Professional personal trainers don’t harass women -— Panellists on Mirror X Spaces

More women are signing up with gyms or engaging the services of personal trainers to help them meet their weight and fitness goals, however, one of the common issues that comes up with being trained by males is sexual harassment.

According to two fitness instructors, it is unprofessional personal trainers who take advantage of women who need guidance to keep fit.

The fitness instructors, Mr William Ofori Atta and Mr Joshua Ansah, who were panellists on The Mirror’s X Spaces last Wednesday explained that instead of employing professionals, some local gyms used the services of “macho” (muscular) men with no training experience and in most of the cases reported, it was these men who harassed women.

“A professional trainer will not be enticed by what a person wears to the gym. If I am training you, you can wear thongs, I will still not be moved. The gym is like a hospital where people go when they need help and so it will be wrong for me to take advantage of someone who needs help,” Mr Ofori Atta popularly known as Flashkickk explained.  

He said in some instances, which were usually unreported, some women also made advances at, or flirted with their trainers but a professionally trained instructor should not be moved by such advances.

“Most professional trainers are not moved by the girls they meet in the gyms. We see different girls (women) each day at different times in different clothes. It will be sick for us to harass all of them knowing that they came to us because they needed help,” he said.

Mr Ansah added that in most of the reported cases of gym harassment he had followed, the perpetrators were not trained but only had big muscles, saying, “so these are usually boys who have been signed on by gyms without any background checks and so when they meet women, they target them and try to make advances or harass them”.

Setting weight goals
Last Wednesday’s conversation on X, formally Twitter, was on setting realistic weight goals. In Earlier conversations, The Mirror engaged a medical doctor and dietician who spoke on preventing common lifestyle diseases.

This week’s conversation was to highlight the importance of exercise in losing, gaining and maintaining weight.

Unrealistic goals
Mr Ansah, who is also a choreographer said most people seeking to lose weight set unrealistic targets and also looked up to models on social media platforms who had been paid to advertise certain products and services.

He said such targets were unachievable as some of those models wore waist trainers to take pictures or had trained for years.

The choreographer said seeing results from exercise usually started from within. However, most people expected to see results in the mirror few days after and were disappointed to see no physical results.

“If you are a beginner, depending on your age, you set a target and add on gradually. If you do it well you will notice that you start breathing better or don’t get tired easily. If you are consistent, the changes will start showing with time. If you start and give up in a few days simply because you are not seeing results, you will never achieve your target,” he explained.

Mr Ansah also advised people to incorporate movements such as dance as it helped in relieving stress.

Flat stomach and six packs
Flashkickk added that most people assumed that once they start exercising, they will get toned legs, abs and well-rounded buttocks.
 

Such changes, he explained, happened after the person had lost adequate weight, “the most important thing is to try and lose general body weight which automatically means you will shed weight off your stomach and some other areas. Then, you can do targeted exercises to tone specific body parts.”

He emphasised the importance of diets and being consistent as key to achieving weight targets and staying fit