Sunday, January 31, 2010

The body politic...

No this is not about the current political situation I believe enough has been said and I really have nothing new to add. But this is about the gym I go to. And some of the goings on below the surface which I have begun to notice.
The gym I go to is now renamed "Body Bar" but I am sure you would have heard of it as its unglamorous former self which was Global Fitness. In all probability you might not have because It is one of those low profile gyms. For instance I have never ever seen it advertised even once. But it is patronised by some of colombos rich and beautiful. I might need to stress that I am the exception to the rule here.
I have been a regular at this place for over three years and one thing I really found was the haste for the instructors on duty to actually help clients out with their work out. For instance when I started I wanted someone to develop a schedule for me and you could say I was sent from pillar to post till out of frustration I decided to hire a personal trainer of my own (for an additional fee of course) to work out with mthree days a week. As time went by I realized that the main income for the instructors is through "personal training" and they subtly encourage this by purposeful inaction when they are on duty. And naturally there is a high level of competition amongst the trainers for clients. Now the guy who trains me used to work their but not any more but he was a favourite of the lady who is the owner of the gym and he was still allowed to do personal training. Also he is quite knowledgable though he too is a bit of a high strung chap and quite quick to take offence for the slightest thing. Somehow all the rest of the istructors ganged up on this boy and go out of their way to make his life difficult. These are some of the stuff I have observed with my own eyes.
Sometimes RN has to fill in as an instructor when no one is on duty the moment he is on duty the other guys who are supposed to be sharing the shift with him dissappear ensuring that he has to bare the brunt of the work. When he is training a client they would always try to grab the bench or weights which he is using. Also it seems that they have been carrying tales and complaining about him to clients because some of his new clients are prone to drop him all of a sudden. Even I was told to move from him by another member. This is kind of petty but this also lead to a dangerous situation. RN was doing a bench press with a large weight when it had slipped out of his hands and landed on his chest. And though there were at least two or three instructors who were presnt only one had half heartedly tried to help him to remove the weight while the others present had chosen to keep their eyes averted. Now I call this absolutely illresponsible behaviour specially since this boy could have got choked to death. But what I can't understand is individually all these guys are quite decent human beings. But together as a group they become quite viscious. Now could I call this a case of sport imitating art? At least the art of politics? Cos this is the kind of situation you would expect from some of our third rate parlimentarians not sportsmen who I thought was bound by a more honerable code.

1 comment:

santhoshi said...

I come to the body bar only for the yoga lesson.
Found the gym instructors with their dont care attitude and advice to get the personal instructor a bit of a put off.