It takes professional skills to be a physical trainer
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
In the first few sessions at the gym, Heidi still had some excuses not to exercise to the limit.
"You know, it's my first time back to the gym again after two months off. So, it's normal if I can't do all of the sets, right?" she said to her instructor after a session at the Jakarta Hilton International's Life Spa & Fitness Center.
But now, after a month, her grace period is over.
Thomas Weber, the center's program director who assists Heidi for the three-month program, is no longer soft on her. Gradually, Thomas increased the weight, the repetitions and the variety of the exercises.
"We've done a lot of exercise for the lower body, so now we're going to work out on the upper body as well," he said, while escorting Heidi to several machines that, for her, looked like torture devices from the Middle Ages.
When Heidi grimaced, showing her lack of muscle strength due to years of a sedentary lifestyle, Thomas no longer felt sorry for her and did not heed Heidi's wish to stop the exercise.
"Come on, you can do it. It's just several sets before the weekend, come on," he said mercilessly.
One morning, while Heidi was having a break between sets and panting on one of the machines, Thomas excused himself for a moment, approaching a lady who was on a stepper.
He then corrected the lady's movement by showing her the right movement on another stepper nearby.
"You shouldn't bend your knee all the way," he said.
The lady, while thanking him for the correction, was a bit upset.
"I've been doing this for 16 years, you know. Why has there never been an instructor who told me the right way to use it? What's the use of those instructors then? Why didn't they ever tell me how to do it right? I could get an injury, you know," she said.
Have you ever come to the gym, just wanting to do some exercise, but get little, if any, help from the instructors?
Heidi remembered her own experience a long time ago when she was still in college. She went to the gym, completely clueless about what to do, but no one offered help.
Not until she asked one of the instructors to help her did they give some assistance.
Heidi's colleague at her office, Yuli, also had the same experience.
"I really felt abandoned. I had to wave several times to get the (gym) instructors' attention. But later on, when I asked them about the possibility of having a personal trainer, they suddenly became very nice to me," she said.
"I started thinking, maybe it's a trick. So that I will get a personal trainer and pay more money."
According to Thomas, it is the instructor's job to assist every guest who comes to the gym.
"That means showing them the right position and movement, what to do and not to do. That is, of course, in addition to telling the guests how to use the machines," said the German native.
The problem with instructors here, he added, is their lack of education in physical training.
"I did a complete two-and-a-half year course in physical education. So, I got to know not just the basic thing instructors should know. But I learned about basic anatomy as well," Thomas said.
"While instructors here only do a two-week or three-month course. It's not even a full course. Well, that's not enough."
About the trick to get the customer to pay more by hiring a personal trainer, Thomas said that it was possible.
"Well, I hope it doesn't happen here," he added.
Another problem with instructors, he added, is the culture.
"Some instructors are reluctant to approach the guests, especially if the guests are famous people or foreigners. Well, they have a long way to go. Physical education has yet to develop here," he said.
Suddenly he became alert and changed the subject. "OK, then. Next set," he commanded Heidi, who thought that he had forgotten about her session.
She soon came to realize, while she was gasping on the torture machine again, how weak her upper body was as she could not finish even a single set.
"Oh my God. I think I'm going to die," Heidi said, while trying to catch her breath.