running into her at the gym make you feel like you're doing anything wrong! And there's absolutely no reason it should take two months to "correct your form" unless you are seriously doing deadlifts with only your pinky fingers.

[spezzy]

first, id call the gym and ask for a refund. they didnt listen to you and didnt give you what you wanted.

second, record your squats and post it here. we'll critique.

third, yes, find a crossfit, or a powerlifting gym, or something of that nature. you can often just buy one session for form check at these places.

[metalchick]

Wow. I'm so sorry you had that kind of experience... What kind of training certification did this person have? Just out of curiosity. I hope you do get a refund because Spezzy's certainly right. You didn't get at all what you paid for.

[Zima]

It takes ONE session to show someone proper form on some basic lifts. Then it's up to the person to maintain the right form...sounds like the trainer was definitely out for money.

Luckily, you can find videos of how to do any exercise on youtube