Does your personal trainer stand at your side while you’re holding onto a treadmill, saying nothing about this mistake and instead just watching you make-believe walk?
I’ve seen this exact scenario repeat itself over and over during the many years I’ve been working out at various gyms.
If I just described your personal trainer, then you’re wasting your money.
When I myself was a personal trainer, I forbad every single one of my clients from holding onto the treadmill, regardless of their age, weight or any medical conditions.
There was only one exception: A 74-year-old, obese man who required a four-pronged cane to walk in everyday life.
Of course he had to hold onto the treadmill, or he’d fall. He was a cane user.
But nobody who walks across a parking lot without a cane, without holding onto someone for assistance, and independently walks around in a gym, needs to hold onto a treadmill (other than momentarily to take some water or answer a phone, etc.).
What a shame that there are personal trainers who allow even young people to hold on.
Are these trainers afraid their clients will dislike them if they instruct them to remove their hands from the treadmill’s front bar, side rails or console?
Or are these trainers actually ignorant of proper walking mechanics and don’t see a difference between holding on and walking with a natural arm swing?
I’d love to ask every single one of these trainers why they allow able-bodied clients to hold on.
I can’t just go up to one and inquire right in front of their client.
But one time, I found such a trainer by himself (during a time that I had not yet begun working as a trainer).
His female, able-bodied client was 23. I asked why he stood at her side while, for an extended period, she walked while holding on. And it had been without an incline.
His exact response: “She’s scared.”
Does this sound like the type of trainer who could empower a client? I sure hope you don’t think so.
Because this was a very enabling trainer, sending a message to this young woman that she was incapable rather than capable!
How was she ever going to meet her weight loss and fitness goals if her trainer was sending the message it’s okay to hold onto something while walking 3 mph on a zero incline?
And by the way, holding on with an incline is just as wrong.
It’s not hard work to keep your hands off a treadmill unless you have the incline all the way up and the speed ridiculously fast for that incline.
For example, I’ve seen people executing a death grip at 4 mph with a 15% incline. This is pretty difficult to walk hands off.
The solution is to slow down the speed and/or lower the incline so that you CAN walk it without holding on!
But again, what really gets me is when a certified personal trainer just stands there beside the client and thinks nothing of letting them do a make-believe walk.
Every time I got a new client, if I was unfamiliar with how they used a treadmill, or, if I had seen them previously holding on, I’d tell them to “warm up for five minutes by walking on a treadmill” prior to their very first session.
I’d then steal away at a distance to observe. After five minutes, I’d come to their side.
If they were holding on, I’d eagerly venture into a mini-dissertation about all the reasons it’s wrong to hold onto a treadmill.
I’d also make sure that they didn’t have any medical conditions that might make them topple off the machine if they didn’t hold on.
And some DID have medical conditions, but none used a cane.
I had every single one of my clients, from old age to morbidly obese, to low back pain to knee osteoarthritis, walking on a treadmill without holding on. None fell.
And why should they have? They didn’t need a cane to walk in everyday life.
If walking was painful for them, I had them avoid the treadmill, such as my young client with Reynaud’s disease, which caused painful feet. I had her do high intensity interval training on a recumbent bike.
As a trainer, I wanted to empower, not enable, my clients. I wanted them to feel a sense of accomplishment. That’s not going to happen if a trainer lets a client hold on.
The Bigger Picture
Any trainer who’d stand by and watch their client holding onto a treadmill (which the client can do just as well without the trainer present), is fully capable of enabling their client across the board.
This is a trainer who’ll probably help way too much with the assisted reps on the chest press machine, for instance.
This is the trainer who simply will not hold their client accountable.
Are you paying a trainer to just stand by and give you accolades along with basic instruction? That’s a waste of money.
For the money that gyms and private trainers charge for sessions, you’d better believe you should be getting a LOT more than passivity, condescension and giving in to a full-grown adult’s fear of walking 3 mph on a treadmill without holding on.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness, where she was also a group fitness instructor, she trained clients of all ages and abilities for fat loss and maintaining it, muscle and strength building, fitness, and improved cardiovascular and overall health.
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