When Abs Are Tight, but Lips Are Loose

[Guest guest]

November 16, 2006

Fitness

When Abs Are Tight, but Lips Are Loose

By SHIVANI VORA

WHAT happens at the gym stays at the gym. Or so Gluck thought

when he confessed to his seemingly congenial trainer that he hated

the way he had ballooned and would do whatever it took to shed 70

pounds from his 5-foot-9-inch frame. Mr. Gluck, then 27, did not

think twice about talking candidly at his twice-weekly sessions at

the New York Sports Club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

He should have.

A few months later, an acquaintance recounted startling news: Mr.

Gluck's trainer had blabbed to colleagues and clients about his

insecurities and mocked his weight-loss goal as mere fantasy. " I was

humiliated, " said Mr. Gluck, 30, an attorney who now lives on Staten

Island. " It never occurred to me that he would tell everyone what I

thought I had told him in confidence. "

Mr. Gluck was so embarrassed he did not even lodge a complaint. When

contacted, Gerson, a spokeswoman for New York Sports Clubs,

said that gossiping is " unacceptable " and is not tolerated. She

added in an e-mail message, " As a personal trainer, maintaining

trust with a client is of the utmost importance. "

Indiscreet trainers have plagued gyms for decades, spilling the

beans about everything from clients' infidelity to their sexual

orientation. But now that more members routinely divulge pertinent

medical information to trainers, the fitness industry has grown less

tolerant of gossip of any kind.

" Gossiping in the personal training industry happens all the time, "

said Neal Pire, a consultant who has advised about 50 clubs since

1979. " It's unprofessional, unethical and is distressing for the

client. "

After hearing one too many trainers dish in her 23 years working

with them, Georgia Malone, 53, is wary about spouting off during

sessions. Her trainer at the Upper East Side branch of the Sports

Club/LA recently told her about the broken marriage of a woman she

knows professionally. " He told me that her husband left her for

another woman, " said Ms. Malone, president and founder of Georgia

Malone & Company, a commercial real estate company. " I felt so

uncomfortable when I saw her because I knew this awful thing about

her. I keep it strictly professional with my trainers because my

business is a confidential matter. "

Her caution has not always preserved her privacy. Earlier this year,

Ms. Malone's trainer also shared her phone number with another

client, who called her hoping to do business. " I felt like my

privacy had been violated, " she said. " I don't think trainers should

even be allowed to tell people who their clients are. "

Owners of boutique gyms are leading the drive to purge tattlers from

their ranks. They have created " no share " policies to end rumor-

mongering and fire employees who do not abide. Some nationwide

chains, like Equinox Fitness Clubs, New York Sports Clubs and Sports

Club/LA, also have privacy policies that forbid trainers to disclose

what clients tell them. But little is done to curb scuttlebutt, a

half-dozen trainers from some of the gyms said in interviews.

When it comes to managing the trainer rumor mill, experts say size

matters.

" In small gyms, the owner is usually on-site and has more control

over the staff to make sure there is a strict adherence to policy, "

said Florez, owner of FitAdvisor and a consultant who

advises clubs about employees. " The larger gyms will find it more

challenging to police their privacy rules because the staffs are not

a manageable size. "

Todd Durkin, the owner of Fitness Quest 10, a health center in San

Diego, said he enforces a zero tolerance policy to weed out the

loose-lipped among his staff of 26. " I had to let a few trainers go

in my first few years of business because I heard them talking about

clients in a way they shouldn't, " said Mr. Durkin, who walks the

floor hourly to check on trainers.

Other small-gym owners consistently reinforce their policies at

staff meetings. " Trainer gossiping is bad for business, " said

Charisse Duroure, the general manager of Ethos, a women's club in

Midland Park, N.J. " Besides suffering the embarrassment of having

personal information made public, clients are turned off by

indiscreet trainers and get derailed from their goals. "

Stamping out gossip isn't a priority for some chains and large gyms,

Mr. Pire said. At clubs with sizable training staffs of 50 or more,

efforts to halt whisper campaigns usually take a back seat to

ensuring member safety, he said. " They are afraid of liability from

injuries, " he said, " not gossip. "

Chains like Equinox and Crunch address client privacy with new

trainers as part of their curriculum but have no written policies.

Each of Equinox's 36 branches also has two managers who instruct the

company's 1,000 trainers to keep quiet about clients, said

Greengrass, a vice president. " Gossip has never been an issue at

Equinox from my perspective. "

On the other hand, Mark Hollands, a Manhattan-based trainer who

worked at the Fifth Avenue branch of Equinox for nearly two years,

said his old gym was a breeding ground for tattlers. " Trainers

gathered in a break room in between sessions and discussed in detail

everything their clients told them, " said Mr. Hollands, who now is

an independent trainer.

A half-dozen trainers working at Equinox and New York Sports Clubs,

who spoke anonymously out of fear of losing their jobs, said their

bosses had never discussed confidentiality. Half the trainers said

they feel gossip is not problematic; the other half said it is

common and can be harmful.

Gabby trainers, especially part-timers, spread stories that upset

members, said one New York Sports Club trainer who has worked at

four branches and has managed one location. " I've seen it a lot, " he

said. He added that while he did not realize that as a manager he

was required to instruct his staff not to trade juicy tidbits, he

did speak to them about not gossiping because he felt it was wrong.

More than six million Americans hired personal trainers in 2005, up

52 percent from 1998, according to American Sports Data, a market

research firm. A lot of the growth comes from middle-age clients

signing up for health reasons, making trainers privy to sensitive

medical information. As a result, setting higher standards of

confidentiality has taken on a new urgency.

The best trainer certification organizations, which five years ago

offered little guidance about confidentiality, now stress its

importance and say trainers should be required to follow privacy

policies on par with doctors or therapists.

" We recognized that some of our trainers were unintentionally

violating our ethics policy around confidentiality, " said Cedric

, the chief science officer at the American Council on

Exercise, a group that certifies trainers. " They had access to

personal information but didn't have an awareness of what to do with

it. "

The code of ethics of the American Council on Exercise emphasizes

that trainers should be discreet and also safeguard any client

paperwork. Those who attend the 520 nationwide trainer workshops of

the Aerobics Fitness Association of America are instructed to lock

up session notes and to refrain from discussing clients' personal

business. Next year the National Academy of Sports Medicine, another

certifying agency, will offer an online class about protecting

medical information.

People who have been victims of a trainer's gift of gab have little

legal recourse. Unlike health care professionals, trainers are not

bound by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act,

which protects individuals' medical data.

As for garden-variety chatter, " There's no law that says it's

illegal to gossip, " said Herbert, a Canton, Ohio, lawyer who

specializes in health care.

Mr. Pire, the fitness consultant, said clients are not entirely

blameless. " Some accountability has to fall on a client not to pour

their heart out to a trainer " about private matters, he said. But he

conceded that health information is far trickier. " Clients have no

control over that being spread. "

Price, a spokesman on training issues for IDEA, a trade

organization, said the best way for consumers to protect themselves

is to look out for the biggest red flag. " If your trainer is

gossiping to you, then he or she is likely gossiping about you, " he

said. " That's when you know you need to move on. "

[Guest guest]

Sharon,

I about fell out of my chair at work when I read this article during

lunch. I saw the name Mark Hollands. I haven't seen the Mark Hollands

I know for over 20 years. It couldn't be him I thought.

I called my father who still meets with Mark's father every year in

Goshen, IN for a get together to reunite old professors/friends from

Ball State University and asked, " Dad, what does Mark Hollands do? "

He asked, " Mark? Is that the oldest one? " I replied, " No he's the

youngest of the boys. " My dad says, " He's a personal trainer. "

That means this is the Mark Hollands I knew from decades ago. I read

maybe only 5% of these article postings too and my company's gym is

pretty private with no personal trainer so this case is extra spooky.

I'm seriously weirded out and am going to convert this post to a PDF

and send it to my folks, his dad and him.

I should give him a plug while I'm at it. I found his website at:

http://www.trainwithmark.com. Of course now I'm going to also ask him

for some fitness advice too.

Mike in GR

>

>

> November 16, 2006

> Fitness

> When Abs Are Tight, but Lips Are Loose

> By SHIVANI VORA

>

> WHAT happens at the gym stays at the gym. Or so Gluck

thought

> when he confessed to his seemingly congenial trainer that he hated

> the way he had ballooned and would do whatever it took to shed 70

> pounds from his 5-foot-9-inch frame. Mr. Gluck, then 27, did not

> think twice about talking candidly at his twice-weekly sessions at

> the New York Sports Club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

>

> He should have.

>

> A few months later, an acquaintance recounted startling news: Mr.

> Gluck's trainer had blabbed to colleagues and clients about his

> insecurities and mocked his weight-loss goal as mere fantasy. " I

was

> humiliated, " said Mr. Gluck, 30, an attorney who now lives on

Staten

> Island. " It never occurred to me that he would tell everyone what I

> thought I had told him in confidence. "

>

> Mr. Gluck was so embarrassed he did not even lodge a complaint.

When

> contacted, Gerson, a spokeswoman for New York Sports Clubs,

> said that gossiping is " unacceptable " and is not tolerated. She

> added in an e-mail message, " As a personal trainer, maintaining

> trust with a client is of the utmost importance. "

>

> Indiscreet trainers have plagued gyms for decades, spilling the

> beans about everything from clients' infidelity to their sexual

> orientation. But now that more members routinely divulge pertinent

> medical information to trainers, the fitness industry has grown

less

> tolerant of gossip of any kind.

>

> " Gossiping in the personal training industry happens all the time, "

> said Neal Pire, a consultant who has advised about 50 clubs since

> 1979. " It's unprofessional, unethical and is distressing for the

> client. "

>

> After hearing one too many trainers dish in her 23 years working

> with them, Georgia Malone, 53, is wary about spouting off during

> sessions. Her trainer at the Upper East Side branch of the Sports

> Club/LA recently told her about the broken marriage of a woman she

> knows professionally. " He told me that her husband left her for

> another woman, " said Ms. Malone, president and founder of Georgia

> Malone & Company, a commercial real estate company. " I felt so

> uncomfortable when I saw her because I knew this awful thing about

> her. I keep it strictly professional with my trainers because my

> business is a confidential matter. "

>

> Her caution has not always preserved her privacy. Earlier this

year,

> Ms. Malone's trainer also shared her phone number with another

> client, who called her hoping to do business. " I felt like my

> privacy had been violated, " she said. " I don't think trainers

should

> even be allowed to tell people who their clients are. "

>

> Owners of boutique gyms are leading the drive to purge tattlers

from

> their ranks. They have created " no share " policies to end rumor-

> mongering and fire employees who do not abide. Some nationwide

> chains, like Equinox Fitness Clubs, New York Sports Clubs and

Sports

> Club/LA, also have privacy policies that forbid trainers to

disclose

> what clients tell them. But little is done to curb scuttlebutt, a

> half-dozen trainers from some of the gyms said in interviews.

>

> When it comes to managing the trainer rumor mill, experts say size

> matters.

>

> " In small gyms, the owner is usually on-site and has more control

> over the staff to make sure there is a strict adherence to policy, "

> said Florez, owner of FitAdvisor and a consultant who

> advises clubs about employees. " The larger gyms will find it more

> challenging to police their privacy rules because the staffs are

not

> a manageable size. "

>

> Todd Durkin, the owner of Fitness Quest 10, a health center in San

> Diego, said he enforces a zero tolerance policy to weed out the

> loose-lipped among his staff of 26. " I had to let a few trainers go

> in my first few years of business because I heard them talking

about

> clients in a way they shouldn't, " said Mr. Durkin, who walks the

> floor hourly to check on trainers.

>

> Other small-gym owners consistently reinforce their policies at

> staff meetings. " Trainer gossiping is bad for business, " said

> Charisse Duroure, the general manager of Ethos, a women's club in

> Midland Park, N.J. " Besides suffering the embarrassment of having

> personal information made public, clients are turned off by

> indiscreet trainers and get derailed from their goals. "

>

> Stamping out gossip isn't a priority for some chains and large

gyms,

> Mr. Pire said. At clubs with sizable training staffs of 50 or more,

> efforts to halt whisper campaigns usually take a back seat to

> ensuring member safety, he said. " They are afraid of liability from

> injuries, " he said, " not gossip. "

>

> Chains like Equinox and Crunch address client privacy with new

> trainers as part of their curriculum but have no written policies.

>

> Each of Equinox's 36 branches also has two managers who instruct

the

> company's 1,000 trainers to keep quiet about clients, said

> Greengrass, a vice president. " Gossip has never been an issue at

> Equinox from my perspective. "

>

> On the other hand, Mark Hollands, a Manhattan-based trainer who

> worked at the Fifth Avenue branch of Equinox for nearly two years,

> said his old gym was a breeding ground for tattlers. " Trainers

> gathered in a break room in between sessions and discussed in

detail

> everything their clients told them, " said Mr. Hollands, who now is

> an independent trainer.

>

> A half-dozen trainers working at Equinox and New York Sports Clubs,

> who spoke anonymously out of fear of losing their jobs, said their

> bosses had never discussed confidentiality. Half the trainers said

> they feel gossip is not problematic; the other half said it is

> common and can be harmful.

>

> Gabby trainers, especially part-timers, spread stories that upset

> members, said one New York Sports Club trainer who has worked at

> four branches and has managed one location. " I've seen it a lot, "

he

> said. He added that while he did not realize that as a manager he

> was required to instruct his staff not to trade juicy tidbits, he

> did speak to them about not gossiping because he felt it was wrong.

>

> More than six million Americans hired personal trainers in 2005, up

> 52 percent from 1998, according to American Sports Data, a market

> research firm. A lot of the growth comes from middle-age clients

> signing up for health reasons, making trainers privy to sensitive

> medical information. As a result, setting higher standards of

> confidentiality has taken on a new urgency.

>

> The best trainer certification organizations, which five years ago

> offered little guidance about confidentiality, now stress its

> importance and say trainers should be required to follow privacy

> policies on par with doctors or therapists.

>

> " We recognized that some of our trainers were unintentionally

> violating our ethics policy around confidentiality, " said Cedric

> , the chief science officer at the American Council on

> Exercise, a group that certifies trainers. " They had access to

> personal information but didn't have an awareness of what to do

with

> it. "

>

> The code of ethics of the American Council on Exercise emphasizes

> that trainers should be discreet and also safeguard any client

> paperwork. Those who attend the 520 nationwide trainer workshops of

> the Aerobics Fitness Association of America are instructed to lock

> up session notes and to refrain from discussing clients' personal

> business. Next year the National Academy of Sports Medicine,

another

> certifying agency, will offer an online class about protecting

> medical information.

>

> People who have been victims of a trainer's gift of gab have little

> legal recourse. Unlike health care professionals, trainers are not

> bound by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act,

> which protects individuals' medical data.

>

> As for garden-variety chatter, " There's no law that says it's

> illegal to gossip, " said Herbert, a Canton, Ohio, lawyer who

> specializes in health care.

>

> Mr. Pire, the fitness consultant, said clients are not entirely

> blameless. " Some accountability has to fall on a client not to pour

> their heart out to a trainer " about private matters, he said. But

he

> conceded that health information is far trickier. " Clients have no

> control over that being spread. "

>

> Price, a spokesman on training issues for IDEA, a trade

> organization, said the best way for consumers to protect themselves

> is to look out for the biggest red flag. " If your trainer is

> gossiping to you, then he or she is likely gossiping about you, " he

> said. " That's when you know you need to move on. "

>