Things Most Fitness Instructors Fail To Tell You

The gym is a sacred place, where you can push yourself, progress, grow, hone your ability to focus and achieve self-improvement.

The discipline, self-control and work ethic you cultivate within the gym walls tends to carry over to other aspects of your life, making you a more confident, complete, and self-assured individual.

But, have you ever stopped to think about your fitness instructor? You know, the guy or lady who pushes you to break a sweat, while screaming ‘No pain, No gain’ in your ears so you never forget how hard it is to actually stay fit. While there are lots of things they tell you, there’s much more you don’t get to know (and you probably don’t think about or ask).

Here are just a few things most fitness instructors fail to tell you.

1.   Fitness instructors know way more than they want to about clients

Think about the bartender, how much does he really get to hear from everyone that comes by the counter for a drink, and after a few tots, they begin to pour their hearts out to him?Well, same thing with fitness instructors.

They may start off as just your regular personal trainer, but over time, they progress to being your psychologist and life coach. And they know this, but they don’t tell you.

Once clients get to know their instructors, they tend to open up to them about their kids, families, and so many other personal stories.What clients don’t know though is that it’s fine with the instructors because they know you need a listening ear, right?

2.   They watch your every move

Just when you thought no one sees how sweaty you get, or your grunting while at the gym, and all those human quirks, fitness instructors actually see it all. They know the gym members who just pop in to hit their monthly quotas and please their employers, so they can pay for their membership.

They also know what happens at the locker rooms, like the guy who flirts with all the ladies, or the one who takes off his toupee to blow-dry and comb it before putting it back on and leaves the gym looking prim and proper. Nothing goes unnoticed.

3.   Gym equipment is placed strategically where you can see it 

Gyms know that most people would want easier and less frequent workouts, at least to start with, so they hide the potentially intimidating equipment from those with less serious fitness goals. In this way, challenging equipment like climbing machines, or weight benches are hidden from plain view, and other such equipment is hidden in the back.

So what you see, as a potential new customer, is probably the cardio machines and ellipticals as they are much easier to use, and won’t get your heart rate up. You still get to burn calories.

4.   Yoga mats are probably filthy

Pregnancy is the time when most women are regular to gym for Yoga and back exercising. Filth is one of the main things that would turn them off and most gyms or fitness clubs know this. Dirty gyms will cost them more members, especially the female ones, but your fitness instructor normally wouldn’t tell you how often these mats are cleaned.

The gym may say they clean the mats regularly, but that would be even once a week, and the mats tend to be bacteria breeding grounds. When you imagine that someone else’s sweaty back or bare feet were on that mat, you wouldn’t go back there, would you?

5.   Your fitness instructor may not be certified

Most fitness instructors are not necessarily certified to the levels we would expect.In fact, some are just required to do a three-day training course, with no background in any kind of fitness, physical education, or healthy.

While this may be the case, it doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t care about keeping you from injuring yourself or helping you get in better shape.But, just because they can show you how to do some moves, doesn’t mean those moves are good for you. Always check the fine print on the contract you sign when joining the gym: the facility and its employees are released from any liability in the event that you get hurt.

6.   If you don’t show up at the gym, it’s good for them

This doesn’t mean your fitness instructor doesn’t like you, or his job.

Most big gyms make money by having as many members as they can, thus they end up accommodating more than they can handle. So, when you slack on your workout goals and don’t show up at the gym, they’re relieved. 

This is more about how many people the gym can accommodate at a go. For example, if they had about 7,000 members, and can only hold about 400 people at a time, max, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with everything, right?

So they don’t necessarily want all their members coming in at one time.

7.   Group exercise isn’t about you, it’s about them 

Fitness clubs and gyms tend to lose about 50 percent of their members year-to-year, so they resorted to easier ways of keeping members by getting them involved in group exercises like kickboxing or yoga. These are very attractive to large groups of people because of accountability, plus the challenge that comes with working out with other people.

Actually, a survey by Nielsen revealed that gym members who participate in group exercises are more likely to recommend the gym to their friends and family, plus they stay longer.

The social engagements become important terms of why clients keep going back, but it helps the gym retain its members too.

A good fitness instructor is an important part of our workout success as we rely on their expertise on our journey to better health. While there are times they seem the least unrelatable or a little mystical, they fail to let us know some things for reasons best known to them.

These seven are just a few we thought you should know. But there’s a whole lot more to learn if you’re keen enough.