other people correcting your technique? your opinion?

cpuag01

http://youtu.be/_-91_iXATY8

TripleJ3

I personally would love it if a personal trainer came up to me and said,I am so and so and I am a personal trainer here. I notice when you do this you do this. If you do it this way you will get better results and save yourself an injury.

Maybe its also in the approach. Making it more casual. But yes, there is always going to be someone who can't handle constructive free criticism. I would guess you would have to be prepared that some people might not like it, but if you can learn to read who is a newbie they would probably appreciate a professionals advice

brewface811

I'd love for people to give me tips and show me new stuff. I'm not really comfortable with free weights so I wish someone would teach me, but I'm too afraid to ask. I did have a guy compliment my form when doing squats one day That felt good!

mike_littlerock

Depends on delivery, content, and awareness..
delivery is self explanatory and has been covered already.
what I mean by content and awareness, is that the person recommending would need to know what movement you are doing, where you are on training cycle, objective, etc. might also relate to the depth of the training that the person recommending has. For example, what if you are doing a push press, but if they "think" you are doing a military press in a more traditional bodybuilding fashion, they would say your form was wrong and you were cheating. Same could be said about having an arch in back for bench.. would depend on how much arch and how much weight. If you are going fairly light you probably can be pretty flat, but if going heavy you will have some arch and if trained to power-lift will have more arch.

its all relative. I have had people tell me some CRAZY stuff over the years. I just smile and say thanks most of the time. I do get it more often if I am doing something they are not familiar with.. for example an SLDL

I think that if you are new trainer and continue to learn over the years, the advice you give in year one will be greatly different than in year 20 (possibly even directly contradicting the year one advice)

ashreynolds09

I would love for someone to do that for me! However, the b*itch in me comes out in the gym usually. I have my earbuds in and pretty much clue everyone out - just enough that I still see people so I don't take a machine or weights away, so if someone were to interrupt me, I may not be a very nice person about it.

However, if someone came up with i was changing into my street shoes and suggested a few changes, I would probably be very receptive to it.

taunto

Don't be THAT guy at the gym:

http://youtu.be/_-91_iXATY8

rybo

It's a very fine line depending on your tone & approach & the other person's attitude and acceptance to help/criticism. It could go over very well, or very bad.

warmachinejt

you can use your back a little to cheat on curls and other movements as long as you know how to do it properly without injuring yourself. I see a lot of people doing wrong things but i also see a lot of guys cheating properly for the last few reps. I cheat on lat pull downs too when i can't go on so i swing around 2 reps. It will give the muscles an extra burn than just giving up.

LiddyBit

I want to do this ALL THE TIME when I see people stretching at the gym. So many injuries waiting to happen! (My qualifications are - former dancer and dance teacher. But I keep my mouth shut because I don't want to be That Person.)

I have considered asking my gym (small, non-chain) if they would be interested in doing periodic stretching workshops.

RoboLikes

If I truly am doing something wrong, I would rather have someone stop me and correct me then let me continue on and hurt myself.

victoria4321

I don't mind if its gym staff or a cute guy.

dane11235813

I am studying to become a Personal Trainer atm, and I see a lot of people doing things wrong at the gym...
eg people swinging with lat pulldown, swinging with bicep curls, people lifting their back up on the bench press whilst lifting the weight.

It all looks like an injury waiting to happen, but would you find it ignorant if someone came up to you and corrected your technique, cause you're scared they may hurt themselves or they will not be getting the most out of an exercise?

I never ever say anything to anyone with bad technique...However, I purposely shake my head at them when we make eye contact...I have been known to bust out laughing too...

Kills me when dudes put way too much weight on their lat pull downs and they are trying to use their whole body to pull it down...

or the habitual curl bar rocker...bwahahahaha

i've done this before too. i know it's a total douche move so i mostly keep my head down at the gym and worry about myself but when i see someone in the squat rack barely doing 1/4 squats with 275 lbs when he probably can't even squat 185 properly i'll sometimes make eye contact and just shake my head. gym idiots are everywhere and they aren't going away. there's really not much that can be done about them.

firstnamekaren

I asked one of the personal trainers at my gym very nicely if they would show me how to do a deadlift. Without any prompting, this other male *kitten* trainer said, "Oh you mean the ones that will KILL YOUR BACK?? Those are so bad". Then he just waited for me to be all, "OMG, I can't do those!" but I just ignored him and said, "yes, the deadlift". Why would anyone want to freak someone else out at the gym like that; especially a professional?

BAMFMeredith

If some random came up to me and told me I was doing something wrong I'd probably be annoyed (even if they were right) just bc I don't know if they're qualified to tell me if I'm wrong or not.

BUT if somebody I saw regularly at the gym lifting weights or one of the trainers came up to me, I'd listen. If it was a trainer I'd take their word for it, and if it was just a person who seemed to know what they're doing, I'd probably take their advice but then confirm it later with a trainer.

Not that all trainers know wtf they're doing, but I have to think most of them would know how to correct my form.

RilantheFirebug

I think it depends on the delivery. If you said to me, 'hey great job with the blah blah, those are fun/hard/a pain in the *kitten*, but i noticed that you are doing this and that could hurt you' versus 'your blah blah sucks and you're doing completely wrong' --- I'd be a lot more receptive to the first.

JenaePavlak

I see it all the time and would like to help people but I keep my mouth shut. I don't want to look like a know-it-all.. I just try to show em how to do it right by making sure my form is correct all the time.. I don't want to seem like a tool... Good luck!

juliaamilee

its about your approach, I think. It wouldnt bother me unless you came across as a know it all.

limesublime

I am studying to become a Personal Trainer atm, and I see a lot of people doing things wrong at the gym...
eg people swinging with lat pulldown, swinging with bicep curls, people lifting their back up on the bench press whilst lifting the weight.

It all looks like an injury waiting to happen, but would you find it ignorant if someone came up to you and corrected your technique, cause you're scared they may hurt themselves or they will not be getting the most out of an exercise?

Honestly- I'd be wary if they weren't gym staff - because I would have no idea about their qualifications or experience. There are lots of self proclaimed "experts" out there so it's hard to tell.who knows their stuff and who's talking through their *kitten*.
If you were doing it in some official capacity I'd be more likely to listen.

^--- This. If there is anything I've learned, it is that everyone is an expert. I think it is great that people have figured out what works for them (or in your case you've been educated about this), but people love to tell others about how they should be doing X Y or Z to get fit. Even professionals vary a great deal in their advice/technique. I take everything with a grain of salt now, but unsolicited advice would still irritate me.

bagge72

I asked one of the personal trainers at my gym very nicely if they would show me how to do a deadlift. Without any prompting, this other male *kitten* trainer said, "Oh you mean the ones that will KILL YOUR BACK?? Those are so bad". Then he just waited for me to be all, "OMG, I can't do those!" but I just ignored him and said, "yes, the deadlift". Why would anyone want to freak someone else out at the gym like that; especially a professional?

Well that is the thing, a lot of personal trainers don't really know the correct way to do things, and give a lot of bad information, so if somebody come up to me and said they were studying to be a personal trainer, and tried to teach me how to do something, I probably wouldn't be to happy about it, even if I was doing it wrong. I see people in great shape doing things wrong all of the time, but I just leave it a lone.

tigersword

I'm still trying to figure out what she wants to correct about back being off the bench during a bench press. It's supposed to be off the bench. Feet on the floor, hips on the bench, back arched, shoulder blades under and against the bench, chest up.