Trainers: DUMP THE GYM NOW!!!

Sex and drug charges? They’re not new to baseball, but not what we’d want associated with Personal Training. But we’ve got that and more in the case of Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens’ now infamous Personal Trainer and alleged drug pusher. While any of us would hardly look up to his behavior or want to be in the position he’s in now, it’s worth looking at McNamee’s career as a cautionary tale; in it, we’ll see where it’s possible for us as trainers to over-step our boundaries.

From what we know, McNnamee’s career started in a positive way. There was a lot of hard-work and focus in his career path leading to his position with the Yankees organization and eventually as Roger Clemens’ Personal Trainer. His case reads like that of many trainers: a former athlete, McNnamee ended up working in a career he didn’t like, in his case it was with the NYPD. Once he decided on Personal Training however, he hit it head-on, getting into the Yankee organization with the goal of becoming a strength and conditioning coach. In the process, he gained Clemens’ trust and became his private trainer.

Some would call this a dream job - training a high-level athlete like Clemens could be considered the pinnacle of this profession. But it’s in this position that we see Brian got himself into trouble. And it’s not just a case associated with training a pro-athlete; it’s a situation that any of us as Personal Trainers can fall into and need to look out for.

As trainers we have a very important position in the lives of our clients. We take on the role of a trusted confident and advisers to who are sometimes very high-level people. It’s what’s called the white-knight effect - our clients gain an almost naive dependency on us. This is what happened in this case, where Clemens, the biggest star in baseball, would call his trainer before he would eat to ask him if it was okay. Any trainer that has a motivated, high-level clientèle knows what I’m talking about. It’s a tremendous responsibility that can’t be abused.

As a trainer, you can essentially tell your client to do anything and they’ll do it. They often disregard their own personal safety and well-being in trusting the knowledge of their trainer. This of course can extend to taking steroids; whether we tell them their use is okay or it’s the worst thing you could possibly do, our clients are likely to believe us.

McNamee claims that it was Roger who came to him with the idea first, after speaking to famous juice-head Jose Conseco. Imagine yourself in this same position: do you tell him not do it, and risk him going to someone else for his training and fitness needs? Or do you give him the steroids, and risk the mess that they now find themselves in?

In this case McNamee took the second road, to the point where there’s evidence implicating him in steroid purchases. This obviously is crossing both the professional and moral obligations of this job. Trainers have a unique role, where we’re as much personal advisers as professionals. But it’s without question that when this relationship extends into illegal activity that it’s gone to far. While some trainers, like the freakish Dave Palumbo, have made steroid consulting their specialty, this isn’t a position any other trainer should get into.

However, the relationship of dependency can go both ways. With certain clients, it’s us the trainer that becomes dependent on them. The careers of Professional Sports and Celebrity trainers for one depend on the validation they get from their client lists and the results they achieve with them. In McNamee’s case, any success Roger experienced as a result of his training could be directly attributed to him.His own success depended on Roger’s and it’s true he profited greatly as the trainer responsible for Clemens’ late career resurrection. In this case, administering steroids to his clients actually proved to be a personally beneficial move.

Not just celebrity trainers, but all of us stand to make money off of the progress of our clients and our track records. This can be through word of mouth and before-and-after pictures on our websites. When furthering our careers becomes attached to the results of our clients, we can find ourselves getting personally involved. I’ve felt the effect myself, where I’ve at times become very tied up with the results of my clients. If this makes you work harder and become a better a trainer, it’s positive. I’ve put in extra time with clients, extra research, and given them numerous reminding (and some times harassing) emails and phone calls to keep them focused and push them toward greater results.

But giving them drugs? This is wrong in too many ways. Taking credit for the effects gained by performance enhancing drugs is simply misrepresentation. Unfortunately we see this type of misrepresentation in all aspects of the fitness industry, down to the weight-loss supplements and exercise machines on TV that attribute the amazing physiques of their models to their products (Bow-flex comes to mind).

It’s also clear that McNamee’s ego got inflated from his position, and this is just another case where he over-stepped his boundaries. I often talk about the lifestyle that this career affords you, but you’ve also got to know where it ends. In 2001 sex charges were directed against McNamee where, to keep a long-story short, he was engaging in the type of bad behavior we typically associate with out of control athletes. Pro-athletes may be able to get away with it, but trainers need to understand these “privileges” don’t extend to them.

The way this whole sordid relationship has developed, with McNamee now as a government witness, goes into the last unspoken rule: confidentiality. As trainers we learn a lot of personal information about our clients. You’d be surprised at how in-depth and personal the information I’ve learned about my clients. In looking up to us, they often seek our guidance in almost every area and feel that we’re someone trustworthy they can share their secrets with. On one hand I feel good that we’re there, because it’s important for everyone to have someone they can talk to. Although it’s not in the official job description, this is definitely a role that we occupy as trainers. But it’s also essential that we keep this information strictly confidential. Let’s just hope it never comes down to concealing information about illegal activity, and definitely not a case where you the trainer are involved yourself.

The unspoken rules and boundaries of this profession are an important subject, and too bad for Brian McNamee we had to use him as our cautionary tale. But this is information that every trainer needs to keep in mind. While to a large degree, the choices to make in these situations are common sense, we aren’t taught to be prepared for them. And if you’re not expecting it, when you find yourself in this position there’s the potential to make very bad decisions. The training certifications and professional rhetoric at training conferences doesn’t touch on the moral and personal aspects of this profession, but as any Personal Trainer with any sort of experience or success will tell you, the personal dynamic is the overwhelmingly dominant element of this job. I hope that point, along with our responsibilities as trainers, came across from McNamees example. Before you get too far in this job, make sure you get your own values straightened out. Those are the major challenges you’ll face; the actual training part is easy (don’t tell anyone I said that!).

Tags: celebrity trainer, fitness press, health-club industry, Personal Training