Crappy Trainer Techniques - Part 2

"It's all you"!  Man, I freakin' hate hearing that in the gym.  It's one thing when 2 dudes wearing wife beaters are doing a bench press / curl combo (You know, when one dude is benching and the other is basically curling up the weight and chanting "It's all you").  It's a whole different form of AWFUL when you see a trainer performing the "all you" technique with their client.

I've seen trainers "assist" their clients way too much with just about every exercise you can imagine, lat pulldowns, leg extensions, machine shoulder press, and probably the worst site of all = trainer assisted smith machine squats. 

This "crappy" trainer technique is derailing their clients progress on a couple different levels.

First of all, the client will have no idea what weight to use when they workout at the gym by themselves.  I've seen trainers that have their clients perform a bench press with a decent amount of weight, but the trainer never let's their hands leave the bar.  Unfortunately, the client will have a rude awakening when they try to lift that type of weight without the help of a overzealous spotter.  It's a rather embarrassing site when someone can't budge the weight  from their chest and emergency bar removal has to go into effect.

This guy might be in trouble if his trainer wasn't doing curls......

Second of all, the client will never learn how to control and stabilize the weight by themselves.  There are some trainers that don't let their hands leave the bar or machine no matter what exercise is being performed.  Now, I'm not big believer in using machines with my clients,  I prefer free weights (bar / dumbbell) and body weight movements.  Seeing a trainer take their clients through a machine based workout while contributing an unneeded amount of force makes me want to rub my eyes with sandpaper.

It really makes me wonder what physical benefit the client is actually getting out of the session if their trainer runs them through a series of machines, and provides most of the effort during every repetition.

If you have a trainer that performs the "all you" technique do yourself a favor and request to lift the weight without assistance, your strength and stability will drastically improve.

If you're one of those trainers who likes to think that you got your clients extremely strong because you do curls while they bench press (using the same bar at the same time), please stop insulting our profession.  Some of us actually take pride in seeing our clients achieve real strength gains.

If you haven't seen part 1 check it out HERE.  Next up in the series, a technique that will make you question how some trainers actually retain clients....