Personal Trainers' Reality
Lupita Nyong’o, the 12 years A Slave and Black Panther star once mentioned her personal trainer in a Vogue magazine interview.
The rich and famous hire personal trainers to keep them toned
for cameras that are always lurking about, hoping to capture an extra pound of
flesh on their bodies.
It sounds glamorous, but not for most personal trainers because
some clients want more than great abs and flat tummies. They want personal trainers to be shrinks, to
listen to woes about love lost, fights with step children, loss of
libido, directors from hell, problems with nannies, putting dogs on a diet and
general depression about having too much money.
Clients want personal trainers to help them keep body and
soul together which is outside the terms of reference. Their job is to sculpture the body, not the
soul. Listening is another professional’s
job. It therefore becomes a delicate balancing
act for them because they do not want to lose their clients, especially celebrities
that are the flavour of the year.
I’m not aware of any Personal Trainers’ Association that
outlines the code of conduct between trainers and clients, but I’m sure personal
trainers do lunch and share stories about clients who drone on about their
lives, and not about what ought to be work-shopped for example, arms that can
never reach the Michele Obama stage.
That is why personal trainers need therapy, to unwind, to
de-tox, to confide in somebody that all that glitters, is not gold.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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