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I do agree totally with this article, but unfortunatley because I've been (or should I say: still am) on both sides of the fence. When I asked fitness instructors, in a couple of different gyms I went to successively, about a strength training rather than a run-of-the-mill toning programme, most of them were at a complete loss. They seemed to know less than me, an enthusiastic gym goer, who would regularly read fitness magazines, but otherwise a lay person.
Last year I did a recognised course because I wanted to become a fitness instructor. I worked hard and put lots of energy and effort in, and got my qualification. However, before reading the above article I didn't have a clue what fast or slow twitching muscle fibre was either. Actually, what I found I learnt most is, how much I haven't learnt and still don't have a clue about.
I think especially young instructors, who've done high school and then a fitness instructor course, without years of training experience themselves, really don't have a clue about everything they don't know. I'm now extremely reluctant - already well before reading this article - to tell anyone with more than a passing interest in fitness, that I'm a qualified fitness instructor. I'm currently not working in a gym, but if I was, and someone was to come along to "interview" me, I'm sure I'd be considered a "quack". To me a quack is someone who wilfully deceives, pretending that they have skills or knowledge they have not. I therefore wouldn't consider myself, or any of the well meaning "kids" (young instructors) as quacks. If anything, they're enthusiastic people who are both under educated and underpaid for the job they're supposed to be doing.
As Jamie Hale rightly writes in his article, the fitness industry has got money hungry, and the ones suffering for it are the clients as well as the instructors. While I love fitness, and enjoyed my brief experience working in a gym, I feel very reluctant to go for a career in the fitness industry. I don't feel I'm up to working in a job for which I don't feel properly qualified, and which pays so little that I won't be able to follow expensive private courses to gain more knowledge.
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