Location:
A high dollar private personal training studio.
Moronic Event:
The “Head” personal trainer and “Director of sports conditioning” was teaching a high school kid how to do squats. The kid had all the usual problems… balance, heels up and all. So he procedes to take him over to the Smith machine to “show him the proper form”.
The Confrontation:
I asked him why he was using the smith machine to teach the squat. His reply: “I want him to learn how to use his hams and glutes.”
Aftermath:
It was all I could do to hold back from lashing out at him with Eric Cressey-ish lingo.
True story,
At the gym that I used to workout at my mother asked the head trainer what the weight of a standard olympic bar was. (She asked in regards to the bar for the bench.) The trainer said they would have to look that up.
That said, I am also a Personal Trainer. I am sometimes shocked at what some of my collegues and other trainers I work with do and tell there clients. But also with most clients you have to cater to what they want to a certain extent. It is often difficult to get women to do Squats, Deads, and other multi-joint exercises with any amount of weight. When you have a the super thin 3 sets of 15 hot trainer present.
[quote]sanshin wrote:
True story,
At the gym that I used to workout at my mother asked the head trainer what the weight of a standard olympic bar was. (She asked in regards to the bar for the bench.) The trainer said they would have to look that up.[/quote]
I asked the guys at my university gym what the weights on the cable machines were; one replied 9lbs and the other 12lbs. What kind of gym is this that
a) Has gym staff that don’t know how much weight is on their machines, and
b) Buys machines from a company that simply puts numbers on their weight blocks?
Oh, and none of them knew how much the Z-bar weighed; I had to wait till all the girls had finished weighing themselves to use the scales (which are conveniently located at the entrance).
[quote]Bastard Guy wrote:
Aleksandr wrote:
So is the punchline that your friend thought he could make his “inner chest” grow? Or that the trainer wouldn’t explain how eating more would result in increased bodyweight?
i was thinking the same thing in addition to wondering how one determines force exerted by the inner chest to determine “weakness”. “underdeveloped” perhaps … semantics.
The manager tried to sell DHEA to a man with high blood pressure for weight loss. So lets think about that for a second…
If DHEA worked like it was supposed to elevating Test levels that would increase erythropoietin (did I spell that right) levels increading red blood cell count, hematocrit, the viscocity of the blood and thus blood pressure.
Great for a high with high blood pressure…
Next is when they tried to sell everyone pyruvate…this was 4 years ago and I read the studies back then…and guess what; everyone in the pyruvate studies was obese and took 36 grams of the shit. Not to mention that not anyone could explain to me how pyruvate would aid fat loss being a component in the Krebs Cycle. It wasn’t until last semester that I came across a certain paragraph (yes just one) that mentioned anything about it…
“Fat burns in a carbohydrate fire,” meaning that the substrates of carbohydrate oxidation fuel fat oxidation.
THE END!
I do not have a fucking what you just said.[/quote]
crack open a book, you might get what he is trying to say
[quote]t-ha wrote:
Thank god for the internet which gives us access to the good trainers and coaches (so no excuses of ignorance tolerated anymore), and no offence to any of the competent PTs hangin’ around here on T-Nation.
I work in a university and go to the uni gym where there are no staff that know ANYTHING about serious lifting. It also tends to be very crowded at the start of term but luckily all the newbies do their benches and everything else all wrong and screw up their shoulders or suffer some other kind of injury and leave. Have I ever seen one of the trainers correct some-one? …NEVER, which is even worse than saying something stupid. Makes me wonder what exactly they’re there for?
Anyway, if you want to hear something amusing that one of them said, here goes;
Background: I’ve just completed a decent farmer’s walk and set down the bars and go to increment up the weight.
Trainer (not being funny):“Why didn’t you just check the weight first? It would’ve saved you all that hassle.”
…seriously
Incidentally, 1st time poster, long time reader… “Hey everyone”[/quote]
[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
Finalyear wrote:
danmaftei wrote:
I had a guy tell me a deadlift was like a squat with the weight in front of you.
I had a guy on a different forum/website say that deadlifts and sqauts were quote
“Squats and deadlifts are essentially the same lift, except the bar is in your hands or on your back. Body positioning is relatively identical when done correctly. Focusing on one won’t detriment the other, because the same muscles are being recruited.”
He’s almost right but so so wrong.
I have heard of sumo DLs described as a squat with the bar held in your hands. As this post says, it’s kind of right but not quite. The muscle groups definitely overlap, but that’s where the similarity ends – the techinique is totally different. In the squat, you lead with your upper body; DL, you push the ground with your legs.[/quote]
I think that it is fairly obvious that when you change the positioning of the weight, regardless if the position is the same, recruitment patterns for motor units change thus changing the exercise and providing a different stimulus.
Sumos, can help squats but are not to be confused with them…same thing for conventional deads.
1.)don’t use heavy weights cause you will hurt yourself.No body ever got big using heavy weights.
2.) PT " if you want big arms , I suggest you work bicpes before back and triceps before chest
3.)PT" Look! Right here , it says so in Muscle mag international"
4.) I know how to lift ,I use to paly hockey
5.) In the 90’s I was a bodybuilder
6.)If I m doing extentions , why do I need squats
7.) dont do shrugs , they make your shoulders and back look small
8.)how could a goodmorning possibly help you
9.) the Nautilus guy said the O lifts are bad for u
10.) If you dont beleive me , I ll show u my fitness diploma
He wasn’t a personal trainer but this quote made me laugh (and still does, our powerlifting club members still call it out sometimes)
" I’ve always found that I lose size and shape when I deadlift."
[quote]wesstangl wrote:
1.)don’t use heavy weights cause you will hurt yourself.No body ever got big using heavy weights.
2.) PT " if you want big arms , I suggest you work bicpes before back and triceps before chest
3.)PT" Look! Right here , it says so in Muscle mag international"
4.) I know how to lift ,I use to paly hockey
5.) In the 90’s I was a bodybuilder
6.)If I m doing extentions , why do I need squats
7.) dont do shrugs , they make your shoulders and back look small
8.)how could a goodmorning possibly help you
9.) the Nautilus guy said the O lifts are bad for u
10.) If you dont beleive me , I ll show u my fitness diploma
[/quote]
Did these all come from PTs!!??? I can’t believe it!!
[quote]flynniec6 wrote:
legend wrote:
it seems that 99% of gyms with shiny equipment and DVD racks, really have no interest in training you, all they really want is for you to pay a 1yr membership, and drop out in February.
They even have a technical insider term for people that pay a full year and then don’t come back.
Profit.[/quote]
i saw a comdian tonight on TV say something to the effect of “either going to the gym and getting in shape, or just paying his fat-tax…”
I think a fat-tax would be a good idea. It could help cut the costs of all the extra medical problems fatties have that raise my insurance, as well as provide more reason to lose some fat.
[quote]Christomopher wrote:
I think a fat-tax would be a good idea. It could help cut the costs of all the extra medical problems fatties have that raise my insurance, as well as provide more reason to lose some fat.[/quote]
I hope they do it by bodyfat percentage, because by BMI, I am obese.
[quote]sanshin wrote:
That said, I am also a Personal Trainer. I am sometimes shocked at what some of my collegues and other trainers I work with do and tell there clients. But also with most clients you have to cater to what they want to a certain extent. It is often difficult to get women to do Squats, Deads, and other multi-joint exercises with any amount of weight. When you have a the super thin 3 sets of 15 hot trainer present.
Jim[/quote]
So true. Sad but true…and aggravating if you spend much time thinking about it.
[quote]Old Dax wrote:
He wasn’t a personal trainer but this quote made me laugh (and still does, our powerlifting club members still call it out sometimes)
" I’ve always found that I lose size and shape when I deadlift."