Lifetime Fitness Personal Trainers

[David Lee]

So I was squatting Friday a.m. when one of the trainers brings a client to the rack next to me & proceeds to teach the squat. I'm used to this, as I watch them teach people how to high-bar 1/4 squat improperly all the time. This time he has the hooks at shoulder height and the biggest bar pad(way up on the neck) I've ever seen. The guy had to tippy toe it out & it see-sawed back & forth the whole time he had it on his back--I was really surprised he did not lose it & hurt some people. I saw one of the trainers I know(he can kind of get people close to a sort of decent squat) Saturday night at a fight party & after a few drinks had to ask him about it. He told me the trainers there are given no instruction whatsoever on how to perform or teach any of the barbell lifts which they have clients doing all day long.

This probably doesn't surprise you, but it did me. He also told me some stories about the people he'd seen them injure--that did not surprise me.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Yes, this is truly shocking.

[Sean Herbison]

I feel like we already have an entire 1855-page thread for stuff like this.

[mev20]

I train at a Lifetime Fitness. (It's nice and only about 1 mile from my house.) This does not surprise me at all. I see a lot of dumb stuff taking place there, but the dumbest stuff is consistently under the instruction of various personal trainers. Maybe it's the time I train (8-10pm), but I've never seen the same personal trainer regularly working with the same client. I suspect most of what I see are people getting a free introductory session and never returning for more. Consistent with that, I've never seen a personal trainer record anything related to a trainee's workout.

The last personal training session that I witnesses had a trainee holding a plank position while alternating high fives with the crouching trainer. I'm pretty sure most of their "programming" involves looking around the gym for whatever is available at that moment and trying to add some little twist (like high fives) to make it seem like something more than the trainee could have read in any/every random fitness magazine, including the free one that comes with the Lifetime membership.

[I_iz_a_fatass]

A fairly large proportion of commercial gym PTs are to training what Jonestown Flavor-aide is to kid's drinks.

[Michael Wolf]

I'm pretty sure most of their "programming" involves looking around the gym for whatever is available at that moment and trying to add some little twist (like high fives) to make it seem like something more than the trainee could have read in any/every random fitness magazine, including the free one that comes with the Lifetime membership.

This is a succinct way to describe, probably, 95% of personal training.

[JimmyD]

If you saw how I got my PT qualification you would be dumb founded,
It was though a work scheme company (also called lifetime but not same as above) they basically get bonus's for x amount of people passing.

I did a 12 week program/nutrition plan I said to my tutor "do you want to check it?" She said "no it's fine" I passed.
Never took me through any lifting mechanics or form I actually knew more than her and at the time I knew nothing (though I thought at the time I was brilliant of course)

I feel cheated, my qualification is worthless,
Everything I know is from learning same way as everyone else on here and the only difference is I have a shitty bit of paper!

Ridiculous

[JasonJones]

At no point during any of the many, many personal training courses I've taken was instruction given on how to properly perform any barbell exercise. (To it's credit, my "Advanced Strength Training" course did indicate that all athletes must squat).

Perhaps once a month somebody comes in to the commercial gym I work at with a real pair of weightlifting shoes and a Best Belt and gets under the bar and performs a properly executed low-bar back squat. I usually find an excuse to talk to them to let them know that at least one of the trainers has a reasonable idea what they're doing.

We need a nickname to refer to ourselves, Those That Have Read The Literature. I suggest "Man of the Iron Cloth." Then when we see each other at commercial gyms we can remark on our mutual status, perhaps performing a Secret Handshake.

[MBasic]

I feel like we already have an entire 1855-page thread for stuff like this.

Yes, I'm surprised the thread didn't get "moved"...

Yes, I've posted there about Lifetime Weakness many times....last time, trainer was overseeing woman doing front squats with her HEALS ON THE EDGE OF PLATFROM/TOES.ON FLOOR. To accomplish A 3"-4" RAISED HEAL.

I used to think Cross fit was stupid (still kinda do)...about some things anyways. Lifetime might be the biggest globo, with a legion of unqualified PTs that gets no one anywhere...and take the most amount of money from their prey. So I guess its especially offensive, thus posted here?

[Joe Murphy]

I have this scheme in my head of sending someone in to meet one-on-one with each of the dozen or so trainers at my gym/club/spa with the direction to tell the trainer that "I want to get STRONG! What should I do?" There is one guy who knows exactly, another who looks like he does but I kinda doubt it and a new guy who probably does. I've been a member at this club for a dozen years and been lifting there for 3-4 days a week for 3 straight years. No matter what, every single time I see a trainer with a new client, the trainer has the client doing the EXACT same thing he had the previous client doing. The clients' goals can't all be exactly the same... or can they?