Today...

[RpgGamer]

Ill give you just the tip ;)

[Low Levelled]

Ill give you just the tip ;)

7.5/10

[Alg]

 

Ill give you just the tip ;)

7.5/10

That's a bit more than just the tip, isn't it?

[The Observer]

Finally got my passport application in. I feel like a part of society now.

[RpgGamer]

Today im going to lie in bed for as long as I can, maybe deposit some checks and IDEALLY get a new phone. But likely just lying in bed

[Ember]

.

[Hedgehog]

I found a former tipit user on reddit today

[Saradomin_Mage]

Is it K4ylan? Or is it from some other sub?

[Low Levelled]

I found a former tipit user on reddit today

The boys in the hood are always hard

[RpgGamer]

Im looking at either the note 4 or the galaxy s5 but I'm open to suggestions

[Hedgehog]

Is it K4ylan? Or is it from some other sub?

It was Nadril. I just came across him in a programming sub

[Low Levelled]

Im looking at either the note 4 or the galaxy s5 but I'm open to suggestions

Have had the s4 for a little over two years. Love the thing

[Ember]

.

[muggiwhplar]

You guys probably won't appreciate this story as much as my lifting buddies did but I wanted to type it out because I thought it was amusing :P

 

tl;dr: personal trainer at the gym tries to sell me; he has poor sales skills and I punish him for being a bad salesman :lol:

 

 

 

 

So now that I'm no longer in college I usually only wear my fraternity t-shirts when I'm working out. A while back I noticed a guy's car at my gym parking lot with my fraternity letters on it, but I never knew who it belonged to. Finally a few months ago I was doing squats with my letters on and one of the gym's personal trainers walked up to me and introduced himself to me as a brother. Small world! Talked to him and lifted together for a while and then I went home. I haven't hung out with him outside of the gym but occasionally I'll bump into him while I'm lifting and he's training someone.

 

On Wednesday I was walking out of the gym and crossed paths with him and he was like, "Hey what are you training on Friday?" I told him Friday's bench day (my favorite) and I asked him if he wanted to work out with me and spot me. He said sure, and then he opened up his schedule to set a time.

 

Him: By the way have you done a fitness exam recently to test your strength and see how balanced your strength is?

Me: No. Is it free?

Him: Yeah! Cool I can give you a fitness exam then on Friday before we bench.

Me: Awesome, sounds like fun. [At this point I thought it just sounded like a fun way to see how strong I am across the board. I already know what my strengths and weaknesses are but it'd be cool to get some "official" numbers and stats]

Him: Ok man cool! So like, what's your bench routine like?

Me: Right now I just do 5 sets of 5 with 185 lbs. My 1 rep max is somewhere around 215. I weigh 135. My goal main goals right now are to get up to about 160 lbs bodyweight and to bench press double my bodyweight

Him: Wait what? Dude I weigh about 160 and if I'm maxing my bench I can only do about 250. Benching double your bodyweight at 160 is like 315 lbs! Are you sure that's what your goal is? I mean that doesn't even sound possible!

Me: Well my two fraternity brothers who taught me how to lift can both bench double their bodyweight and they weigh 150 lbs and 200 lbs. So that's why it's always been my goal-- I want to be on their level.

Him: [he gives me a blank stare]

Me: So... yeah. That's my goal.

Him: Alright man! Well on Friday I'll be able to give you the fitness test and then you know, we can take a look at what needs work and all that and then I we can come up with a workout plan for you

Me: Alright cool!

 

In my mind, I'm thinking, "Ok this guy probably just thinks I'm some scrawny wimp that doesn't know what he's doing" haha. I now realize that this "fitness test" is more of an introduction to his sales pitch so he can try and get me to pay him to train me after he'll tell me all the problems I have, even though I'm already satisfied with my current workout and gainz. I don't bother to say, "Dude you realize I just want you to spot me on Friday, right?" because I think it'll make for an amusing story. Also, being the [wagon] I am, I want to punish him for making a rookie sales mistake and I want him to learn the hard way :P At my first sales job, the actual sale had two closes. You first would get them on the phone to run a credit check and make sure they can actually be sold to; then you'd have to actually make the sale once they've been approved. It was very easy to get them onto the phone if they assume that they're just getting on the phone for shits and giggles. But it's a lot harder to get them on the phone when you basically tell them "Ok we're gonna do a credit check over the phone-- and if you get approved then you can purchase our product." When you lay it out that way, you're basically saying "If you get on the phone, which takes a lot of my time, then you're going to buy." Otherwise you're wasting a ton of time that could be spent pitching other customers if you're getting them all the way through the credit check, only to have them blow you off because you failed to set the expectations upfront.

 

So Friday comes around and I text him on my way to the gym. He tells me to warm up for 5 minutes on the treadmill when I get there and then we'll get started. So I walk on the treadmill for a bit and then he gives me the first "exam." He just wants me to do some basic bodyweight squats with my hands in the air. I do that, and he tells me everything I did wrong. No surprises there since I know my lower body isn't as flexible as my upper body. Next up he has me do pushups for a minute. Before we get started I do a single push up. "So just like this?" I ask. "Yeah man perfect, just like that!" I go ahead and do pushups for a minute. I slowed down a little bit in the last 10 seconds since I started feeling kinda weak and I wanted to save my strength for benching rather than getting a good score on this fitness test, which I'm beginning to realize isn't very official or anything since he doesn't have any paperwork on him.

 

Me: Sorry about slowing down towards the end there. I know my form looked bad at the end. I want to save my strength for bench.

Him: Well your form sucked from the beginning.

Me: ... [then why didn't you tell me that when I asked you to check my form for the very first pushup?]

Him: Ok let's go bench. What do you normally do for a warmup on bench day?

Me: I start out with just the bar and warm up with that for about 2 sets. Then I do about 2 sets of 95 lbs. Then I do 2 sets of 135. And then I start doing my 5 sets of 5.

Him: Ok how much are you doing 5 sets of 5 with?

Me: 185.

Him: Wait. How much weight did you do last week when you benched?

Me: I did 5 sets of 5 with 180. So now I'm going to do 5 sets of 5 with 185.

Him: Like, how many weights on the bar is 180? [i don't think he believes me when I'm talking about my bench]

Me: A 45, two 10s, and a 2 on each side.

Him: .... OK.

 

So we bench and I do a set with just the bar.

 

Him: OK so what I'm gonna have you do is go straight to 135 now.

Me: Uh... ok.

 

We put on 135 and I warm up with 135 and perfect form for about 3 reps. When I warm up, I do enough reps to the point where I start to feel like I'm actually having to "work" to get up the weight. He critiques my bench form, telling me not to keep my back arched because that's lowering the range of the barbell. Yeah, no shit. That's why you arch your back. It allows you to bench heavier weights and it minimizes shoulder injuries. Keeping your back flat on the bench puts a lot more strain on your shoulders. (Perfect form looks like this: 1 2)

 

Him: Ok so now you said you do 5 sets of 5?

Me: Yeah. With 185.

Him: What? You only did 3 reps with 135.

Me: I know, I was just warming up. And I'm doing the shorter warmup that you suggested, not my normal warmup.

Him: Ok, so 185 is a 45 and a 25 on each side... how much did you do last week? [Again he seems to doubt my strength]

Me: A 45, two 10s, and a 2. Keep in mind, though, my form will no longer be perfect when I'm doing 185.

Him. Huh? Why would you do 185 if you know your form's going to be bad?

Me: In a nutshell, I get stronger faster with heavier weights and bad form than I do with lighter weights and perfect form. If I want to bench 185 with perfect form, then it's better to keep increasing the weight so by the time I'm repping 225 with bad form, I'll be able to easily do 185 with perfect form.

Him: Yeah but dude that's gonna cause all kinds of problems for you down the road!

Me: Nah. Every time I feel sore in a bad way like an injury might be coming up, I immediately lower the weights again and go back to using perfect form with light weights for a while and then I ease back into heavy weights with bad form. The last time I did this, I was struggling to rep 155 with bad form. Now I can do 155 with perfect form. I've never had any major injuries and I don't really see how I can just spontaneously cripple myself unless I'm ignoring the warning signs before hand.

 

I bench 185 5 times, like a baws. He tells me everything I already know about how my form isn't perfect with this weight. I just look off into space and agree with everything he says since I don't want to argue lol

 

Him: Ok how long do you usually rest between sets?

Me: Five minutes.

Him: What? Dude that's way too long. Ok I'm going to give you 1 and a half minutes rest so you can work on some endurance, that's gonna [starts rambling on about ATP and lactic acids and a bunch of random physiology terms yadda yadda yadda, I shut my brain off and agree]

 

I only do about 3 reps on my 2nd set since I only had a minute and a half to rest.

 

Him: Ok see how much weaker you are when you're not resting for a full 5 minutes?

Me: Yeah [no shit!]

 

We basically just keep benching at 1.5 minute intervals and he keeps saying the same things over and over again. Finally when we're done, he finally goes into his sales pitch as I was expecting [i work in sales, I can smell a sales pitch a mile away because he was saying things that I would've said if I had ulterior motives]

 

Him: OK man so I think you should let me work out with you and give you an exercise program, you know, to correct all of those things I've pointed out.

Me: Uh huh, sounds good. [in my mind, I'm totally fine with working out with him and possibly even incorporating a few new things into my workout to make me stronger overall, as long as it doesn't interfere with my bench gainz]

Him: Ok so yeah right now we're actually doing a promo, so it's only $400 this month and I can get you on a new routine, get all those problems sorted out and stuff. How's that sound?

Me: Nah I'm good, thanks. :) [i wanted to say, "How about for a 30 minute consultation you can pay me $50 and I'll teach you how to sell!]

Him: [blank stare]

Me: I told you about my buddies who bench double their bodyweight. One of them's a physical therapist now so I just go to him for advice whenever I have issues.

Him: Ok well you're gonna have to like, send him videos of yourself for form checks to see the stuff that I can just check for you right here like I did today.

Me: Yep.

Him: Alright man, well I'm gonna come check up with you again in about 8 weeks and I'll run you through those tests again. If you haven't changed at all then I'm gonna have to rip ya a new one haha!

Me: Alright man sounds good! [Yeah I really don't give a shit if you disapprove with my lifting]

 

 

So, when it comes to sales, IME it's always best to set the expectations upfront. If I'm trying to sell someone, I'm making it very clear to them that I'm trying to sell them something. Then if they're actually interested, I can talk about something we have in common and get to know them better since they're now worth my time. In the past I would see someone wearing a sweatshirt from my hometown on it and I'd comment on it and then I'd try and sell them. As soon as I tried to sell them, they'd immediately get defensive and think I was being disingenuous when talking about our hometown-- as if I was only pretending to be fond of it as a means to gain compliance from them. It's much better to try and sell them and if they're uninterested, then you walk away and never talk about your hometown or you try and sell them and once they're interested you can talk about your hometown which will pretty much guarantee the sale at that point since not only are they interested, they also now have something in common with you.

 

So I was sort of disappointed in my fraternity brother here for not being upfront with me and just asking me if I was interested in paying to have him train me. If I'm going to be your client, treat me like a client not a friend. Friends offer services like this for free. Do you really think my physical therapist friend would charge me for advice and a workout plan like he does for his clients? No, because I'm his friend.

 

The other thing is, when it comes to anything health or fitness related there's all kinds of misinformation out there. With business, if I read 10 books on business and how to solve a specific problem, each of the 10 different authors will more or less suggest the same advice and agree with each other. With fitness, the 10 different authors will all disagree with each other over which way's the best way and how every other author's wrong etc. Arguing about fitness is kind of like arguing about politics and religion in a way. Sometimes a friend of mine will come to the gym with me. He's inconsistent and whenever he lifts it's usually his first time in months. But as soon as we start lifting he'll start saying stuff like, "You should do this, you should do that." I just tell him the same thing I tell everybody else, "That sounds good but my current routine works fine for me. If I ever hit a plateau or anything I'll consider changing my routine." But considering I haven't really hit a plateau in the past 3 years, I don't foresee my routine changing any time soon. And if it does, I'll just consult my physical therapist buddy like I always do.

 

When it comes to my fitness goals, there's a certain opportunity cost of pursuing a double bodyweight bench press. I can't say "Ok I want to be able to run a marathon and be able to bench double my bodyweight and remain at 8% bodyfat and also squat and deadlift triple my bodyweight by the end of the year." Not. Gonna. Happen. Pick one thing, and then focus solely on that and sacrifice your abilities in the other areas. Then when you hit your goal you can bring your other areas up to speed while you maintain your previous accomplishment. It's very easy to take any accomplished athlete and then criticize them for their weak areas that they haven't bothered to train. It's like going up to a marathon runner and saying "yeah well he can't even bench his own bodyweight, he's weak and unhealthy" or going up to a guy that can bench double their bodyweight and saying "yeah well he can't even run a 5k, he's out of shape and unhealthy." The trainer only takes 1.5 minute breaks between sets-- and as a result, his sets are a lot weaker than if he'd just do 5 minute breaks. But he has more endurance that way. More endurance, less strength. It's all relative. If you want to be at the top level of success then you've gotta make some sacrifices :P You can't be the best at everything.

 

In other words, the first time I bench double it'll be with shitty form. But by the time I can bench 2.2x my bodyweight, I'll be benching 2x with perfect form. And by the time I'm benching double, I'll be able to relax on bench and focus on my weaknesses if I want to.

 

Now it's time to go watch Whiplash for the billionth time for further self-assurance  and motivation before I go HAM at the gym :D

[Ammako]

dude tl;dr

[muggiwhplar]

I actually just had the same sales pitch thrown at me today and I had to spend 10 minutes telling him that I don't want a personal trainer because I'm a broke ass college student

 

 

where you at La Fitness?

 

24 hour fitness

[RpgGamer]

A salesman frat boy weight lifter is like the anti artsy post-emo girl

 

Interesting story Muggiw, I definitely agree that anyone who sends the sales pitch on false pretenses is going to fail at selling mw anything. Insincerity is a huge turn off.

[muggiwhplar]

The other pet peeve I had was, while I was warming up on the treadmill I was asking him about his goals and his clients' goals.

 

Me: So do your clients usually have their own goals when they approach you or do you have to make goals for them?

Him: I have to make goals for them.

Me: That sucks. I bet they all just say "I want to be healthy," as if that's a goal.

Him: Haha yep.

Me: So what's your goal?

Him: Well I uh-- [starts rambling on about his routine without giving me a direct answer]

Me: That's cool, but do you like have a specific weight you want to be able to lift or anything like that?
Him: Nah not really.

Me: Oh.

 

God dammit, even the personal trainers don't have goals! :wall: It's like the blind leading the blind over here!

[Alg]

Their goal may or may not be "spend a few hours here to justify eating that double cheeseburger last night"

[Hedgehog]

Just pull out a picture of Tim Tebow

[Low Levelled]

Just pull out of Tim Tebow

[stevepole]

I've been a LA Fitness member for a few years now, the part I enjoy most is that you know exactly what you're getting when you walk-in to any location, but at the end of the day, fitness chains are all the same, the employees are trying to meet quotas for new enrollments and stuff. They'll try to tell you their better then the other place, but they're all using the same equipment. 

[Hedgehog]

 

Just pull out of Tim Tebow

 

You made me think I had a freudian slip right there

[muggiwhplar]

I've been a LA Fitness member for a few years now, the part I enjoy most is that you know exactly what you're getting when you walk-in to any location, but at the end of the day, fitness chains are all the same, the employees are trying to meet quotas for new enrollments and stuff. They'll try to tell you their better then the other place, but they're all using the same equipment. 

 

yeah pretty much. weights are weights. only the gym noobies care about all the fancy gym amenities that they won't actually end up using lol

[Ammako]

http://[Use Quick Find Code]/a=14/[Please Use QuickFind Code]?14,15,704,65653649,0#3