Fitness Poachers Everywhere!

Last week I was at the gym doing a round of circuit training and a woman came over to me and asked me if I had any questions with the equipment. She was obviously a trainer at New York Sports Club and wore all black, making her a “master trainer.”

I asked her to show me one of the weight machines and she proceeded to ask me if I ever had an evaluation.

“I’ve been training with Dom now for two months,” I told her. “I’m all good.”

“So what’s with the questions about the machines?” she asked.

“I’m going to Syracuse this weekend and he is only available on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and it just didn’t fit into my schedule this week.”

“Well that’s not right,” she said. “He’s the trainer and should accommodate you.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I train I come in on my days off to train my people,” she said. I got a little upset and decided that the next time I saw my trainer I would talk with him about this.

A few days later, I get a call from Paul, who is the “trainer boss,” asking if everything is okay. He told me that the “master trainer” told him I was unhappy, which I never said.

I realized as I hung up the phone that the “master trainer” wanted to stir the pot and try to poach me to train with her.

About a week after that I was at a Subway restaurant and bumped into my friend, Mary.

“Hey Hil,” she said. “Listen when you’re finished with your trainer, call me and you can hire me to be your personal trainer.”

I smiled and got on line to place my sandwich order. But I was thinking that it was odd that she was trying to poach me.

Then today, as I was running on the treadmill, I noticed that there were trainers walking around trying to poach people to train with them….

I saw Paul, the head trainer, as I was stretching and cooling down. “How’s everything going?” he asked. “Things okay with you and Dom?”

“Things are great,” I said. “But as for the rest of the world of trainers, it seems to me that everyone is a poacher!”