A year ago from today, was easily one of the most disgusting times of my life.
Picture this, young, enthusiastic, new mom simply wanting to do what she loves most. So she walks into a gym, 2 months postpartum, to work as a personal trainer helping others reach their fitness goals as she’s working on her own.
A friendly face greets her at the door, offers free childcare, and promotes $10 per 60 minute session plus unlimited clients. The athletic director says salary isn’t necessary because the money is there. She expresses her credentials being a 3 year experienced NASM certified personal trainer, cpr/first aid certified, and had a Masters Degree In Exercise Science and Wellness to the “Athletic Director”. She decides to train at this gym anyways because she really loves what she does, and she’s a military spouse he moves around every few years.
While speaking with the athletic director, the trainer shows her clients transformations, her own personalized fitness app she’s managed for 3 years, and her background in bodybuilding. Bodybuilding stood out the most to the athletic director, and he expresses interest in wanting to train her.
One month in, and she’s loving her job! The clients are loving the trainer, and the athletic director is pushing all clients wanting lifestyle and healthy eating tips to her because she’s the only female trainer with a child and a fitness background exceeding a CPT certificate. The training team begins having team meetings outside of the gym to form a community because we were a “family.”
All is fine.
The clients are loving their trainer, but 2 months in, some are no longer coming to train. The trainer is receiving feedback from the athletic director and she’s told that clients are leaving because she’s not retaining them. The trainer asks for tips and guidance, and he encouraged her make her self more available during the week.
The AD also reminds her that he wants to begin training her for bodybuilding shows soon. She asks what all it entails because she doesn’t have time for prep due to being a new mom and . He expresses that she can take her time but she’ll need to begin sending him pictures of her front, back, and side “nude” so that he can see her entire whole frame to prep her for the show. He then shows her a picture of a current client nude, smoothing it over as she’s doing it too, and I’ve transformed her because of this.
After that he offers a service known as “skin scraping” to help smooth out cellulite and stretch marks. The AD offered this to his female clients in the back room, and they were nude when he’d do it to them. The trainer didn’t know what to think but knew that all of this was wrong, and broke so many codes on different levels as a trainer and as a person in “power.”
She decides not to train with the AD at all because of his lack of integrity, but continued training because of the progress with her clients.
Doing her best to retain the clients, she begins offering training services 4 hours in the morning, and 4 hours in the evening giving her barely any time to spend with her baby and family during the week. The athletic director sits her down and expresses how good she’s doing with the clients, and wants her to take on even more clients.
Clients begin leaving again a week later, and she begins to ask why? She knows nothing about the contracts because the athletic director talks to the clients prior to assigning them a trainer. She’s training 25-30 clients a week around the 4 month mark, and some of them 2-3 times a week. The clients express to the trainer that they pay anywhere from $35-40 a session plus the membership fee each month. They signed 1 year contracts with the athletic director. They can’t afford to train with her 2-3 times a week now because it’s costing $500+ a month.
After receiving this info, she speaks to the AD regarding the client concerns. She’s told that’s not her business, and that it’s the clients responsibility to pay their bills. The trainer informs the AD that The AD responds by telling her she should be grateful, and that her husband is military so they don’t really need that much money anyways. He even goes on to tell her that she shouldn’t think she’s better than the other trainers, after the trainer tells the athletic director that she feels that all of the trainers should get paid for their time at the gym.
The AD didn’t like this reply. The trainer stood her ground and left the conversation knowing she would be putting in a 2 weeks notice and finding new employment. The very next day, the trainer is confronted by the AD and his wife (general manager) about a “rumor” saying that the AD had requested nudes from a formal client. Them knowing that the rumor was true, and knowing that it was known prior to the hire of the trainer is not the bad part. The sad part is that a young female was harassed and interrogated by 2 older adults in a position of power who knew that they were wrong, and that the Athletic Director had used his position to pray on young females who were not aware that requesting nudes was a violation of the trainers code of ethics.
The personal trainer went to a female who’s husband was over the AD about the entire situation and expressed wanting to quit and the humiliation she felt being interrogated by the couple AD and his wife. The woman spoke to her husband, and they encouraged her to write an anonymous note and to slide it under the door. This note was supposed to “handle” the situation as the woman put it to the trainer.
A few days later a staff meeting was held amongst all of the trainers, the AD and his wife (general manager), the woman who encouraged she write the letter, and her husband (manager of the club). This meeting was to address the “rumors” however, the meeting turned into a passive conversation where the manager over all of his said “he supported the AD” and anyone who didn’t could leave.
That conversation led the the trainer to formally in a 2 week notice of resignation. The AD begged her to stay, even after he had called her a liar, harassed her, and attempted to humiliate her in front of the entire staff. The trainer chose to leave anyways, but before she left she was “let go” because clients were canceling their way too expensive contracts and the gym was losing money.
The trainer signed a non-compete contract which stated she could not train for a year within 25 miles of this gym. The AD still has a job, is still training young females, and continues to use his position of power to prey on people who are genuinely try to make lifestyle changes.
She is Me.
She was forced into silence because that was the easiest route at the time. I am no longer silent. This world is filled with people like this. A place I once found solitude brings about traumatic memories now. I can’t bring myself to train in another “private owned” gym because of the damage this gym has done to me and so many.
I’m writing this because I can’t keep it in any longer. My part in this story is not even the worse of it all, but I wanted to share with you the adversities many fitness enthusiasts face day in and out. Nothing and nobody is safe. I left that gym because my own personal moral and values exceeded their reputation. He preyed on the young, and took advantage of the vulnerable and I’m not okay with that.
Not that this matters, but I just knew that me being an African American female working under an African American older male could only bring more guidance and wisdom. He doesn’t represent anyone but the scum who continue to plague this Earth. I pray that me sharing this story helps someone else, and know that you are not alone.
The devil will never still my pride or my joy.
Namaste 🙏🏾
Aleisha Kay
Comments