Hi all-
Just wanted to share an interesting experience I had last week. Some of you may remember that I've recently been hired to be a personal trainer and a group instructor. I'm extremely excited about it but I'm also nervous. So I asked my boss if it would be ok if I shadowed a trainer, just to get an idea of how a PT session would go and how a PT interacts with a client. What a wake up call!!!
First, I walk in to the session that's already begun. I notice the trainer using a deck of cards to prompt certain exercises. The exercises were bicep curls, cruches on the ball, and pushups off of the ball. Each suit represented one of these exercises and each # or face card represented the amount of reps. It was terrible!! We ended up doing like 60+ reps for the right bicep and 30 or so for the left. We did no tricep work or back work to balance out the body either. And to top it off, the client had no idea what he was doing as far as form was concerned. He was using momemtum like nobody's business and was completly out of breathe the entire time because he was holding his breath!!! And the trainer made no attempt to correct him!
Then he moved on to "plyometric" work using a medicine ball. His idea of this was to throw the 6 pound ball at each of us. We had to catch it and throw it back immediately. It actually can be a useful exercise but they were throwing it so hard (even at me!!), that it started to get painful for my thumbs and hands. Then, he thought it would be a good idea to do this on an unstable environment. So we actually stood on a BOSU and threw the ball at eachother. The client had absolutely no balance so he kept falling off!! I was stunned!! And this is really only part of the story.
I felt so out of my element with these 2 men! The trainer was very condescending to me(IMO) because he kept instucting me as to why certain exercises are better than others. The funny thing is, I'm certified as a PT and I'm not sure he is. I held my tougue the entire time because I just got hired and didn't want to start any problems. But I have a feeling someone is going to get hurt with him! It was crazy!! I'm prepared to let my boss know but at this point, I'm not sure if that would be appropriate right now. Maybe I'll wait until I feel more comfortable and let someone know!! Anyway, I just had to share this crazy experience with you all because I know that some of you want to work with trainers. Just make sure you get a good one who is certified!! There are some scary people out there!!
Carolyn
Just wanted to share an interesting experience I had last week. Some of you may remember that I've recently been hired to be a personal trainer and a group instructor. I'm extremely excited about it but I'm also nervous. So I asked my boss if it would be ok if I shadowed a trainer, just to get an idea of how a PT session would go and how a PT interacts with a client. What a wake up call!!!
First, I walk in to the session that's already begun. I notice the trainer using a deck of cards to prompt certain exercises. The exercises were bicep curls, cruches on the ball, and pushups off of the ball. Each suit represented one of these exercises and each # or face card represented the amount of reps. It was terrible!! We ended up doing like 60+ reps for the right bicep and 30 or so for the left. We did no tricep work or back work to balance out the body either. And to top it off, the client had no idea what he was doing as far as form was concerned. He was using momemtum like nobody's business and was completly out of breathe the entire time because he was holding his breath!!! And the trainer made no attempt to correct him!
Then he moved on to "plyometric" work using a medicine ball. His idea of this was to throw the 6 pound ball at each of us. We had to catch it and throw it back immediately. It actually can be a useful exercise but they were throwing it so hard (even at me!!), that it started to get painful for my thumbs and hands. Then, he thought it would be a good idea to do this on an unstable environment. So we actually stood on a BOSU and threw the ball at eachother. The client had absolutely no balance so he kept falling off!! I was stunned!! And this is really only part of the story.
I felt so out of my element with these 2 men! The trainer was very condescending to me(IMO) because he kept instucting me as to why certain exercises are better than others. The funny thing is, I'm certified as a PT and I'm not sure he is. I held my tougue the entire time because I just got hired and didn't want to start any problems. But I have a feeling someone is going to get hurt with him! It was crazy!! I'm prepared to let my boss know but at this point, I'm not sure if that would be appropriate right now. Maybe I'll wait until I feel more comfortable and let someone know!! Anyway, I just had to share this crazy experience with you all because I know that some of you want to work with trainers. Just make sure you get a good one who is certified!! There are some scary people out there!!
Carolyn
