When I went to PT school, I mentioned my background in weightlifting, and was told, "People won't be interested in strength training, particularly women."
I decided that rather than asking PTs what potential clients wanted, I'd ask potential clients. And of course, just about nobody said, "I want to snatch 100kg" or whatever. What the did say was "my back hurts" or "I get puffed going up stairs" or "I feel tired all the time" or they'd pinch their belly or upper arm flab and say, "I want to get rid of this, what's this?" Or sadly, "My wife won't touch me."
And I said, "Well, I'm going to teach you to squat, press and deadlift, plus a couple of other things, add in a daily walk and eating three cups of vegies, and that should help."
And of course it did help. With weights, we can change lives. I ignored what I was told and put my lifters first.
Those who have only been in the industry a few years don't realise how much it's changed over the years. We can tell you, but to really grasp it you had to have been there. My first month in the gym as a trainer I was called into the office to talk to the manager who cautioned me against getting people to squat below parallel - ie, properly.
I was told in that caution, "The industry standard is just above parallel."
"Okay. Where is this written down for me to consult?"
"Um, it's not. People just know."
"But there are thousands of exercises. Back squat, front squat, snatch, clean, jerk, press, bench, leg press, lat pulldown, seated cable rows, dumbbell curls, and so on. Nobody can just know. There must be a textbook somewhere. Tell me, I'd like to learn."
"Well... people just know."
"Oh okay, I see. Well how about this. So that guy I train, you know him? He's 165kg, obviously he couldn't squat on day one. So he squatted to a bench. I loaded him up. Then take away the load, lower the bench. Then add a load. And so on. Until he was squatting below parallel. Took about six weeks. Does that seem okay?"
"Yes, they can squat below parallel if they're conditioned to it."
"How do I know if they're conditioned to it?"
"You have to use your professional judgement."
"Okay. So what you're telling me is that if in my professional judgement the person can squat below parallel, they should do so."
"Um... yes."
"Thanks."
And then I got up and left the office and continued getting everyone to squat below parallel. I ignored what I was told, and put my lifters first.
A few years later I had a client who had a gym member come up and abuse her for dropping her cleans with the bumper plates on (that's the purpose of bumper plates, to make dropping the bar safe). She cried. Management backed the abuser. Later management took me along while they did a risk assessment on the barbells and bumper plates. At first they assessed the risk as high. Then I pointed out, "Well, we do similar movements with dumbbells -"
"This isn't about dumbbells."
"I know, I know. But dumbbells have similar movements. And they've been here for years. So you obviously found some solution to make sure the dumbbells were safe for members to use. Perhaps we could use a similar solution for the barbells?" I paused while they shuffled their feet awkwardly. "Unless, of course, we never did a risk assessment for the dumbbells? In which case if the barbells turn out to be unsafe, we'd have to do an assessment for the dumbbells. And of course it might be that say the 5kg dumbbell is fine, but the 50kg isn't. So we'd have to do a separate risk assessment for every pair of dumbbells in the gym. Wow, we could be doing this for weeks..."
Suddenly the manager decided that barbells weren't that dangerous after all. I'd won that battle, but knew I'd lose the war. And I didn't want to spend my time fighting management and clueless gym members, I wanted to save my energy and attention for the people who actually mattered - my lifters. I ignored what I was told, and put my lifters first.
Amusing interactions when I tell you about them. But now imagine that this is your life in the gym every single day for years. There's always some clueless manager looking over your shoulder, some other trainer whose clients stuff about doing partial squats and curls on a bosu ball second-guessing and gossipping about you, and some wussy gym members complaining about chalk and plates being dropped.
Every day.
For years.
But you persist, because your clients come first, always.
And that's why in 2014 I left and went into my dusty garage. In a globogym effective training will only be ever be tolerated, not supported. At ACE, effective training is encouraged. Lifters first, always.