Observation

Killing two birds with one stone I figured I’d do my observation over a personal trainer because I have field experience class that requires me to be in the field observing a health care professional. Walking through the sliding doors I sit down at a chair in the lobby in front of a T.V. Watching Good Morning America immediately notice the clean atmosphere, walls all white with most other objects around the facility light colors, comparable to that of a hospital only less eerie and more comforting. He walks through the automatic sliding door with a black Nike bag slung over his shoulder smiles and says hi to the ladies at the front desk, walks to his office, pulls his keys from his pocket unlocks the door after a few jingles. Puts his bag under is desk, presses the power button on his computer, taps his foot a few times and goes back to the front desk and chats with the ladies for a few moments, talking about the drive and how the wind and snow was blowing all over the place, grabs a cup of coffee and heads back to his office. Chris is a personal trainer and fitness director at Fitness Works in York, Nebraska. Chris explains to me that his job isn’t just helping clients in the gym but doing book work and scheduling as well. As he explains the requirements of his job I think to myself that his job is very demanding, because not only does he have to be a NSCA (National Strength & Conditioning Association) certified personal trainer and but he has to know the ins and outs of running a business as well, and that’s not to mention having to keep up with the quickly growing and changing field of fitness in today’s world of an overweight nation. Taking a sip of coffee he sits down and opens up payroll and begins to open each employees file making sure each bank statement is correct. After about an half hour of working on payroll he moves on to putting the schedule together for the up coming month. Given his body language he obviously isn’t entertained with the task at hand, rolling his eyes, yawing and frequently taking a drink from his coffee. He begins to start writing down people to work on various days, after awhile he sighs because he’s having a tough time finding someone to work on the third Sunday in March, he urgently walks to the front desk to see if any of the ladies are willing to work on that day. Unfortunately the ladies when asked politely declined and continued to fold towels and sip on their morning cup of coffee. Heading back to his office he begins to go down the call list, after three or four calls he smiles nods his head hangs up the phone and gives a sigh of relief. For the next half hour he continues to work on the schedule until glancing at the clock on the wall above his desk he realizes it’s 10:54, about time for his training session with a new client. A few minutes later his client, Mark, arrives itching to workout, aggressively stretching, his smile beaming with confidence, he throws his towel over his shoulder and follows Chris to the treadmill, Chris tells his client to hop on for five minutes to warm up. After warming up he tells Mark to get a drink of water before they hit the weights. Chris begins going over Marks workout plan with him, telling him what workouts they are doing and why. After a few minutes of discussion they get started, Chris helps Mark load weight on the leg press, he tells mark to breath out when pushing the weight up and to breath in when lowering it. After this workout they move from machine to machine discussing how each set of lifts felt in between each one. While Mark is doing his exercises I ask Chris why he is having Mark use machines when free weights are better for you. Chris explains that for the average Joe that hasn’t been in the gym since college or high school it’s easier for them to use machines to get started with a fitness program then slowly move them onto free weight exercises. This makes a lot of sense to me because not everyone is going to jump head first into exercising, sometimes you have to hold their hand a bit and slowly push them along, and I guess that’s what people like Chris are there for. After about 45 minutes of this they shake hands and Mark heads into the locker room with sweat dripping from his face and an empty look in his eyes, but with a smile none the less. As Mark opens the door to the locker room I smell the strong stench of disinfectant cleaner most likely ammonia based by the smell. Chris heads back to his office to check his email. A moment later I notice the janitor, Rick, wheel out of the locker room with his cleaning cart, again noticing the stench of cleaner. With a knock at his open door he turns to see a lady standing there waiting for a response, he says softly “how are you, what can I do ya for?” She wants to be tested to see what her body fat percentage is. Chris gets up and takes a small plastic case off the shelf behind him, walks back to the aerobics room with him to have the test done. As I walk in the aerobics room the smell of sweat is apparent amongst the humid atmosphere, probably from a early morning aerobics class.

He lays out a padded mat and instructs her to take her right shoe and sock of and then lay down. He opens the case and takes out a small electronic device that perform a bioelectrical impedance analysis, a few wires and some test strips that resemble band aids. He peals back the protective paper on the test strips and places two on her foot and two on her hand, hooks the wires up to the machine then on to the device. With a quick press of a button he tells her she’s done and to meet her in his office. He goes to his office opens up a program on his computer, types in a few numbers that came from the device and he’s done. After printing off a body mass readout for the lady he looks it over for a second and then discusses the results with her. He hands her the sheet and shakes her hand, after glancing at the sheet one last time before she leaves she sighs and frowns in obvious disappointment. Getting back to work on the scheduling Chris takes about 15 more minutes to finish that off. While watching Chris finish up the work schedule I’m begging to notice what it takes to succeed in a position like Chris’s, you have to be subtle but at the same time be confident and demand respect. Today Chris is working though the lunch hour because being a personal trainer a lot of people workout over their lunch hour so he is making himself available to more clients. It’s about 15 after noon and various business men and women rush through the door to get a quick workout in. A older gentlemen with blue jeans and a cowboy had on walks in Chris’s office and asks what he should do to be healthier. Chris goes out into the gym and talks for a few minutes with the older blue collar fellow. He tells him that he should come in the gym at least 2-3 time a week and jump on the treadmill and walk for 20 minutes, then hop on a few weight machines focusing on lifting a lower amount of weight 10 to 15 times building stamina and cardiovascular endurance. Chris goes on to tell him that he should try to be more active around the house by doing things such as mowing the lawn with a push mower instead of a rider or racking leaves rather than using a leaf blower. Shortly after this a young woman, looking to be in her mid 20’s probably a few years removed from college, tells Chris that she wants to start doing more cardio, Chris goes back into his office, opens a file on his computer and modifies her current workout routine, changing her two 20 minute cardio sessions per week to 30 minutes and making them four times every week, he puts for her to do 30 minutes of cycling once a week and 30 minutes of jogging three times a week. After making all the adjustments he clicks print and hands her the sheet. With the look in her eyes I can tell she is enthused by what Chris has given her to do, obviously anxious to tackle a new goal, maybe a new year’s resolution of hers. Chris begins to walk around the gym, taking off weights off an abandoned squat rack, picking up towels and putting them in the hamper. A young kid, maybe 16 years old asks Chris if he can change the news channel in front of his treadmill to a basketball game, between the Phoenix Suns and the Detroit Pistons, Chris politely nods and goes to get the remote from the front desk. After he changes the channel he continues to roam around the gym cleaning off weights, putting exercise balls away as well as medicine balls left out by customers. While following Chris around the gym like a puppy I ask him what his favorite part of the job is, he smiles and softly says, “I just enjoy interacting with people constantly throughout the day, keeps me busy and it doesn’t make it seem like I’m doing work but rather enjoying a hobby of mine, because I’ve always enjoyed both talking with people and have been fascinated by sports what you can do physically with the body, so when you put them both together it’s really the ideal situation to be in for a guy like me.” Looking out the window on the north side of the building he notices the weather is getting bad outside, worried he goes back to his office to check the weather on his computer. After a few minutes of searching he finds that it’s going to snow till eight at night. He picks up the phone and calls his boss to tell him that he’s going to leave to make it home before the roads get worse, Chris has an hour drive from work to home so he’s quickly trying to get ready to leave. He first calls a client that had an session scheduled for later that night to tell her that he will have to reschedule. After this he turns off his computer, puts on his coat, grabs his bag from under his desk and throws it over his shoulder. Leaving his office and locking the door behind him he quickly scurries out the front door waving at the ladies at the front desk as he passes by. Just like that he is gone, headed east is his white SUV. After shadowing Chris throughout the day I realize he is kind of like a quarterback at his job, being the “go to guy” he has to know the job and meet its demands while also relating and teaching other people what to do. Chris has to confidently bop from task to task maintaining a professional image meeting new people and instructing them what to do while also teaching them a little bit of what he knows at the same time.