Yesterday I did a workout at the local YMCA, surrounded by a well-meaning Personal Trainer and her 3 overweight female clients. The situation was perfect for their success...
1) They were getting social support by exercising with friends
2) The trainer was enthusiastic.
3) The gym wasn't filled with annoying meatheads, except for me.
But then the personal trainer unknowingly started participating in "the female workout scam".
Here's how it works...
Personal trainers give their clients "fluffy" exercises like triceps kickbacks, cable chest flies, the inner thigh machine, and those
pathetically useless "Plie Squats".
All of these exercises are designed to trick the female client into thinking she is doing female specific toning exercises...but the truth is, none of these exercises help them lose weight.
As a fitness expert who's designed programs for Women's Health, Prevention Magazine, and even Shape Magazine, I find this female workout scam very painful to watch.
I've trained many women who had never done a pushup or chinup before they worked with me because their last trainer refused to put "real exercises" in their workouts.
In my opinion, this is because most trainers do not RESPECT the physical ability of women.
The trainers think...
- "Oh, she can't do it."
- "She doesn't want to work that hard."
- "I'm worried she won't want to do it and I might lose a client."
So they justify giving female clients "politically correct" workouts and listen to their clients complain week-in and week-out that they are not getting results (but the client doesn't switch trainers because their trainers are "so nice").
Me on the other hand...well, I was once "fired" by a client because I made her stop talking to me while she did each exercise. Imagine that, actually making a client focus on the exercise.
(I guess her past trainers let her carry on a conversation while she did her kickbacks. What a scam! Workouts are for working out, not for conversations!)
Anyways, you can see how fired up I get by this female workout scam.
I've watched trainers fall asleep while charging women $150 an hour for these scam workouts.
Can you believe it? Charging someone $150/hr while you take a nap on a bench and your client does a useless workout? Oh, and I forgot to mention, he actually had three clients training with him at the same time. $450/hour for sleeping!
No wonder the personal trainer industry gets such a bad name.
Well, I'm so worked up I'm going to go de-stress and take my puppy dog out for a walk in the country.
In the meantime, just say NO to politically correct, rip-off workouts and scam exercises.
Just because you're a woman doesn't mean you should scammed by personal trainers,
Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Click here for fat burning workouts for women
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Female Workout Scam
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7 comments:
I couldn't agree more. I see trainees following the same isolation exercise programs for years, never even increasing the weights or changing rep schemes or anything. They look exactly the same as they did 2 years ago. No fat loss, no strength gains or no fitness improvements after the first 2 weeks.
Most personal trainers use the same cookie cutter programs using the useless exercises we are taught in our Certificates to get qualified. As a woman I am insulted that PT's can waste our time in this way.
By the way, I am a PT who uses multi-joint exercises with kettlebells, ropes, free weights, bodyweight exercises, boxes, sleds, tyres etc. The results I get with clients male or female leaves no doubt that this is the way to go. Thanks to people like Craig who so willingly share their knowledge, people like me can spread it to the world and make a difference.
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I sure aint a trainer, Craig...but reading this and seeing it with my own eyes at my local gym as well is very disheartening. Especially when I see the women falling for it too.
By the way, do any of the trainers out there even recognize you at all? I know it's the Y...but I wonder if they've had a chance to meet you and ask for help. Charge em a boatload, too - if they ever do!!! :)
Great stuff Joanne! I bet your workouts are great!
And no andy, no one recognizes me. Thank goodness!
Craig, you "hit the nail on the head." I have seen this a lot, and it is frustrating, especially as a trainer. Ladies are looking to these so called experts and paying them good money, for bad info. And it makes my job more frustrating when ladies come to me and want me to do this type of training for them. Of course in a nice way I say "NO WAY." Anyway I appreciate you and your high quality info. I like your stuff man. Just recently heard you speak at the Ryan Lee Bootcamp and got a lot of great info from you. Keep up the great work. And thank you for helping to get the truth out concerning exercise, nutrit., health. Yeh baby! www.kjshealthlifeblog.blogspot.com Godbless kj
great to hear from you, and keep up the great work giving people REAL programs and REAL results.
craig
Women get this type of training so frequently because it's exactly the type of training they want. They do not, by and large, want a real training program. They want a friendly adult babysitter who they can talk to between and during sets.
Blame the consumer, not the service provider.
This is obvious because if we can get those facilities we can get those results, so I think one was missing that the gym were getting a lot of beautiful women.
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