Wednesday June 18 2008 CrossFit The Woodlands WOD

A Day in the Life of a Commercial Gym Trainer

It’s 7a.m. and I have to get up and start my day.  “Are you freaking serious, 7 a.m.?”  My first stop before I get to work is Starbucks.  I must get my nutritious latte in before anyone gets my full attention.  As I walk through the doors at work the cold air from the A.C. unit hits me as if I was in the North Pole.  As I pass the front desk I give my shout outs to all the front desk workers.  YO BOBBY, what’s up.?  Bobby is my work out partner.  We are going to hit Bi’s and Tri’s hard as hell today.  I will get back to that later.  Now I’m heading back to the trainer area and I spot my client.  He looks pissed off.  Maybe it’s because I’m 15 min. late for the second time this week.  It’s not like he is paying $80 a session or anything.  Anyways, I greet him and tell him to meet me by the leg extension machine.  I have to get geared up before I start any session.  First I get my bands and put them around my neck.  Next I need to get a stability ball, foam roller, and bosu ball.  Damn, I only have two freaking hands and all this stuff to carry.  How do you expect me to get my clients the results they need.  I’m already pissed off because I did not see him wearing his body bug.  That’s o.k. because I will just make him do three more hours on the treadmill this week.  Finally, I make my way over to the leg extension and he has started without me.  SHIT, I left my latte, let me go and get it.  Back to the training session.  We are going to start with leg extension and super set that with leg press.  I tell my client to make sure he is really squeezing at the top of the lift to feel the muscle fibers burn.  Everyone knows if you don’t feel the burn then it is not working.  It also helps to hold your breath till your face turns red and let out a loud scream or fart.  This will help relieve some pressure.  Next is CORE WORK.  We have three exercises that we do that build up the core tremendously.  First we need some five pound dumbbells.  Even though my client has two left feet, I want him to stand single leg on the bosu ball, close his eyes, and do bicep curls with the five pound weights.  This CORE exercise will get you stronger in no time. “That’s if you can master the single leg eyes close thing first” This will make him squat perfect as well. The next exercise is, WAIT, Who the hell is that, I have never seen that girl here before.  Those things have got to be fake.  Let me text Bobby real quick and get him to come back here to check her out.  All of a sudden I hear this scream from my client.  WTF, he has twisted his ankle on the bosu ball while I was checking out this hottie.  Now I’m thinking to myself, what in the hell were you doing.  If your CORE was stronger that would not have happened.  Damn it, now I can’t go and talk to that girl.  This just pisses me off.  I have a hurt client, my latte is still not finished, and now I look like an idiot.  Everyone is looking at me because my client keeps screaming.  Calm down; we are only trying to help.  I can’t help but think this is only my first week doing this and they trust me with this guy’s life.  I mean seriously, I went through a whole week of training “yes, one whole week” and got the in house certification.  That makes me an expert and I got the freaking paper to prove it. What am I going to do now?  My fitness manager is on my ass about trying to get this guy to re-sign and he is going to be out for at least a month now.  My club manager is now making me take another class to be a better salesman.  I thought I was a trainer.  Aren’t we supposed to let the training sell itself?  Screw all this; I’m going back to waiting tables.  I QUIT!!! I make more money doing that and I don’t have to deal my all the B.S.  As I leave I’m so pissed off that I tell Bobby to get ready for the workout of his life, his Bi’s and Tri’s don’t stand a chance today. 

Scott Wells  www.crossfitthewoodlands.com Hopefully you understand the irony of thisWWW.CROSSFITTHEWOODLANDS.COM 

Hi everyone, my name is Scott Wells and I run a training facility called CrossFit The Woodlands.  Hopefully you know by now that the story you just read is very sarcastic but true.  I know this because I use to work for one of these commercial gyms and it was one of the best/ worse experiences of my life.  It was good because I did meet some intelligent people.  Notice I said some “as in a few”  It was bad because I realized if you are in one of these commercial gyms, you are not there to work out, you are there to meet someone.  A good workout is not based upon venue, it’s based upon individual.  If you can work hard and see results, you can be anywhere.  In my experience, I have never seen anyone in a commercial gym do a snatch, ever. I actually see a lot of circus acts and crazy thought up stuff that does not make any sense what so ever.  What happened to doing squats, deadlifts, presses, pull ups, alternating sets, and all the other true functional movements that you do everyday in life.  If people would keep their training simple we would all be in better shape.  If you can relate to the things I have said, then you might want to get your money back from that gym.  I would get the hell away from that place like it has the black plague.  When I look at these types of gyms, that is what I see.  It’s supposed to be a place to go for your health and fitness but you end up being poisoned and diseased with all the B.S. they feed you.  You pay outrageous prices for undereducated trainers, “and staff”, the quality of service is shit, and on top of that you still have to pay for your gym membership.  How much is that trainer really worth.  At CrossFit The Woodlands our prices are so affordable that money does not become the limiting factor to why you can’t train and improve yourself.   I’m not saying we are the end all be all of fitness but if you are willing to work hard and try it out, we will make you a believer.  Our fitness program is simple and realistic.  Come in for a free session and make the decision for yourself.  We have no sign up fees, no money down to start, and best of all, no salesmen.  If you want feel better about yourself, lose body fat/ weight, gain muscle and self confidence, then we let you make that decision for yourself.  Don’t hesitate to pull the trigger.  Time waits for no one.  Come in for your free session today and see why so many people are seeing results with the CrossFit training program. 

Scott Wells 

3 rounds of:

Burpees x 1min.

Jumping Pull ups x 1min.

Bear crawl x 1min.

Box jump x 1min.

Ball slam x 1min.

1 min. rest