Gym Gimpness

Ok so I know this is probably an old school topic but this trainer said something really idiotic to me at the gym today… I was doing high pulls (taking a break from the ol’ powercleans) when he walks up and says at the beginning of my lift my ass was too low (!) and I should ‘come up a bit’ or I would ‘blow my back out’. Sorry but whose teaching trainers to use their backs like that? I’ll throw a dumbell at the maltreated, deformed lumbar spine of whoever it is. Sorry, I just had to rant to people who’d understand.

The trainer in this case was correct. You may want to appologize to him before too long. I try to look like a candy cane when I deadlift. This takes all the dangerous tension off of my hamstrings and places it where it belongs… on my lumbar spine. On days when I am feeling really strong, I twist to one side while I’m pulling the bar off the floor. What you should do is drop those dangerous lifts like cleans and high pulls and switch to squats in the Smith Machine with your feet WAAAAY out in front of you. I am a trainer so I know what I am talking about!

Actually I AM a Strength Coach (I HATE the term “personal trainer”). I see crap like this all the time and from people you’d think would know better. You should see the looks we get doing things like High Pulls and DB Snatches, never mind Box Squats and Board Presses! I was actually told I could not drag my sled behind the gym (by the owners’ wife) because “There’s enough high-tech equipment in this gym.” Even though the equipment catalogs they order their stuff from sells three different types of sleds. Geeesh!