I recently visited what I consider to be one of the best gyms in the area as a guest over the Christmas holidays and I am always amazed at how beautiful it all is with the gorgeous views and the latest kit all looking modern and techy. It almost convinces me they know what they are doing in terms of exericse. They no doubt offer a relaxing and social experience and it is clean and welcoming. But what they make up for in style they lose in substance. When it comes to whats inside the gym, unfortunately they are still very out of touch.
The machines in there are updated and modern and probably boost the latest technology as resistance machines go. But the good stuff is actually located on the floor……and not plugged in.
Gym Machines don’t promote good biomechanics.
The resistance and cardio machines that large gyms use to market themselves as leaders in the fitness industry are very useless for our human biomechanics. I always used to wonder why as fitness instructors we were coached on fixed machines when we first did our training. Most of the population at the moment sit and drive too much and its funny that when they want to “ get in shape “ they go to a local gym and get an “induction” which typically consists of exercises that involve sitting down??
Here is a typical gym induction: ( I used to give this about 20 years ago back in Canada and am shocked to still hear the same things are given now…..especially when we know better as an industry. )
10 min on the bike (seated)
10 min on the rower (seated in flexion ) or the cross trainer
10 min on the treadmill (to which most people hold onto the rail rather than walk properly)
Followed by a series of 2-3 sets of 10-20 reps on various machines (all seated…..)
Chest press or chest fly
Back rowing
Lat Pull down
Seated leg press ( or leg extension and leg curl)
Seated rotation for “abs”
Other combinations of essentially the same thing – isolated exercises, in seated positions.
Does this sound familiar to those of you who have had a gym induction???
Isolated Training versus Functional Movement
These are great for building isolated and abnormal loading of muscles which have no correlation to our evolutionary blue print. And don’t get me wrong people will feel they can lift more when they do it regularly and may see some sculpting and shape changes but they will only be useful for when they are doing that exercise. If you do a chest press on a fixed machine does that correlate to shoveling or digging? Or climbing and walking? When do we have to push forward heavy loads in our life, in fact for most postures we need to be opening the front of the chest and getting ourselves out of computer posture not making ourselves stronger for it.
Functional training has too many descriptions that I won’t go on about in this post …another time. But really we need to be looking at what we need to be able to do as humans in our day to day life. Or maybe what we used to do when we had to fend for ourselves, harvest the land, find food.
Isolated resistance machines do not relate to human function. So why are they in gyms to get us “fit”?
Hire a Personal Trainer
If you are going to frequent a gym and your friends all go and it is a social thing….fab. Hire a personal trainer. If you are lucky to get a clued up instructor they should show you movements with the cable machine exercises, some body weight exercises, kettlebells, things that challenge your stability and some floor work. I would tell the trainers you want a functional workout that moves you in multi-directions and if they give you anything seated….go to someone else, or somewhere else.
Typical gyms hire Fitness Instructors at Level 2 to man the gym floor. They have a basic understanding of strength training and weight loss when working in a gym. If you have a Level 3 training you are a Personal Trainer. And anyone with Level 4 has training with special populations. The higher the level, the more knowledge, the better ability to correct your form.
Bad Form Prevails
When I went to this gym over Christmas I was shocked with how many people were doing things incorrectly. They may have been following their set program that they probably had clutched in their gym bag for years . Or if they were using a little fancy key that plugged into all the resistance machines the key tells them what to do next.
The problem is no one was WATCHING them do these things or if an instructor was there they didn’t bother to CORRECT them. I know from working at Virgin we were discouraged from correcting people unless you were their hired trainer for fear of offending them? Maybe it wasn’t in their job description, maybe they couldn’t see the faulty patterns, maybe they didn’t care. Whichever it was here were some things I noticed.
❌ People holding the rails of the treadmill leaning back their bodies at strange angles that we wouldn’t do in real life unless we were attached to one of those toddler harnesses and didn’t want to move forward….
❌People on the resistance machines in bad posture, lifting inappropriate weight or doing things too fast. Ultimately, not great for their joints and bodies, and not related to real life.
❌A lady on the mat was doing 100 crunches while an older gentleman was lying on his front lifting legs and arms into the air. I am sure they thought this was correct or saw it on youtube. But when do as humans ever find ourselves needing to crunch our spine that many times or reach for something from our bellies…maybe if we have fallen and cant get up….
❌ Then there are the chronic cardio warriors who only touch the cardio machines…. Why not go for a bikeride where at least your stability is challenged or go for a walk in nature meeting uneven surfaces. Why would you spend that much on a membership and do things you can do outside??
❌ The stability balls, bosus, foam rollers, medicine balls and kettlebells were collecting dust in the corner. Many personal trainers will be trained on these things but for the general public I am surprised how little they know about these functional tools when they have been around in some form for many years.
Can we stand out next to these big gyms? Yes.
In a way I am kind of glad these things are happening as that is why people come to us. They don’t like gyms, they don’t get the extra attention that we give, they get the small group classes, they have highly knowledgeable instructors on our team who know about myofascial release and functional movement patterns and corrective exercise. Our team can spot bad form and they will say something to you. You will not get away with bad form in fact….and that is a promise from us.
We have a conduct of care that goes beyond having the latest equipment and flashy machines. We believe in developing good human biomechanics and building strong bodies that can cope with the stress of day to day life. We don’t need to be good at sitting, or lying down or pushing artificial loads, we need to walk and run efficiently, carry and climb, jump and shuffle, breath and react.
When gyms can remove all the kit they have they would get closer to what humans need for their fitness needs…but then they will be more like our bespoke studios. And we don’t really want that.
