So last night I went and saw a new trainer for the first time. Hans, unfortunately, has left Shapes and told me the Friday before he went in for shoulder surgery that he wouldn’t be coming back after his two-week recovery like I had thought. He got a better offer somewhere else, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Shapes kinda screws around their trainers. Their employee turnover is incredibly high – even just through my own observations since I’ve been there. They hire a hell of a lot of people so it seems like, at any given time, the person you’re dealing with at the front desk has only been working there for a grand total of four hours.
Anyway, so I had booked a bunch of appointments with somebody new – hoping that I could guess the name of the guy that I had seen Hans talking to (he told me at one point that he could only recommend two trainers there other than him, so I figured if he’s talking to one of them, that might be the one he’d recommend, no?). I guessed wrong, and ended up getting the one dude that I was a little apprehensive about as he looks incredibly young, and I had actually seen him in class at the university when I was there selling books. I’m sure he’s probably very knowledegable and all, but for some reason I take issue with having a trainer that is six or seven years younger than me. Just like I have issues with young doctors. Probably something to do with authority. Either that or a fear of seeing them in social situations, or finding out they’re friends with my younger brother or something weird like that. Winnipeg is too small.
The training session was fine – he explained everything very well, and even counted my reps for me so I didn’t have to keep track. But the one thing that killed me was that he asked me questions – making conversation, I guess – while I was doing each exercise, instead of while I was resting. There I was, jumping back and forth over a riser doing side lunges, and he’s asking me what my thesis is about. Goddamnit, man, I’m trying not to keel over here, and I need all the breath I can salvage to make it through these friggin’ lunges – I really don’t have the energy to explain gender politics and tattoo appropriation right now.
During the session I saw the other trainer that I had thought I made appointments with, so I managed to catch the name on his name tag, and after my session with talks-a-lot I made an appointment with the other dude. However, while I was asking the girl at the front desk the new guy’s availability, she mentioned that he “isn’t available in April because he’s got exams.” Awesome. So he’s 14 too? Great.
Apparently Shapes has hired some new trainers, so I guess the next few weeks I’ll be testing the lot of them out, trying to find one that isn’t timid and who’s not somebody I’ve babysat. Gah.
