I LOVE filming my clients and sharing their own personal fitness journeys with you. I cannot explain the buzz I feel every time I see them progress; whether it’s their lowest ever weigh-in, a PB on a lift, a difficult life hurdle they’ve managed to jump over, or even them just telling me that they have never felt this good about themselves in their whole life and that I am the sole reason for this. I film them weekly, just so my followers get that little glimpse into their journeys. All of them are unique, and a 20-second video doesn’t even come close to the reality of how enjoyable it is to train them on a daily basis. Looking back over my fitness career so far, there have been some memorable moments, some more memorable for other reasons; the laughs and the very uncomfortable mishappenings. Read on to find out what these are…. *Names have been changed for privacy*
THE BOTTOM BURPER
Client Joan, a lovely older client and new to weight training smashed her fat loss phase by the end, losing over 25lbs. She was one of my oldest clients and to this day, stands the oldest client I’ve ever trained. On this particular day, when I say I could not stop laughing, I was trying so hard to stop, that I felt I could burst. Whilst she couldn’t see my continuing reaction, I was holding my laugh in so much I had tears in my eyes. Being in her 70s, I got her to do a regression of a hip thrust; banded glute bridges lying on the floor. It was only until set 2 she accidentally farted when she came to the top of the glute bridge and apologised hiding her embarrassed but after laughing a little bit together, quickly moved on. What made it so hilarious was that for the whole of set 2 and set 3 every time she came up to the top of a glute bridge, she would fart again so loudly, I was laughing more than she was, it both looked and sounded so funny. I kept trying to hold my laugh in as much as she was trying to hold her farts in, but it’s fair to say we were both failing. It happened with every rep and even after she stopped laughing, I couldn’t control myself. This will always be one of the funniest moments in my fitness career so far. It was loud enough that even other PTs around us could hear and started laughing uncontrollably.
A FATAL CALL
Another funny episode. Diana is one of my longest-standing clients, someone I trained from very early on in my fitness career. She is one of those clients that always has a laugh in a session, whether it’s joking around in her rest or just her general humour. She is VERY funny. One evening, one of her exercises was a single-arm
row. During the set, I asked her what that funny noise was. It appeared it was coming from her smartwatch. We forgot about it and continued until it started making a funny noise again as she moved her arm back, it was like Siri was talking to her, which has happened a few times with other clients. During the set it appeared as if someone was on the other end talking. It turned out Diana had accidentally called the emergency services from her smartwatch and all we could hear was a guy on the other end repeating ‘emergency services can I help?’ We couldn’t stop laughing for the rest of the session. It’s safe to say client Diana knows to keep her watch off on certain exercises.
I WOULDN’T WANT TO WALK IN YOUR SHOES
Ciara, one of my older clients was the type of client that did everything by the book. Always focused, always on track and probably stands as one of my biggest losers to date, losing well over 3 stone. It was an early Saturday morning and Ciara walked in ready for her session. It was only until her second exercise whilst she was on the ringrows did I notice her not wearing her usual trainers. Instead, she was wearing what looked like her work shoes; heeled loafers. I carried on training her thinking nothing of it and just assuming she wanted to wear those. Shortly after, when she started to do stepups facing the mirror, she started chuckling to herself. I asked her what the matter was, and she said ‘Tash, did you notice I’m wearing the wrong shoes?’ I replied I did but thought she just wanted to wear them. We both couldn’t stop laughing it just looked so funny, those shoes with her gym gear. The most hilarious thing about it was the fact that it was a Saturday and she was still on autopilot as she walked out the house. I videoed her next set of stepups and cheekily on the video stated ‘don’t worry I’m not videoing your shoes’ (as I zoomed into them! ) Haha. Once, I had another client come to training in 2 different shoes, so it seems this kind of thing does happen!
THE FLY INFESTATION
One of the strangest occurrences was when I was quite early on in my fitness career. One of the gyms I worked at was underneath a restaurant. I was told of other unfortunate things happening with the restaurant before. Apparently, the meat storage above us (in the restaurant) leaked and meant blood from the meat dropped though the gym ceiling and it was a ball ache to sort out. Another time, we opened up the gym and the ceiling was leaking so much water, the gym staffroom had water EVERYWHERE. Not to mention another time there were rats or mice (we would see them run across the floor) or even hear them scurrying above our heads in the ceiling if the staffroom was quiet enough. Soo it’s no surprise something like this happened. It was an early 6am session, usually one of the busier times in the gym and a few trainers started to notice that there were an unusual amount of flies flying around in the gym. It became so bad, that the flies would actually land on clients during a set and we would all be ducking and waving our arms every few minutes. Clients started to complain so much, it was pretty gross. After all the complaints when the infestation team came in, when we opened up the gym a few days later, there were SO MANY dead flies on the floor. Disgusting.
PROJECTILE VOMITING
So at the very first gym I trained at, it was common knowledge that if you were trained by me, especially if you were a male and you were brave enough, there could be a possibility that I could make you vomit. In one week I made at least 3 different people vom, but it wasn’t on purpose I promise! On this particular day, it was the first day after the second lockdown when the gyms reopened and it was my first session back in a gym after such a long time. This particular session was Gina’s first session back in a gym, but also her first session after taking a year off training, so of course my priority was going easy on her. Throughout the session, she started to tell me she was feeling rough, so of course I let her have more rest and also dropped the reps.
Suddenly, two-thirds of the way through the workout, out of nowhere, Gina’s face turned pale white, I thought she was going to pass out. She rushed to cover her mouth but standing in the middle of the gym floor, literally projectile vomited EVERYWHERE, so bad it came out through the sides of her hands and through her fingers. Everyone just stopped and stared. It’s safe to say I decided to stop the session early. What was worse about this situation was when I had to tell the gym manager (who had VERY BAD OCD) what had happened.
STICK TO THE PLAN
About a few weeks into client Paula’s diet plan, she raised a complaint with me. ‘Tash, I feel I just can’t eat raw broccoli or sweet potato anymore, it’s causing me tummy and toilet issues.’ ‘Paula, what do you mean raw?’ Paula went on to explain to me that on the diet plan I wrote for her I had specified whether meats were cooked or uncooked but as I didn’t specify for the veg or sweet potato she had assumed it was vital to eat raw. I could not believe it, she had seriously eaten broccoli and sweet potato raw for at least 3 weeks! She hadn’t even complained once until then! This I will never forget. If anything, it told me more about her resilience rather than anything else.
THE RUN-IN
Hands down, this is the only time I have ever had an altercation with a client. Sonya was that typical person you meet that has the gift of the gab. On the surface she appeared someone that would do anything to get a body transformation, feigning determination, willing to embrace change and would keep repeating how happy she was that she had started this journey. So, in her second week she went from doing bodyweight stepups to the 2.5kg. As she had managed 12 reps each leg with the 2.5kgs, of course we were going to go up to 5kg. After doing one set with the 5kgs, when it got to her last set, her whole manner changed and she said bluntly ‘I don’t want to do the 5kgs.’ After reassuring her it was fine, that her form was good and that there was only one more set to go, she dug her heels in. In the middle of the set she put the 5kgs down and went to pick up the 2.5kgs. I grabbed them before she did. In front of everyone in the whole gym, she started to raise her voice: ‘no, I’m not doing the 5kgs!’ One of the other trainers came over and asked if we were using the 2.5kgs and of course I said no, we both stared as he walked away with them in each hand. She stood there as we started to argue but there was no way I was backing down (maybe that’s the authoritative old teacher in me). She then started to lie and complained ‘no, I don’t want to do it my back is hurting.’ I then asked how that was possible if she didn’t feel it during the exercise and that this was the first I was hearing of this. Of her own accord, she started jumping on the bench attempting to do bodyweight ones (I thought her back was hurting?). I put my foot down and said ‘no, if you’re complaining your back is hurting we are changing the exercise completely.’ In the end, I got my way and changed the exercise. She quit a week later.
SHATTERED
We’ve all seen a few accidents in the gym; someone tripping over, accidentally bashing their head on a barbell, I’ve even dropped a 25kg on my feet, miraculously, not breaking my toes. I’ve even observed my brother accidentally wind one of the most fragile male clients I’ve ever seen right in the stomach as he moved a barbell. And that was painful to watch.
I was a client when this particular event happened. The gym had a swing glass door (don’t ask). The glass door was right next to the dumbbell racks. One guy was either doing chest supported rows or a bench press, I can’t remember exactly, but what I do remember is when the dumbbells dropped to the floor, the glass door smashed to pieces. Everyone stopped and stared in complete disbelief, simply because the dumbbells hadn’t even touched the glass door and we were all wondering how the hell this had happened. After that, they never bothered replacing the door, glass or not. 2 weeks ago, in one of my strength classes, someone did not put a barbell back safely. In the middle of the class was the loudest bang and smash you would ever have heard as the barbell fell and smashed the mirror on the wall. (Head shaking in shock and disbelief). Honestly.
“WE CAN DO THIS UNTIL WE PASSOUT”-Tinie Tempah
So, you remember me saying, I had a track record of making people vomit or feel sick during a session? Well, this day was a little bit worse. Client Christopher was a client I was covering for my brother while he was away on holiday. He’d met me quite a few times, but obviously had never been trained by me before. His first superset was barbell squats into banded pullups. Unfortunately, he only made it through 2 sets until he told me he felt sick. The next thing I knew he had turned completely white as a sheet and as I grabbed a sugary drink for him to sip, after a mere 2 sips he dropped the drink, as it gushed out onto the floor and collapsed. I grabbed him and shouted for help. I’ve never covered him since….
So, as you can see guys, my days are never boring. Whether you’re a past, present or future client reading this, please don’t get put off, these are just some highlights! It isn’t often these things happen. I love my job and I love all my clients. Who knows what future mishappenings may occur.
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