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Fit for Nothing
by Bob Walker |
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So you've taken the plunge and finally joined a gym. You've paid the initial joining fee, have set up that expensive standing order and you're ready for the first session.
But how confident can you be that the fit, young instructors telling you "There's no gain without pain" actually knows what they're talking about?
According to research by Health Which? magazine - published by the Consumers' Association - many gyms are prepared to employ staff who haven't been properly trained.
A Health Which? researcher went under-cover to apply for jobs at ten gyms - five in Manchester and five in Kent. She had no training or gym instructor qualifications yet half the gyms were still prepared to consider her for a job as an instructor - one gym in Manchester even went as far as interviewing her for the position of gym manager.
In January this year the fitness industry launched a Register of Exercise Professions (REPs) in England - with similar schemes launched in Wales and Scotland. Yet, membership of the scheme is voluntary and so far it only covers about 50 per cent of the instructors working in the industry. In fact two thirds of the gyms called by Health Which? seemed unaware of the register. And REPs itself admitted that finding an appropriate course was quite 'mind boggling'. The register recognises around 25 different awards from 14 different bodies.
Grant Appleby, the owner of two gyms in Derbyshire, believes the problem lies in the fact that instructors are not legally required to take special courses, although he himself holds qualifications from a body-building organisation and insists on ensuring all his staff are properly trained.
Mr Appleby agrees with the reports which says there are a bewildering number of organisations and bodies which award varying degrees of qualifications and says the industry should press for instructors to take exams equivalent to GCSE or City and Guilds level.
Links
- from the Consumer's Association
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