What is This?

I have seen a lot of strange things occur in the gym, but nothing remotely close to what I’m about to describe. 

I just finished training a client and was headed back to the office when the following happened. 

“Can you tell me what this is?” 

A lanky young man was pushing his cellphone towards me. In the picture, he was shirtless. He must have noticed the perplexed look on my face, because he pointed to his upper chest in the picture. 

Nothing out of the ordinary, I thought. An undeveloped chest, replete with man boobs.  

“What are you asking?” 

“This,” he said, pointing at his upper chest. “What are those? I never saw them before.” 

“Upper pecs?” 

“That’s what they’re called. I never saw . . .” 

I thought he was pulling my leg, but his child-like tone made me realize that he wasn’t. Oblivious to the fact that his chest lacked definition, he was obsessed with the delineation between the upper and lower. I showed him the incline setting on the bench, which would allow him to work his upper pecs more efficiently and started to walk away. 

“Can I ask you one more question?” 

“What is it?” 

“I put the treadmill on the highest incline and walk for forty minutes.” 

“What are you trying to achieve?” 

“Uh?” 

“Are you trying to build muscles or lose weight?” 

“I don’t know,” he said, a dumbfounded expression etched on his face. “I just like to walk.” 

“If your goal is to build muscles, limit your cardio to one or two sessions per week. If it’s to lose weight, four to six times per week would suffice.” 

Now what was all that about I thought to myself. Surely, he was not showing me a picture of his undeveloped chest for free advice. As I looked around the gym, I was besieged by images of sloppy forms and improper body movements. 

I have stated before that there is a fine line between keeping one’s mouth shut and offering unsolicited, and often times unwanted instructions. 

But then the unthinkable happens . . .  

B.M.Booth (NASM-CPT)