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I need some advice about what to say to a participant that comes to my classes and stands right in front of me and 'does her own thing' throughout the whole class.  She follows the choreography, but designes her own techniques. I dont want to come across too combative, just want to figure out how to deal with this... ego aside.. We dont have a platform or stage.. so sometimes I have to move my step so I can engage with the rest of the class because she sets up on top of me.  I understand that there are many people that come into class that know more than we do regarding fitness training, but it blows me away how its almost like she is trying to undermine the whole program and or the instructor. (does this to our other instructors also).

Awww. Poor BajaKat.

All you can do is your best. People come to the gym for all different reasons and it sounds like this person is just one more to add to the following list...

Sometimes, when a person sets foot inside the gym, they turn into a whole other person. If you've been to pretty much any gym in the world, you are sure to recognize the people you're about to read about...

1. Smell Me Madge, I Soaked In It.

You can detect this person coming before they even set foot inside the door of the gym. Little tip: it's fine to wear a little perfume or cologne to the gym but don't soak your clothes in it. Have a shower instead.

2. Obsessive Compulsive Rep Counter

Like a meditation mantra, the numbers get counted until the specific magic number has been reached. To really have some fun, stand behind this person as they do their set and start saying random numbers out loud as they count.

3. Leisure Suit Larry In Gym Shorts

Looking for love in all the wrong places. Often a colgne-soaker and always on the prowl, even constant and harsh rejection from every single female he encounters (including the potted plants) doesn't seem to slow Larry down.

4. Don't Make Me Lift That Heavy Thing

If you've ever watched someone monopolize the 2-pound neoprene dumbells for 20 minutes, you've seen this person in action. Fear of developing massive, icky-looking, veiny muscles from even looking at anything heavier than a Rice Krispie Treat keeps this person away from the weights that actually have numbers written on them. I've seen a person like this straining with a novelty dumbell pen.

5. You Don't Need A Jack For That Car Now That I'm Here

Cinch that weight belt up until you look like a big red Pop 'n Fresh doughboy in a corset, it's time to do 3 inch, hunched-over, bowl-legged, shaky-leg squats! There's something to be said for lifting within your means (and for not cinching your weight belt up so tight that you c--p yourself during a set).

6. Where's The Ashtray For This Treadmill?

You can always spot the person who's at the gym against their will and under doctors orders. They are doing as little as possible as slowly as possible and are always looking for somebody to work in with them so that they can stop.

7. The Bouncy Bench Press Crew

Young males travelling in packs of 3 or more, hogging the bench press for uncounted sets of trampoline-like reps with far too much weight while their training partners yell "it's all you" as though it really is. I hear the concave chest look is "in" this year...

8. Please Don't Wear That

Some people simply should NOT wear spandex and I can't figure out why they do. I'll leave it at that.

9. The Brick Wall

No matter how much anybody tells this person that the exercise they're doing is going to shatter their spine, they continue to pig-headedly do it anyway because their 9th grade gym teacher taught it to them 26 years ago.

10. The Beast

You'll often see this person banging their head against the concrete wall to psych themselves up for a set because "drywall is just too soft."

11. The Mountain Man

Apparently, he just walked in from taking down some trees in the backcountry and didn't have time to change out of his dirty sweatpants, flannel shirt and work boots before heading to the gym.

12. The Gym Bunny

If you're not in the gym for a serious workout, but to set the stair machine on 1 and try desperately hard not to sweat and mess up your precious hair and makeup, hop yourself out the door. Leisure Suit Larry is hanging out in the parking lot waiting someone... ANYONE.

See BajaKat, you could do a lot worse. Cheer up and keep pumping because the real Bodypumpers need you.

Very funny. Thanks for that enlightenment and I'll try not to weep from laughing.  If you'll just tell me where you teach, I'm sending this student over to you so that you can create #13 for your amazing list! 

I'm not an instructor, just a participant.

BTW I've known plenty of people who have joined the gym as a Leasure Suit Larry type, but end up getting hooked on the classes because they love the exercise (not just the view).

So people do change. Even the ones like type 9 'the Brick Wall'. Just keep on doing the right things, explaining why, and you never know.

Disclaimer:  I'm a participant, not an instructor.

 Anyway, people like that bug the hell out of me.  If you are going to do your own thing, at least do it at the back of the class!

We had a particularly annoying person like this, and it drove everyone mad.  The solution occured whenever a whole bunch of us started letting off steam about it in the changing rooms after the class - we had a good 5 minute rant about what a pain in the *** it was, how it made it difficult to see (we have a stage in our class but if you're on the box for eg chest or whatever, the only thing you could see without majorly moving your head was this girl front and centre). So we're ranting away, and this girl comes out of one of the changing cubicles...we've never had a problem since....

I know it's not easy as an instructor, but if I were you I would have a quiet word before/after the class with her.  You can spin it as concern - you're worried they will injure themselves etc if they continue with their poor technique etc  Your other participants will appreciate it!

I had a gent like that in my class not too long ago.  I coached the heck out of the class, even though he completely ignored me.  After class, I pulled him aside and told him that Body Pump technique is designed to provide a safe, effective workout and that he either needed to lift with BP tech or go to the club director and get a liability waiver before he came to my class and did his own thing again.

He hasn't been back.  The awful thing is, his wife is a Pump instructor.  I have no idea if he's still up to his shenanigans in other instructors classes, I'm just glad he isn't in MINE.

Jco97:

I had a gent like that in my class not too long ago.  I coached the heck out of the class, even though he completely ignored me.  After class, I pulled him aside and told him that Body Pump technique is designed to provide a safe, effective workout and that he either needed to lift with BP tech or go to the club director and get a liability waiver before he came to my class and did his own thing again.

 

He hasn't been back.  The awful thing is, his wife is a Pump instructor.  I have no idea if he's still up to his shenanigans in other instructors classes, I'm just glad he isn't in MINE.

Could this be our one and only HELLRAZOR!!!????  LOL

Can you elaborate more on what 'does her own thing' includes?

Ahhhhh, the front row participants, every gym has 'em and loves 'em or laothes 'em. They're either stupidly over confident and have no reason to be so (that is, cos they got poor form and don't really know what they are doing) or they are over confident and put me through my paces. On the otherhand they usually are the ones that turn up to all my classes so I can't be too hard ar*se on 'em. Definite ambilvalence from me on my front rowers.

Thanks for the replies ...

The doing her own thing....refers to just about every track, where she will perform the exercise, eg. back track... straight leg dead lifts and drops below mid shin, In the bicep track for the bicep rows she does the same. and her back is arched and chin extended throughout these exercises. Lunge track¨... moves forward into the front leg as she drops instead of straight up and down motion. I could go on and on, I really think its an education update issue. She learned some exercises a long time ago and that is what she believes is right for her, she simply doesnt want to listen to anyone else and believes she knows it all. This isnt about control or ego from my side... but I am concerned, not just about her low back later down the track... but for some of the other students that see her doing this and copy her.  

 She has a lovely physique and practises yoga and BodyBalance and BodyCombat also...all in her own way (which means with rather poor form) but she keeps coming back to my classes. she is not trying to move any significant weight for progression in BodyPump... Its all just rather strange!.... Should I act like the exercise police, or approach her with simple questions such as "I notice you always do the exercises differently than what our master trainers, educate us to teach to you...is there a physiological reason for this?  Do you think that would go over well ?

Thats a good idea... a liability waiver! It will go over like a lead balloon, but I think thats an avenue. We can only coach and pre track and explain as effectively as we can and give it our best shot everytime.

I have been a trainer for a long time, this is amazingly the first person that I have come across like this, so completely against any direction and in a class setting! Over the years, the best part of teaching and training for me  has been helping to find the solutions or a new way to express myself and resonate with the club members.... exploring the newer, safer and more fun ways to train. I doubt I will ever get to the point where I think I know it all.. but I guess some do!

You know the rest of my front rowers are simply frikken awesome. They do it well! Talk and check in with me during class, listen and watch. They have actually taught me alot... its just this one little thorn...

Every so often we see someone who still hangs onto the techniques from the "a$$-backwards 80s" (as my GFM calls them ).

The best you can do is continue what you are doing- if the rest of the class is seeing this individual as nothing more than a distraction, you're fortunate.  Just keep calling your cues as you should and you'll be making it more obvious all the time that this person's technique just plain stinks and they are in fact, handicapping their own progress. 

As you cue, it helps to also say why the move is done a certain way- I do this all the time and participants are grateful, mostly because even if they thought about trying to cheat a move, they know what they're supposed to get out of it and yet will try their best to do it correctly, achieving a measure of self-validation.  Maybe by doing this, you will get this prodigal pumper to listen up.

The other day I subbed a class for someone and saw the most atrocious technique- knees up, crossed, and rocking back and forth on chest presses;  yanking the torso up using the hip flexors and neck on ab crunches; throwing the bar around on C&Ps like she was wrestling it.... oy.  What are these people trying to prove....

BajaKat:

I need some advice about what to say to a participant that comes to my classes and stands right in front of me and 'does her own thing' throughout the whole class.  She follows the choreography, but designes her own techniques. I dont want to come across too combative, just want to figure out how to deal with this... ego aside.. We dont have a platform or stage.. so sometimes I have to move my step so I can engage with the rest of the class because she sets up on top of me.  I understand that there are many people that come into class that know more than we do regarding fitness training, but it blows me away how its almost like she is trying to undermine the whole program and or the instructor. (does this to our other instructors also).

   

I think there are always people in the class that will just do what they've always known and not really pay attention to what the instructor is saying.  Have a go at getting their attention during class even have a talk to them after class, but if they keep on doing it their way then just forget about them, you have the rest of the class who will benefit from your work.  If they're front centre then it's much easier to look straight over the top of them to the rest of the class.

jodo:

Jco97:

I had a gent like that in my class not too long ago.  I coached the heck out of the class, even though he completely ignored me.  After class, I pulled him aside and told him that Body Pump technique is designed to provide a safe, effective workout and that he either needed to lift with BP tech or go to the club director and get a liability waiver before he came to my class and did his own thing again.

 

He hasn't been back.  The awful thing is, his wife is a Pump instructor.  I have no idea if he's still up to his shenanigans in other instructors classes, I'm just glad he isn't in MINE.

Could this be our one and only HELLRAZOR!!!????  LOL

that was the guy with the problem with squat timing wasn't it?

a while ago i changed gyms. now, i'd been taught that you shouldn't stop during the squats....it's meant to flow. at the new gym i swear one of the instructors would pause for a beat at the top. it really sucked! i found myself working to my own beat instead...i actually felt for hellrazor at the time cause it was seriously doing my head in!!! first off i thought maybe it was just an off day....then it happened the next time as well....third time i made sure i zoomed into the class and got a spot right up the back so no one would care that i was doing the squats how i thought they should be done rather than at a stupid pace with the rest of the class.  a new gym has since opened and i've been going there for pump (i'ld rather work out with a class of 20 than be jammed in with 80...another story) and the squat track is back to being on what i consider the right timing again...yippeee! anyways, i'm not sure why i'm posting this except to say that some of us do take in what irks instructors and other particpants by reading what you say on these forums, and keep our irksome impact to a minimum :)

I think this guy will go away voluntarily.  Be patient.  One day he will realize he is a real clown.  Keep cueing "stay with my tempo", "team, bar up and down at the same time".

I had someone like that before.  She designed her own chorey and went off to bike a while during some tracks.  Looking back it was rather comical. She did yoga when we were during tracks 9 and 10. She left eventually.  I think the dirty look from other pumpers made a substantial contribution.