Don’t be misled about what the free orientation you receive with your membership is for. It’s not to get you acclimated to what the gym has to offer. It is not to teach you how to use the equipment. In fact, it’s most often completely the opposite. You have already signed up. The gym has your money, for at least a year in most cases. You are now theirs. Yet it wants more. Much more.
That’s right. The goal of the orientation at most gyms is not to educate you on how to work out, but rather to freak you out. Big time. To show you that you don’t know squat. To make the gym out to be a scary, complicated place. To subtly convince you that you need help, lots of help. And that the trainer is just the person who can do it. For just $90 per hour.
The more scared the person giving the orientation can make you, the more sessions he can ultimately sell giving the orientation can make you, the more sessions he can ultimately sell you. Will it take twenty sessions to learn what you need to do? No way. You’ll need at least a fifty-pack.
Personal Trainers Are Promoted on the Basis of Sales, Not Certifications
I know, I know, That’s not what the literature at your gym says. There are all sorts of tiers different tiers for different trainers, supposedly based on education, experience, and number of certifications. The trainers who possess the most of all three criteria are supposed to be the “highest-level” trainer and therefore the most expensive. Not at all. It’s simple economics.
Gyms make lots and lots of money off of personal training. The more sessions they sell and the more expensive the sessions, the more money they make. If they have a trainer who is in demand, it behooves the gym to “promote” that person as fast as possible. The mere fact that the trainer has many clients gives off the impression that he or she must be really good at training, whereas in fact he or she may just be really good at selling. Quite often the quality.
If Your Trainer Looks as if He’s on Steroids, He Probably Is
I’ve worked with many, many trainers who were taking steroids or who had taken them in the past. They were big, too big. Unnaturally large. A little too taken them in the past. They were big, too big. Unnaturally large. A little too perfect. As your mother told you, if it looks too good to be true, it most often is. Don’t be fooled. It never ceases to amaze me how few “real” people can tell when someone is on steroids.
If Your Gym Offers Overnight Locker Rentals, Rent a Locker
I can’t emphasize enough how important this is. It can make the difference between your using the gym once every two weeks or five times per week. Many gyms have both daily-use lockers that you can use for free and overnight lockers that you can rent by the month or year. Though it might seem like a frivolous expense, it is not. If you can afford to rent a locker, even if it seems a little expensive, do it. Doing so will increase the number of times you work out exponentially. You can stock it with everything you need: clothes, sneakers, deodorant, hairbrush, toothbrush, and even postworkout bars, and drinks. Whether you go to the gym or not depends on its convenience.
