Have a Clue….
A word of advice to any personal trainers who happen to read this blog: KNOW YOUR CLIENTS and what they’re capable of.
I accompanied my girlfriend to a local gym yesterday because she’s looking for something that’s closer to home. Oh, how I miss working in a commercial gym and the plethora of material I would have for blogs and articles from all the absurd stuff I would see on a daily basis.
In the ten minutes that I was there I saw some goofy stuff, but nothing as bad as watching another trainer put her client (also female) through a plyometric workout.
Plyometrics for ANY “newbie” is questionable, but this was just brutal. I literally cringed when I saw this trainer have her client perform alternating lunge jumps. Each time the poor girl jumped up in the air and landed, her hip would internally rotate and her knee would cave in each and every time her foot made contact with the ground. I was half expecting to see an ACL injury right then and there. Needless to say, it did not look pretty. Donald Trump dressed in drag would have looked prettier.
I will never understand why some trainers will use advanced training protocols with de-conditioned clients. It just doesn’t make sense. Actually, I do know why…..they want to look unique and different from other trainers. As a result they resort to more advanced tactics thinking it will make them look good.
We as fitness professionals need to know our clients and what they’re capable of doing. Someone who is fat doesn’t need some advanced fat loss program which includes HIIT and complexes and what not; they just need to freakin move. Advanced programs won’t help them shed fat any quicker. Someone who can’t even land on the ground correctly, doesn’t need to be doing advanced plyometric training; they need to strengthen their posterior chain (rack pulls, pull-thru’s, lunges, squats, etc), and just get stronger in general. Then and only then will they be proficient enough to get into the positions you want them to get into without risking injury. Basics people, basics.
