Fitness injury opinions - rant

[Rivière]

I just saw something online from a fellow personal trainer. He made a post online stating that if a person doesn't get injured from time to time, they're not training hard enough.

The PT had posted a graphic image of their severe hamstring tear.

Underneath I'm so up in arms about it because that is not the kind of thing anyone, especially not a personal trainer, should EVER encourage.

I showed it to a friend and even they said it's almost as if the PT wanted to paint the injury as a good thing. I agree. It certainly came across that way.

Having that severe of an injury isn't a good thing, Not only could you cause yourself permanent damage, but it also puts you out of action for weeks, maybe months on end.

Of course, this PT has been involved in fitness for 20 years, is male, and in an amazing body shape. I feel like I'm disallowed from saying anything. I've been doing it for a quarter of that, and I'm female. Somehow time spent = being more knowledgeable.

There's that saying, train smarter, not harder.

His post is as if he's saying it's ok to have severe injuries like that. As if he's ENCOURAGING it.

I've had injuries from the gym, but nothing like that. The most are usually because I've been careless and not paid attention. Dropped a barbell on my foot (thankfully it was the bar only and I had shoes on so only caused bruising). Trapped my finger between some weight plates. Never ANYTHING like that.

I like that PT, but I feel like I just lost some of my respect for him.

[Everglow.]

That sounds really irresponsible of that trainer to post that, especially online where there will be impressionable people looking at that. It would make me very uncomfortable too and I fail to see how encouraging injruy, which would likely result in someone being unable to train, is beneficial to training. In my opinion, you're definitely not disallowed from saying anything based on the fact he's male and has been at it longer. Neither of those things mean that his way of working are better than yours, especially if his way of training people is likely to cause them harm. People can expect to get injured from time to time doing most things, but ti expect and promote serious injuries just seems dumb to me and I totally understand why you've lost a lot of respect for him.

I'm glad there are trainers who are not for that kind of training.

[Silvan]

Originally Posted by Rivière

I just saw something online from a fellow personal trainer. He made a post online stating that if a person doesn't get injured from time to time, they're not training hard enough.

The PT had posted a graphic image of their severe hamstring tear.

Underneath I'm so up in arms about it because that is not the kind of thing anyone, especially not a personal trainer, should EVER encourage.

I showed it to a friend and even they said it's almost as if the PT wanted to paint the injury as a good thing. I agree. It certainly came across that way.

Having that severe of an injury isn't a good thing, Not only could you cause yourself permanent damage, but it also puts you out of action for weeks, maybe months on end.

Of course, this PT has been involved in fitness for 20 years, is male, and in an amazing body shape. I feel like I'm disallowed from saying anything. I've been doing it for a quarter of that, and I'm female. Somehow time spent = being more knowledgeable.

There's that saying, train smarter, not harder.

His post is as if he's saying it's ok to have severe injuries like that. As if he's ENCOURAGING it.

I've had injuries from the gym, but nothing like that. The most are usually because I've been careless and not paid attention. Dropped a barbell on my foot (thankfully it was the bar only and I had shoes on so only caused bruising). Trapped my finger between some weight plates. Never ANYTHING like that.

I like that PT, but I feel like I just lost some of my respect for him.

Wow, just wow. It's unbelievable that anyone would post something like this, let alone a fitness coach.
I know it's difficult, especially if you're a female in a male-dominated industry. I'm sure you're an expert in your field - don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

[Rivière]

Thank you both, I appreciate it.

It's especially frustrating because this personal trainer is one that I work with. He's new to the gym but that's it.

I feel if I were to say anything, as with a lot of men, it'll be, 'I've been doing this for X amount of years, I know what I'm doing'. Personally I think a personal trainer can never 100% know what they're doing. There's always new science, and new things to learn.

The thing is, because he's been involved in fitness for 20 years, he should know better. Even if he was brand new I wouldn't excuse it. It's a matter of physical health. These are people's lives we're trying to change. One bad PT can ruin it for the rest of us.

Whenever I have a new client I always demonstrate the importance of performing exercises safely and effectively. I explain why it's important to do them in a specific way, as well as highlighting the dangers. PT's are meant to be educators.

[Dawn.]

I agree that a PT should never encourage a client to be injured. I've trained at the gym for a long time and have never been injured by a PT. Sore yes but never injured.

[Arabesque- golfing girl.]

Hello Sarah,

I hope you are doing a little bit better now and I also hope that writing this out has helped you to get how you are feeling out of you, so that you are not keeping it inside of you. We can enjoy working with someone at work or be friends with them or like how they are training or teaching something at another place, it is nice to see how other people are doing this. Then when something like this happens, we step back and look at the way they have been doing things and it can be upsetting and hurtful. You are great at what you do, try to always remember that and don't let anything else make you think that way. Sometimes people may not think about what they are doing and just do something that is not a good thing to do. I hope that you are doing okay now. Hugs