Do You or Don't You

So I went to the gym today to do my workout and everytime I go I always see someone doing something crazy or wrong, whether it comes to situps, pull ups, stretches, planks, whatever... The question is, " Do you go up to them and help them?", " Do you correct their position so they don't hurt themselves?".

Most gyms have floor trainers that walk around and supposedly are there to help these people but I rarely ever see that, it is very frustrating because most of these people are getting no benefit from the exercise and are surely going to get hurt in the long run.

The few examples from today are:

1. Watching a man do crunches at a million miles an hour, back arching, butt flying off the floor. He was working, he was huffing and puffing, but what was he trying to accomplish? So do I go over there and help him, do I correct his body position and explain to him the proper way to go about doing a crunch?

2. Cable Pulls: Watching a man doing a cable pull and when he pulled back on the cable his elbows were almost touching in the back, I thought he was going to dislocate his shoulders, it was so hard to watch and the injury waiting to happen is scary.

3. push ups: Being a pilates person now it is so hard to watch people do a ton of wasted push ups incorrectly. I love it when they say, " Hey, I just did 50 push ups", and I say, " Let me see you do 5 right ones". When I show them or when I correct their bodies in the correct position, normally they are only able to do 10, maybe 15, depending on how off their body alignment was with their previous push up position. My pilates instructor always says, "5-10 right push ups equals 50 bad ones, Why work so much harder and get less benefit, just do it right the first time." I think she is so right.

Anyway, I digress, I didn't speak to any of these people today I was too focused and limited on time to go over and do my speal, half the time when I do I don't think they want to hear from me or rarely care. I especially feel compelled to help the elderly or the young teenagers with proper body alignment and making sure they won't hurt themselves. However, I am not a personal trainer nor am I certified as one, I do have a masters in Nursing and have worked out for a long time but not having these credentials may cause a liability for me. Its such a fine line but I really get frustrated, sometimes its better for me not to go to the gym and work out at home.

Anyway, I would love peoples opinions on this, I'm not perfect and I certainly don't know everything about exercise but there are things I do know and by working with some of the amazing trainers during my 41 years you learn a few things or two.

WORKOUT FRONT:

Hard week ahead, 3 swims, 3 RT sessions, 31 or 35 miles of running and 3 bikes. The hard track workout is on saturday, I'm already mentally preparing for it. Maybe I can recruit a few people to do it with me. Still trying to figure out my races for 2010, I better get my butt in gear soon or these races will sell out.