Come on y’all… there’s no need for you to stare at another personal trainer and shake your head when you notice one of their clients has bad form. There’s no need for you to go up to the trainer later and make a big deal of it either. That’s extremely unprofessional, and all it will do is cause dissention in the club. Plus, I’m pretty sure they’ve already noticed the poor form… And this doesn’t automatically mean that this trainer is bad. Of course if every one of their clients has bad form, then that’s a totally different situation, but my point is that there is no reason for any of us to act like a pompous prick.
Usually male clients are the ones with suspect form. Some men have a slight ego problem. (Most of you ladies would say, “Some men?”) ; ) I train many husband/wife combos and the wife will always make fun of their husband when they start swinging the weights around. That usually gets the guys to focus a little more. Wives embarrassing their husbands in front of others always works. We as trainers are constantly reminding them to pay attention to their tempo and their plane of motion, but sometimes they just don’t listen to us.
I have an elderly male client that I have been training for almost 10 years. He’s 88. He was formally the head honcho of a big time national company that his father founded. Everyone of you have heard of this company, but of course I’m not tellin. What I’m saying is that he could wipe with $100 bills. But still he’s a grumpy old man. Wouldn’t you be? ; ) Bottom line is that he doesn’t listen and never will. His form is horrible. Some of you who are perfect trainers (yeah I’ve read your arrogant comments on other posts online) will call me a bad trainer. Go ahead, I couldn’t care less. Any honest trainer that’s been in this business for more than 5 years will admit having a client or 2 that just didn’t get it.
I’m not gonna lie. It’s wrong and I shouldn’t really care, but sometimes I still get a little embarrassed when other trainers and members watch this client of mine train and think, “Wow that’s a small range of motion.” Or “Jeez, is that how I’m supposed to do that exercise?” Hopefully deep down everyone is thinking the opposite way like I usually try to do. That here’s an 88 year old man that still strength trains 3 days a week. He’s consistent and in his mind is doing a good job of just being upright for another day on this earth. Most 88 year olds are begging for a danish and a nap. So should I really care what people think of me and my client in an instance like that? Probably not. A consistently grumpy 88 year old man consistently working out with super light weights with not the greatest form. I say, “You go old timer!!!”
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