On spotting vs assisting
Originally written on: Unknown, before June 19, 2019
In my 5 years in the fitness industry… Char! Kala mo naman talaga e noh.
In my working out since 2014, I have observed and judged hundreds of people silently. Among them, my favorite hobby is observing the personal trainers and how they interact with their clients.
This is because I’m poor af and can’t afford one. So all my knowledge has been earned through hours of self-study at YouTube University and Google College. I’m low-key jealous of that kind of life so I compensate by observing to see what I’m missing out.
One thing I’ve noticed is the difference between coaches who value your growth and trainers who just want your money. Now there’s a lot of factors and I could be dead wrong, but this is my observation.
One of the most obvious ways to tell the latter is if they spot their client in EVERY FREAKING REP for EVERY FREAKING SET. Hold up, spotting is even too generous a term to call the phenomenon. I’d call it straight up assisting.
I’m sure you’ve seen them at one point if you go to the gym. Their client is lifting 5lb dumbbells nad the trainer is right behind, clutching the client’s wrists and shadowing every rep.
But Jai, you say, they might just be making sure that the client’s form is correct! Possibly. But assisting from Set 1 to 4? Hmmm. This is harmful because a) the client will never know the exact weight of what they’re lifting, and b) the client becomes dependent on the trainer.
a) The trainer will never assist with the same amount of force every time. So let’s say, for example, the client is lifting 100lbs. For every rep, how much of that 100lbs is the client actually lifting if the trainer is assisting every time? 95lbs? 90lbs? 97.5lbs? 92.3lbs? Who knows? Even the trainer himself will never know how much he is assising.
b) As the client never knows the pressure of bearing the whole load, they’ll never gain the confidence of lifting the weight alone. Their progression will sufer and they get conditioned to be dependent on the trainer for all the cues to lift. This is beneficial to the trainer because of course, it leads to client retention. “Oh no, how can I lift without my trainer? Oh let me purchase another 12 sessions just to be sure.”
Okay Jai, you’ve said your point. We get it, assisting at every set is just a way for trainers to keep clients and not a good way to improve the client’s well-being. So what should we do?
Let me be clear, I don’t think spotting is bad. I also ask for spots from people to make sure my form is clean. But my spot method is simply “don’t let me die, bro.” Unless it’s a life-threatening situation, my spotter doesn’t touch the bar (or me).
Plus, assisting at times is also beneficial. Like cheat reps,, they’re good help for squeezing out some few extra reps past failure. This is epecially good for hypertrophy.
But just like one shouldn’t depend too much on energy drinks, assisting is also only best in small amounts. The best way for trainers to help clients is to teach them proper form through internal and external cues. Then simply let them do the workout by themselves, only stepping in during times of incorrect form or form breakdown. Demonstrate and let them replicate. And this has consistently been proven through real-life experiences. Most of my favorite coaches never touch their clients during a workout.
Spoonfeeding and hand-holding is not an efficient way to progress, and a good coach knows this. A good personal trainer helps their client to progress at the best pace for that individual’s goals, up until the point that the client feels like they can work out even without the coach. A bad one will let their client flail around the gym every session, doing workouts to make them sweat and feel like they did something, while actually progressing at the least efficient pace.
I’ve said so much you might think I have a vendetta against all perosnal trainers. On the contrary, I’ve always wanted to be one. I just think that it’s more fulfilling to retain clients because they’re happy with their progress instead of them being conditioned to not having a choice but to rely on you.
TL;DR Leave space for Jesus.