So you all know my take on commercial gyms! 

If you dont know about them well go and have a look at some older posts and you will see what I think about them and all the reasons of why they are basically a load of crap!

So what does the formula at the top mean?  "Commercial Gym + Fitness Test = Joke!"

So I have come across another reason to add to the list.  And strangely enough it is about them not letting people achieve their maximum fitness!  Who would of thought that a gym would let you push to your absolute fitness levels...what a joke!!

I know a woman who is 60.  I will admit that she is not an elite athlete at this age, but she has just done the Kokoda trail (if you do not know what this is then look it up and see how tough this trek actually is), she hikes probably over 20kms each week, riding a bike most days of the week and keeping pretty fit.

So she wants to get fitter so she joins the local gym....who are only to happy to take her money and then charge her extra for a comprehensive fitness test....seemed like a good thing to do to see where her fitness was at....well so she thought.

She goes to this fitness test and they once her heart rate hits 135 they say that they have to stop the fitness test??  What The F*&^

She wasnt even breaking a sweat, told them that she gets her heart rate up to around 170 and it is fine.  But no they say that she is too old to get her heart rate that high.

So way to go on boosting someone's self image and keeping them motivated to go to their gym.  In reality she was probably more fitter than the person giving the test!

If commercial gyms were serious about peoples well being and health and not just about the money, they would encourage older people to get fitter and push them to their limits. They should be professional enough to know when and how to push someone to their limits and when they havent....the problem is that the person who was giving the fitness test was probably not even qualified!!

If you think that every one that works in a commercial gym is highly qualified....you need to think again.  Most of the times they will have no qualifications and if they do they will have no experience!

I believe that age is not a hindrance when it comes to fitness.  Anyone has the capablilities of being fit if they want.

I have people around their 50's in my gym, and I can tell you that they are probably more fitter than 80% of the 20 something year olds that are walking around at the moment.

Todays gyms are a joke.  I see it time and time again with people that go to commercial gyms.  They walk into my gym, tell me how fit they are because they used a personal trainer for months on end and they told them they were really fit....10 minutes later they are struggling to keep going...and the warm up hasnt even finished yet!!

The people in my gym are awesome!  They work hard, I push them hard regardless of their age.  In fact the older they are the more I push them.  They would reach their max heart rate probably several times in our workouts and they are perfectly fine....so why cant other gyms allow older people to push themselves...maybe its because they have such inexperienced people working there that they have no idea on how to push them properly....for the commercial gym it is all about bringing in as much money as possible and spending as least possible on staff....not a good formula!!

I know that this is going to piss off a few people.  But hey, I will always tell it like it is and if I am not offending at least a few people then I know that I am not doing my job properly. 

So if you are getting towards the 50 mark and people tell you take it easy and that you cant workout too hard, then tell them to take a hike and not only will you work hard, but you will show them all up while doing it!

And if your young, you better keep working at your best..because if you dont these people will show you up quick smart!

So until next time
Train Hard but Train Smart
Joe