I’ve had the opportunity to work with some amazing people in the fitness industry. And I have tried to look at each interaction as a learning opportunity. These learning opportunities have provided me with insight. And I use that insight to learn more about the industry and its trends, and also for self-growth and understanding.
One of the most important things I’ve learned is how the industry continuously devalues the work of personal trainers. Often this devaluation is so subtle that it passes unseen, unless one takes a critical hot knife to its buttery exterior.
As such, I figured I would write a piece where I share some of the insight I have gained from my experience working as a health and fitness pro.
I think that the devaluation process happens as a result of three interconnected categories. They are:
- 1) Pushing myths about health and fitness
- 2) Pushing the myth of overworking
- 3) Clubs/Gyms Gaslighting the trainers
1) Pushing Myths About Health and Fitness
Myth-Information:
Myths about health and fitness are bloody RAMPANT! I used to joke that 50% of my job was coaching people and 50% was busting myths. But I’ve realized that, over time, coaching people gets easier. You find a groove as you get better at your craft. Myth-information as I like to call it, on the other had, spreads like wildfire! Now it’s more like 20% is coaching and 80% is myth busting
People hear soundbites and buzzwords and immediately hop on the bandwagon. Intermittent fasting is best for losing weight! HIIT training is better for cardio! Vegan diets are the best! Deadlifts are bad for your back! Squats are bad for your knees! Carbs are evil! There is no shortage. But what all these buzzwords and soundbites have in common is that they lack so much context.
Evidence is cherry picked, studies with very narrow research scope are taken as the golden rule, books written by unqualified people are quoted. And the frustrating part is that myth-information spreads faster than anyone can bust it. It takes about 3-5 seconds for someone to say something stupid but scary, like “Red meat will give you cancer!”. It can take hours to find relevant research to disprove, explain, and educate.
Shady Opportunties:
I’ve come to learn that myth-information are great opportunities for the Health and Fitness industry. The H & F industry uses it as an opportunity to capitalize on people’s fears, insecurities, gullibility, and lack of knowledge.
As a result, we see dumb supplements like “Grow more muscle with this!”. And “Lose more weight with that!”. Oh and don’t forget detox diets! I still remember when hot Yoga first came on the scene here in the west, and every white-western Yoga instructor was going on about how it helps you “sweat out the toxins”. BARF!
But gyms and clubs love this stuff! And they advertise specifically with that in mind. People who don’t know any better are likely to buy what you sell them, if you package it just right. “Fat is bad”, here’s some “research” to prove it, now buy this supplement, sign up for this class, buy my product, and you’ll be fine.
But this sort of incredibly disingenuous propaganda does so much more harm than good. It keeps people hurdling down a path of self-loathing that is rooted in a scam. A scam that is perpetuated by prying on people’s fears and insecurities and lack of knowledge.
My Job As A H & F Professional
As such, my job becomes less about educating people, and helping them learn how to move better, to pacifying their insecurities. Less and less people are interested in understanding in exploring the amazing things their bodies are capable of. More and more want to know how to lose weight and look shredded. More and more people are interested in goals and not in the journey. And that is how my work is devalued.
I’ve worked with people who believed that my job was literally just to tell them which exercises to do in order to lose the flab under their arms/belly/thighs, to count their reps, and do it all with a smile. Needless to say I didn’t work very long with those people. If you expect me to cater to soundbites and buzzwords, to myth-information, then it shows a lack of respect for my profession and what I do.
I believe it is important to still try and educate people, which is why I try to be as honest and transparent as possible when I first meet them. A kind of “this is what I don’t do, this is what I can help you with” approach. But when I notice too much resistance to being patient about the results of your investment, well then it is best to part ways.
2) Pushing Myths About Overworking
A classic tactic that anyone whose had a job knows about is when a company/owner/manager tries to convince the trainer more work = more $$. Ok…but at what expense? There is a limit to how many clients I can see in a day. Due to the physical, mental, and emotional energy that I bring into every session, the job takes a toll. I don’t simply want to bark orders at my clients, and set up machines and weights for them. I want to give them an experience, engage with them, learn about them, feel with them etc. All that effort requires energy. And, trust me, at the end of the day of being on your feet and doing all that you’re pretty much done.
So to have the manager/owner come around afterward and say “you need to do more, that’s not enough” is pretty disrespectful and audacious. It relies on this myth that the person somehow has infinite energy, and can recover from any amount of stress from work/overwork.
Yes, more work technically means more money. But it also means more fatigue, more need for recovery, less time with family and friends, less time pursuing anything else (hobbies, side projects etc). Thus ensuring that the person is on a hamster wheel that powers the company, and only the company. Any time the person might have to focus on anything else, be it leisure, education, socializing, is eaten up for what? 25$-50$/hour? That is Life-Time. It is time that you will never, ever get back. Overworking is for suckers. and there is one born every minute. There I said it.
A Toxic Environment
This inevitably starts creating a toxic environment, where other trainers start doing the gaslighting/bullying work of the company. People start comparing their metrics, and the ones who are able to do more begin to brag about their performance. Furthermore, on top of bracing they also ridicule those who they see as doing less for the company.
Aside from that behaviour being rude, it’s incredibly ableist and ignorant. It perpetuates the idea that everyone should be able to perform at the same high level as everyone else. Older personal trainers should be able to show up as early as the young trainers, and stays as late. Trainers who are neurodiverse should perform the same as those who are neurotypical. People with mental illness must be able to produce the same amount as those with out…or else they should quit, be out, be terminated etc.
This is all coming from the same industry that professes to care about people’s Health and Fitness. But that’s ok, because the more you work, the more money you make…oh and you’ll get accolades, a bottle of wine, maybe a nice gift certificate. But at what expense?
3) Clubs/Gyms Gaslighting Trainers
If I had to pick one word to describe how H & F industry treats personal trainers and coaches it would be ‘Gaslighting’. Gaslighting, which happens when you actively try to deny, invalidate, or trivialize someone else’s lived experience, is how companies push their workers to do more for less.
Typical Gaslighting phrases I’ve heard used, to bully people to work more for less:
-“you’re not tired, you’re just lazy! So and So has worked 10 hours more than you this week!”
-“What do you mean you want time off to spend with your newborn? Do you even want to work here anymore?”
-“You’re just trying to hurt the company with that kind of thinking/behaviour”
-“After all we have done for you? Maybe you should try going somewhere else!”
-“Pay you more? But you already make a lot…”
I could keep on going but you get the idea. Convincing workers that their fatigue, desire to be with their family, request for more pay amounts to whining/complaining, losing passion, being ungrateful, is a form of bullying. And it’s quite harmful because it aims to build a sort of insecurity based on performance shaming. That you should feel guilty and shameful if you aren’t constantly pushing to produce more profit for the company.
Closing Thoughts
I want to say “closing” and not “final” thoughts, because I’m nowhere near done with my thoughts on this. Many other people, much more knowledgeable that I am, have written about this. But I will keep adding to it.
We have heard time and time again that those without much in their life tend to fill it with more work. And I find myself wondering: is it that they don’t have much, or is it that the perpetual hamster wheel has stifled their ability to focus on anything else besides work. Could it be that the constant barrage of bullying, gaslighting, guilt, and shame that is pushed on us by Capitalism and Performance culture hinders our ability to connect? I am convinced it’s the latter.
The Health and Fitness industry as a whole is more concerned with profits than actual Health and Fitness. Or rather, your health and fitness matter only insofar as you can afford to pay for them. And I’m not going to sit here and say that profit is bad, and people shouldn’t work to earn a living to some degree. But again, I ask, at what expense? Do we really need to be constantly bullied into working and performing? I’m pretty sure people can and will figure that out for themselves. But companies don’t grow and expand on workers with a mentality of “I am comfortable, and take what I need”. Companies grow and expand through exploiting workers for as much as they can get away with
So if an company owner or a manager can convince 10 workers to spend 6-8 less hours/week with your family so you can generate an extra 200-300$…Well, think of how that can add up over the course of a month, or a year.