Monday, November 30, 2009

Kiasu Gym

Last Saturday I visited Celebrity Fitness in Subang Parade and I was truly taken a back by one of the comments the staff made to me. You see, a friend of mine was interested in turbulence training but was not quite sure how to go about it. So I downloaded one of the turbulence training workouts from the net and printed it out. We met up in the gym so I could show her and her cousin how everything works. Just as an FYI, all 3 of us have a membership with Celebrity Fitness.

Anyway, while I was showing this friend of mine the exercises, I noticed one of the PTs giving me “the look”. I just ignored and continued showing my friend the exercises. Shortly after that, the front counter staff came up to me and said:

Counter Staff: Sir, I am sorry but you are not allowed to give personal training sessions in our gyms. We do not allow external trainers to use our facilities for personal training.
Rajan: But I am not giving personal training sessions. I am just showing my friends here how to do some exercises. We are all members.
Counter Staff: Yes, but my manager said you are giving personal training sessions and you have to stop.
Rajan: Is it wrong for one member to show another member how to exercise?
Counter Staff: No, but you have a progress sheet over there which is what personal trainers use. I saw you writing down notes on it and my manage says you can’t do that. You have to stop.
Rajan: I printed this from the internet and just jotted down some notes for my friends. If you don’t believe me, you can google it yourself and see.
Counter Staff: Yes, that’s exactly my point. You are not allowed to print out and use it in here.
Rajan: So you are telling me that I am not allowed to surf the internet, print out a routine and then perform it in your gym.
Friend #1: Are you saying that it is wrong for me to read a magazine and follow the tips your gym.
Friend #2: So you are basically telling us that we are not allowed to read up on information about fitness, and even if we do, we can’t use that information in your gym.
Counter Staff: But you are not allowed to perform personal training sessions here. You are not allowed to write notes and train people.
Rajan: I told you once, and I will tell you again. We are all members here and we are friends. We downloaded this from the internet and we are just sharing this information with each other. Is it wrong to do that? Are we not allowed to talk to each other in your gym? Are not allowed to look for informtion on fitness?
Counter Staff: What is it exactly that you printed out. It looks like you designed the program.
Rajan: No I did not design this program, I told you I downloaded it. But even if I did, is it wrong to show a friend something I know. Are we not allowed to share our knowledge on fitness with each other.
Counter Staff: But you are not allowed to give personal training sessions and it really looks like you are giving personal training sessions.
Rajan: But I am not, I am just showing a friend this workout which we downloaded from the net. I think we have explained this enough.
Counter Staff: Let me show my manager your print out and let her decide if its OK or not.

So this guy took our print out and went to see his Manager. While he was gone, we were discussing with each other how stupid the guys comments were. In my head, I was wondering what to say if he came back and told me that it was not allowed.

Finally after a couple of minutes, he came back and apologized and told us we can proceed.

Now, I totally understand him suspecting me of giving personal training sessions, but the conversation should have ended when I told him I downloaded it from the net. His comment on we are not allowed to print it out and use it was just wrong. I also totally understand that gyms are out there to make money. After all it is a business and yes, they deserve to earn profits. But don’t-lah be so kiasu. My guess is, it was the PT who was giving me the look when we started that complained to someone.

Just for your info, the gyms charge members RM 130 per Personal Training session (which is 1 hour) and the Personal Trainer themselves only walks away with RM 35 and the gym makes RM 90… almost 3 times the amount. That is just a riddiculous amount of profit that the gym makes. And lots of PTs don’t even have a basic salary, which means they are not a liability to the gym. Truly a case of the pimp and the prostitute, where the pimp makes far more money for doing nothing.

Anyway, please do share your thoughts on the dialogue above and look forward to hearing your comments.

23 comments:

Buddhaphish said...

I think the manager should have gone there herself and investigate, instead of sending someone to do her dirty work. They made up their own conclusions without even asking what you were doing in the first place. Pretty silly.

Aizan Suhaira said...

The staff sounded like a broken record and I have a suspicion he didn't know what he was talking about.

And I think something has to be done about the wellbeing of house PTs. The percentage they get for their work is really low. Isn't there a union of some sort for them?

Rajan said...

Buddhaphish: Totally agree. If the guy had returned and said No, i would have seen the Manager myself. Pretty Silly indeed

Aizan: You are right... i don't think he knew what he was talking about. I think the Manager just sent him over against his own will.

PTs here are way underpaid here. No wonder so many do free lance.

Gunther: Hehehehe.... i was training your wifey when the approached us.

mozHASturnedINTOaMartian said...

hi chief,

just popped in to burp in a hello. hmmm...interesting write-up, the kind that actually made me go "like this also can wan ah".
what stargazed me further, was the going-rate for a PT's man hour. strangely enough, it strikes me as being somewhat inversely-correlated with the egos of some (no, NOT ALL) the "ooo...look at ma sexxaay bohhdee" PTs.

and ooo, believe me i have some looks from these machas. but then again, it's just probably me being me. insecure as fark.

pardon my narrow-minded, head in a condom generalizing of semen-stained thoughts mate.

keep on rantin' yu hear.

appreciativley,
moz.

Rajan said...

Tony: welcome to the blog and thanks for your words of encouragement. Facebook, i am not much of a facebook person, but will take your idea into consideration. Sounds like a good plan.

Moz: Wahh... what happened to you dude... long time no see. Yes, PTs do make some serious money.... any thoughts of becoming one? hehehehehe

ian yusof said...

u shld get one free month for that. In service industry like this gym thingy, it is a BIG SIN to accuse your own customers ....

p/s - shucks, if it were me, I'll get to the bottom-end. It will serve them a lesson.

Kerp (Ph.D) said...

I'd demand to talk to the manager straight away. that'd save alot of time. anyway raj, my apology for not dropping by more often. fully tied up with work. need to prioritise la these days. do keep writing. some of your past tips have been a good help for me personally. i can now have a plate of salad without any additional meat or cheese to go along with it AS the main course...haha...talking about personal achievement...

Rajan said...

CA: I guess i could, but since i am already a member (for life) free membership won't do me much good-lah.

Kerp: Welcome back bro. we all definitely missed you. Glad the tips help you. Keep tuning in for more great tips.

Unknown said...

Well its too bad that they get paid shit. But that doesn't give them the right to be shitty with customers of all people. After all most of them look like they don't have even have the time for us normal folks unless we bug them and ask them if we're doin things right. Most of the dude PTs are too busy chatting up the hotties anyways. Douchebags!

Rajan said...

Premo: I understand your sentiments bro. Actually the PTs of those days used to be nicer... if you are doing something wrong, they will come and teach you... for free and with no expectation for you to sign up with them. These days, i see most PTs talking only to people they know they can turn into clients... as that translates to $$$.

As for them chatting up the hotties... i am sure you can use your "Mojo" to chat up some hot female PTs to help you. hehehehehehehe.

anfield devotee said...

premo: All the PTs are too busy chatting up the hotties . . .

Hmmm . . . pot . . . kettle . . . black . . . ?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Rajan said...

AD: hehehehehe... nice one. Takes one player to know another i guess. hehehehehee

Rajan said...

Tony: Thanks for the support. Will continue to churn out useful fitness advise for all.

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