A few days ago I was running a PT session for a new client, who has a long personal history of being sceptical about gyms, gym people, and even the very notion of exercise full stop. She was struggling with an exercise, and, as I coached her through it, one of the other lifters offered a bit of encouragement and some kind words about struggling through a tough rep. My client successfully ironed out her issue, and we continued with the rest of the session, nothing more said. Last night, however, my client said that she found the encouragement extremely helpful, and was very surprised that someone she barely knew would be so helpful, for no reason and expecting no response. This threw me a little, isn't that what you'd expect from a decent gym? Nope, her prior experiences with commercial gyms had left her thinking that any large gym rat, covered in chalk and sweating out the eyeballs, was only going to be patronising, if they spoke at all. She compared it to going round to a friends for wine and cheese, as opposed to going to a club for a drink; okay, in both contexts you are there for the same reason, but, depending on which you go for, you are going to have a completely different experience.
'Be encouraging. Be welcoming. Don't be a dick.' I'd write it above the door of the gym, like a kind of reverse Dante's Inferno, it weren't for the fact that we have a lot of kid's classes at the gym and it might be frowned upon to have profanity scrawled across the fornication. But the point stands, if you are going to come to CRG Crossfit, or Krav Maga Edinburgh classes, then no matter how you are outside these walls, you better not be a dick inside them. None of us are perfect, and yeah, sometimes its good to get into your own zone, train hard and get out, but, have a thought for the other people in this shared space, and remember that a few encouraging words here and there can go a long way to changing a person's entire gym experience.
'Be encouraging. Be welcoming. Don't be a dick.'
Lawrie Clapton
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