Wednesday, April 2, 2014

New Zealand’s Personal Trainers are harming their clients


Here are some staggering statistics relating to gym injuries in New Zealand …. 

One in eight Kiwis belong to a gym (up from one in 11 in 1995)  

Over the same period the number of personal trainers has increased tenfold, from 200 to 2000.  

ACC (accident Compensation Commission) figures show that in just the past five years gym accidents have increased by 330 per cent.

So there’s been a 28 per cent increase in numbers going to a gym and a tenfold increase in punters employing personal trainers has seen a tenfold increase in accident expenditure!  

23,000 claims in 2013 alone, up 10,000 on 2012.  

If this trend continues soon going to a gym will be in the same category as playing a physical contact sport like soccer in terms of injury risk.   

This can’t be explained away as an anomaly.

More Personal Trainers = More Injuries in New Zealand Gyms is what the figures state.

So why do we have this worrisome trend and why aren’t gyms more honest over the perceived benefits versus dangers of using a PT? 

Is it just me or I am right and saying that most personal trainers are aged under 30 years and most of their clients aged well over 30 years?  

It would be ridiculous for say Bayern Munich to employ a coach who was a decade plus younger than the players he’s coaching.  

Most of N.Z’s PT’s are coaching the equivalent of their parents.  

To use the soccer analogy again, imagine the injuries that would be produced if you had a 20 year running the training sessions for a golden-oldies team?   

Gyms, fitness industry should look to quality and not quantity. 

Look to experience like other recreational activities.  

Pay their employees enough so a 40 year old with kids and a mortgage can make a comfortable living, not tweens on low wages, with no responsibility apart from paying back the loan on their car.  

Therein lies the problem. 

An industry in denial and until the gyms/industry trainers admit there is an issue it means gym goers will continue to be injured in numbers that are comparable even to contact sports.  
 
Ceasing the myth personal trainers correlate to fewer injuries is a start.

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