I visited a commercial gym tonight. After a full year of existing exclusively within performance-oriented facilities, it was . . . an experience. More specifically, it was an abrupt reminder of the state of the union.
In the hour or so it took to work out, I witnessed a lot of badness, ranging from arbitrary and inefficient to downright wrong. I saw classes that were designed to meet expectations, not goals. I saw trainers who ranged from indifferent to hilariously confused. And I found a distressingly small proportion of useful equipment (not that it was in heavy rotation).
It’s no big surprise that commercial gyms are behind the times. The industry is unregulated and this is understood. It’s fuelled by a management who doesn’t care and staffed by people who seldom have anything beyond a basic personal training certification. Certifications, in case you’re wondering, range in quality from from a good start to woefully unhelpful. The most common certifications you’ll come across in North American gyms fall into the latter category.
As someone making a legitimate effort to do things right, I’m sometimes frustrated when I meet people who need help but just can’t bring themselves to take it. At this point, I can’t blame them. If I didn’t know how to approach my training goals, I would have a very hard time taking the advice of someone in the industry too.
The one ray of light in all of this is the body of research slowly accumulating. There’s some science going on behind closed doors. And even though very few gym chains seem to have acknowledged this, I have confidence that it will continue to chip away at a defunct paradigm. If that means never having to hear advice on drop-set arm curls from a guy with frosted tips then it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
Geoff
“Defunct Paradigm”…..should have been the title of this piece!
What’s wrong with frosted tips ? hahaa.
Funny Stuff G. Funny ‘Cause it’s True!
I’m curious as to what (positive) effects you anticipate regulation would have on the fitness industry, especially considering the shoddiness of existing certifications.
That’s a good question. I don’t really know if regulation is even a possibility, to be honest. Things like manual therapy have a very clear mode of interaction between practitioner and client. When we move into the realm of advice, however, things get fairly ambiguous.
None of this really matters, though; even if certifications were held to a higher standard, no one can really legislate giving a shit.
The problem is really rooted in the fact that the fitness industry is built around a model of paid non-use. For a commercial gym, the more paying members who fail to show up, the better.
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cheap entry point + hard sell/appeal to conscience + human laziness = profit
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This equation allows for overselling services to a degree far beyond what any given facility could actually handle (were all members to actually show up). And I suspect that it actually rewards poorer results (on average). Scary.
It’s really up to the consumer to self-regulate. In my opinion, what will really change the system will be an increasing amount of knowledge about what works — not by big box gyms, but by the general public.
Like anything purely profit-driven, from Coca-Cola to McDonald’s, the product is just a means to a sale. However, if there’s greater education and expectation among consumers, they will (slowly) adjust to this.
Sure, the first few tentative steps will yield nonsense like vitamin water and low fat Happy Meals . . . The point is that the more people asking questions (and acting on that information), the more changes we’ll see.