Exercise should be inclusive: ditch bad trainers and toxic gym environments!

I am a Personal Trainer located in the Northern Beaches and most of my training consist of lifting weights. Since many of my clients practice Pilates outside our sessions, and they have told me how much they enjoy it and how good they feel, I decided to try Reformer Pilates for the first time in one studio in Manly. It would be too soon to speak about what I think about Pilates as a movement practice, so this post is not about Pilates, it’s about how important is to make any kind of physical exercise INCLUSIVE.

Have you ever been in a exercise class where you don’t feel welcome? That’s exactly how I felt. It was very disappointing to see the instructor just pretend I wasn’t there. She didn’t say hello, never introduced herself or ask what my name was, and come on, considering it was a very small class, eight people including her, and she wasn’t a substitute teacher, I refuse to believe she didn’t know I was new in her class.

In any case, I signed up for a “Beginners class”, let’s start it was far from that. As expected, the instructor never bothered asking if there was anyone in the room taking the class for the first time or make a short introduction about what we were going to be doing, and there I was, getting into a very long fifty minutes class. 

If you have practiced Reformer Pilates before, you can appreciate how intimidating the machine can be at the start, and adding to the fact that the teacher was moving too quickly through the session and everyone else seemed to know what to do, except me, I could not wait to leave, but I’m not a quitter, so I carried on with the class, trying to follow not very successfully and often checking the time to see how much long I had on that class until it fortunately finished. 

It was very discouraging to think that if I were not purely interested on understanding how practicing Reformer Pilates is helping my clients; or if I had not purchased a classes pack, I would have not gone back to a Pilates class. So I am sharing this with you because you might been there, going to a class that made you feel unwelcome and/or very uncoordinated and stupid, and left the place thinking: “I’m not good enough to exercise”, “Exercise is not for me”, “I tried but I’m a failure”, and quit, and this could be one of the reasons why people feel discouraged to exercise.

Exercise is one of the best things you can do for your body, we all know that, but also demands discipline, and some people need accountability or a social motivator to do it. They feel motivated training in a group environment, they just want to make friends while exercising, or they don’t know how to exercise, and they look for guidance. Whatever your reasons to exercise are, I want you to not let unprofessional trainers, gyms, or toxic environments, to get on the way of your fitness goals. Find a type of movement that you enjoy, a trainer that matches your personality and a community that makes you feel you are worth it and stick to it. 

Share with me what have been one of the best or worst group exercise experiences you have had? 

Written by Vanessa Malagon Gomez,

Your Northern Beaches Personal Trainer