PLAY HARD,
WORK HARD
By transforming workouts into play sessions you can help
new clients and old get more from their training.
WORDS: ANDREW CHADWICK
s a trainer you have a huge array of equipment to choose
from when training your clients. Things that isolate, things
that integrate, things that manipulate and, to quote C+C
Music Factory (Google it!), things that make you go hmmmm... So,
how do you know what type of equipment to use with each client?
How do you know what to use for strength, for fat loss, for overall
wellness and for corrective exercises? You may love a specific tool,
but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be the right fit for your
client, or that they will even feel safe using it.
Imagine that you’re a current non-exerciser who is thinking about
joining a fitness facility. You’ve walked past the gym a few times and
thought ‘today’s the day’. You get to the front door but NO – you just
can’t do it. You walk past dozens more times over the next few weeks,
eventually getting the courage up to walk through the door and, finally,
you do it – you join. You set a date with a trainer and you show up.
You’re already nervous and intimidated. Then, because you said
you’d like to ‘tone up’, you’re in the free weights area lifting a barbell.
You’ve never done this before – never even been in this part of a gym
before – and the thought of using some of this stuff is actually pretty
intimidating. You’re surrounded by sweating, grunting behemoths and
apparent fitness models, having your form corrected by your trainer,
being given seemingly endless cues to improve your technique, and
being bombarded with technical terms such as scapula and glutes –
oh, and don’t forget to ‘switch on that core’. The session wraps up and
the trainer asks if you’d like to come back and do it all again. You’re still
not sure what just happened – in fact you’re fairly certain everything you
did was just plain wrong for the past 45 minutes of your life and you’re
already starting to feel some discomfort in areas of your body that you
haven’t felt in years. Dazed and confused, you decide that no, maybe
that area of the gym (and that trainer) just isn’t for you.
What if it didn’t have to be like that? Don’t get me wrong,
technique is important and if you love lifting weights, then go for it.
Some beginners will enjoy such ‘traditional’ exercises, but for many,
this isn’t the best place to start their fitness journey. Although it may
not be the only reason, I believe that the intimidating environment of
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10 | NETWORK AUTUMN 2016