Three Reasons Why I Hate “Fitness”
By
Jason Nunn
In a world full of fast food and high dollar gourmet coffee houses, fitness
has become somewhat of a joke, and the major players in the game are doing
nothing to help matters. By major players, I mean those monstrous facilities
with all of their chrome machines, pencil neck trainers, and high pressure sales
people. These are the three reasons I hate the term “fitness.”
Reason #1
More and more money is being spent on silly, useless machines. Twenty years
ago, the reason people worked out was to accent their already active lifestyles.
Now, working out is the only activity most people get. Most people wake up in
the morning, sit in their car on the way to work, sit all day at work, and sit
in front of the television all evening. The last thing these people need to do
is more seated activity. These people need to get up and move! Currently, eighty
percent of Americans suffer low back pain. The American Pain Association states
that pain affects more Americans than diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and
cancer combined. Without getting into the specifics regarding assessment and
corrective exercises, I’ll tell you that this pain has become almost a way of
life for most Americans, and it’s due to the type of twenty-first century living
mentioned earlier.
The fact is no matter how you look at it, you get more bang for your buck
doing the traditional, feet on the floor exercises. No machine can mimic the
amount of stability it takes to walk a heavy squat out of a rack. Likewise, if
you’ve ever struggled to lock out a heavy push press, you know that there isn’t
any seated shoulder press machine that even comes close to that. The bottom line
is if your goal is to get stronger, build muscle, or lose fat, most machines
currently being used are a waste of time. Good machines—ones that most fitness
places buy but rarely get used—are ones that involve multiple planes of motion
and have the feet in contact with the floor. These can be purchased by any major
manufacturer.
Reason #2
I recently had the laughable experience of visiting one of the above
mentioned fitness facilities. (Notice I’m not calling them gyms. That would
imply actual training was being done.) As I looked around at the training staff,
I witnessed some pretty funny things. I noticed that most of the trainers were
sporting skin-tight shirts and blond, highlighted hair gelled into one of those
trendy wanna be Mohawks. They fit into every stereotype of a personal trainer.
They seemed as though they were more concerned with how cool they looked than
the validity of the training they were performing.
We’ve all witnessed these guys. They are the ones who have no rhyme or reason
to the training they’re providing, but if you ask them, they’ll tell you it’s
“functional.” Another catch phrase I hate. Most of the trainers (I use that term
loosely) in these facilities have no idea what the term actually means, or they
have no idea how to implement these exercises into their programs. Generally
speaking, these individuals don’t have the type of “under the bar” experience it
takes to put together a well thought out training program. With the advent of
the internet, people are being exposed to more information than ever.
The job of the fitness professional is to discern which information is true
and which is rubbish. I really question the credibility of anyone who received
their personal training certification through the internet. Right now, anyone
can log on to the internet, take a test, and become “certified.” I would have a
very hard time trusting someone who went on one of these “fitness” websites with
one of my loved ones.
There needs to be some sort of accountability for these trainers. Nail
technicians and cosmetologists both have to have state licenses to practice
their craft. Currently, trainers do not. I’m not trying to belittle anyone’s
profession here, but if these two make a mistake, the customer’s hair may be a
shade off or her nail polish may not match. An uneducated trainer could kill
someone! The question I’m asking is why is there no standard like this for
trainers? I guess I’ll just have to take this up with the powers that be
personally.
Reason #3
There is nothing more off-putting than a high pressure sales person. If you
have a good product, you don’t have to use sleazy tactics to sell it. A person
shouldn’t have buyer’s remorse for purchasing your product. During the above
mentioned health club visit, I was literally cornered in the sales office for
twenty minutes while the sales associate and his manager tried to figure out
ways to entice me to purchase their membership. In the past ten years, I’ve done
quite well for myself in the fitness industry by not using any of these sales
tactics. Like I mentioned earlier, I believe in the product my coworkers and I
offer. So I don’t have to be a used car salesman to sell my product. I simply
show potential clients what I can do, and my results speak for themselves.
Currently, only fifteen percent of Americans belong to health clubs. Of
those, only about twenty percent are actually using their membership. The number
one reason most of these people aren’t using their membership is that they
didn’t get the results they were trying to achieve. The reason these people feel
as though they didn’t get the results they wanted was they told the sales person
they wanted to lose weight. But in reality, they’re making the huge,
intimidating decision to enter this monstrosity of a health club because their
life sucks. They probably have a bad sex life. They have no fun. They’re
depressed. Their job is terrible. And their marriage sucks. They want to fix all
of that with fitness. So as soon as they tried fixing all of these problems, the
club put them with sleazy sales guy and fake, Mohawk trainer guy. The two of
them probably gave them the same unrealistic goals the latest AB infomercial did
and sold them their membership and worthless training. No wonder they quit three
weeks later because they didn’t get the results they wanted!
The obesity trend in the United States is alarming. There needs to be a
serious paradigm shift in the way the fitness industry does business. Right now,
those huge health clubs focus solely on volume rather than service. So they get
their customer in the door, sign their contract, and forget about them after
that. There isn’t any service after the sale.
Instead of focusing on volume, health clubs would have a very dramatic impact
on the livelihood of most Americans as well as the perception of the industry as
a whole if they focused on providing solutions to their members. I know you’re
probably saying, “But not all people can afford personal training.” My response
is this—there are always options. I’m not saying that every person who works out
needs a personal trainer. I’m saying that the health clubs and trainers should
do a better job helping their members. For example, they can provide free,
monthly seminars on various topics or form semi-private training groups. The
bottom line is the fitness industry as a whole needs a serious face lift. It
needs to reinvent itself by selling solutions, not just equipment and image.
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for
Health Statistics, Data from the National Health Interview Survey
Jason Nunn is a performance coach at Next Level Fitness Group in
Plainfield, Indiana. He works with a clientele that ranges from high school and
elite college level athletes to weekend warriors. Check out their website at
nextlevelfitnessgroup.com. Jason can be reached at
Jason_nunn@yahoo.com.
Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength
training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products
and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the
industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories, visit
us at www.EliteFTS.com.
