The fitness industry is slowly making strides to be more inclusive. Ads now feature “real” people, and fitness centers are trying to get away from the bodybuilding image. And then comes a cable TV show that may sabotage all of those efforts.
Even if you haven’t seen the television show Work Out on Bravo, you can imagine what it is like. A bunch of hard bodies who push their clients to the limits, and have tumultuous personal lives (at least that’s how their lives are portrayed on the show). One of the teaser lines for the show is, “3 percent body fat, 97 percent drama.” Three percent body fat! They’re talking about Jackie, the lead trainer and owner of the studio. Even a very fit woman should have more than 3 percent body fat. That, in itself, is a dangerous message to send to the public, but, it gets worse.
Each episode shows the trainers working with clients, often pushing them so far they get sick. To the show’s credit, most of the clients are normal people with normal bodies (although an occasional celebrity will appear). These clients are shown crying, getting sick in the bathroom and generally being made miserable. I know trainers are supposed to push their clients, but this show takes it too far.
If people watching Work Out get the idea that this is how a training session goes, then the industry has some serious damage control to do. The show will turn people off to personal training, who will think that sessions will be too hard for them to handle.
Although Work Out is entertaining, and you get to see some beautiful and fit people, it does a disservice to the personal training industry. For some ideas on how to offer great training sessions to members and clients, read articles on this topic in FM’s article archive .
So, what do you think? IS BravoTV's Work Out sabotaging personal training? Or, do you think it's motivating and/or good for business?
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