What a crock!

After my last entry, I thought it might be interesting to see how much I have really changed. I took some personal training sessions last year at the local 24 Hour Fitness. Included in those sessions were a couple of measurements (before and after) to gauge my improvement, especially my body fat. There is a trainer at my new gym that could give me my current measurements, but I needed my old ones to verify what my eyes told me.

I spoke to the 24 Hour Fitness (of which I am still a member), and was told that yes they would still have my old measurements, but that I could only get them if I purchased new training sessions! A little irritated, I explained to the personal training manager that I was training for an Ironman, and that their training wasn’t of any interest to me unless they had someone who could give me swim lessons. They did, he said, they have a trainer who used to coach a swim team. As a bonus, if I got some sessions with her she would be able to access my measurements making it a double win. An hour later, Lisa from the gym called to invite me to the gym for a consult. I explained that I was looking for someone who could make me either swim faster with less effort, and was assured that she could help.

Thursday evening, after a 3 hour bike ride and 3.5 mile run, I went to the gym ready for a consult and to determine if she was going to be able to help me! As I completed some questionnaire, she reviewed the details from my last two swim sessions. She didn’t understand my shorthand, and as how I made it up myself that made sense. It also made sense when she asked me what drills I was doing. What didn’t make sense was when she asked me what purpose a certain drill served. Now I don’t know why one would swim with a closed fist, but I know it is common enough as they sell mitts that keep your hand in a fist. I wasn’t sure why I was explaining the purpose of a drill to my potential trainer, but I did.

Next she launched into a sales pitch for their nutrition supplements. I cut her off before she got too far, explaining that I am already working with a registered and licensed dietician. Later in the evening she told me she wanted to know what the dietician told me. I should have offered to sell her the information! Her next pitch was for me to purchase a Body Bug. For those of you not familiar with this product, it is something that you wear on your bicep, and it measures how many calories you burn. I hadn’t thought about using that, and it makes sense. She wasn’t too thrilled when I told her I already had access to one, but offered to register it to me so I could enter my food and calories on their web site (a fee based service). That’s too much work, but I would like to know how many calories I’m burning daily, and that is done for free by the Body Bug.

Her third sales pitch was for weight training. I agree that might be helpful, but I’m already doing 10-12 hours of exercise a week, and don’t have the time or energy to add more. I explained to her for the third time that all I was interested in were swim lessons. I’m still not sure that she heard me.

Finally we got up to check my current measurements, and I was pretty excited! When I’d last done training at this gym my body fat had measured in the high teens. Since then I’d lost almost 10 pounds, several inches, and looked much better. I was secretly thinking to myself that I might be hitting 14-15, and was checking the chart to see how I would stack up. Then she hit me with 24%, 2% away from being obese! A lot of thoughts went through my head at that point, as I started to shut down, but the recurring theme was that she was full of crap! I murmured something and walked with her to the pool for a swim evaluation.

The pool evaluation consisted of a 100M swim. When I was done, she told me that I was breathing hard, and not kicking very much which was making it harder for me to stay level, resulting in slower swim times. Duh! Thinking back on our initial conversation I’m pretty sure I told her that myself! Her solution: buy some training sessions and we will work with weights on upper body strength. We could, if I wanted, spend some time working in the pool with weights.

To be fair to Lisa, strengthening my upper and core body would help my swim, and nutrition is a key part of endurance racing. To be fair to me, she offered nothing that I didn’t already have covered with someone more infinitely qualified. My workouts are set by a professional and internationally ranked triathlete, my diet and nutrition is set by a registered and licensed dietician, and I can get core body workouts by someone who looks like Adonis, not the Michelin Man!

For anyone listening, this is what I gleamed from my consultation at 24 Hour Fitness:
1. They will tell a member anything to get them in the door to meet with a personal trainer.
2. The trainer’s job is to sell their nutrition products (even though similar products can be found much cheaper elsewhere), to sell the Body Bug and web site subscription, and finally to sell training sessions.
3. The trainer’s motto: sell them above regardless of what they want, ask for, or need. If they don’t use it or it doesn’t work, we still made the sale.

I was told they had a qualified swim coach to get me to come to the table. I was told I was almost obese so I would want training. I was told to buy their supplements when it might not coincide with my existing plan, and finally they tried to sell me weight room training when I wanted swim lessons.

24 Hour Fitness, I hope you are listening! I’ve got my membership, and I plan to use your pool as long as it is cold. As far as your supplements and training sessions, come and talk to me when you are interested in helping me and not your bottom line! Until then, you know what you can do with them!!