(Please be forewarned of an impending rant!)
As someone who has spent 15 years of her life working as personal trainer, the phrase I detest the most is “I don’t want to get too big“. It never fails new clients, mostly females, think that obtaining a bodybuilder or even fitness model physique is easy. Total beginners that can barely bench press an empty bar for 3 reps express concern they don’t want to get “too big”. Sure, thinking that at first is fine, but months and months of insisting to me they will “get big” while I try and explain and they completely ignore me (a trained professional) frustrated me to no end. They would insist on using nothing over 5lb dumbells since they “didnt want to get big”
To me – this is on the same wavelength as someone going to a swimming lesson learning how to doggy paddle then informing the swim instructor they don’t want to be an Olympic swimmer. Seriously. People don’t think going for a swim will turn them into Michael Phelps, why do people think lifting a weight will turn them into Iris Kyle?
And, yes, this is not polite to say – but in my years of experience the irony is most the women that say this – are huge anyway! It never failed some 250lb overweight lady would inform me “she didn’t want to get big like those female bodybuilders from lifting weights“. For many years I shut up in the interest of keeping my job and paying my mortgage, but in later years once I was self employed I lost control and would point out with an insipid fake smile that “actually no female bodybuilder in history has ever competed at the weight you are now. You are 100lbs heavier then the average female bodybuilder“. This was a surefire way to get them to stop.
It even extended to fitness model physiques, and I have always wondered why people feel it is acceptable? If fitness models and bodybuilders were to start telling people they found them fat, sloppy and digusting it would be an uproar – but somehow the general public seems to feel it’s polite to tell physique competitors this. Thinking what you want is fine, why verbalize this and insult others unasked?
Now granted, there are cases of females looking bad from steroid abuse – but even someone like Monica Brant can be scorned at times.
I am inflicting this rant on femalemuscle.com readers due to an event this morning. A sometime training partner of mine is my new wallpaper. She is an IFBB pro and just sent me some new pics of her and I thought she looked great so I made her my desktop for motivation. Someone had occasion to see my screen and said “eww, she looks horrible all huge“. I pointed out she was a close friend of mine and figured that would shut them up.
No – it didn’t. They continued to insult, so finally I pointed out – “actually she weighs 125lbs, I can see you weigh nothing under 220lbs so actually you are huge not her“. Then of course the person became butt hurt by me insulting their weight – after freely insulting my friend.
Is it just me? Any other personal trainers out there hate this phrase?
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