Civic Center weight room now offers personal trainer
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Elaine Smart, who has worked as a weight room attendant at the Civic Center for the past year, has undertaken the task of attaining personal trainer status on her own accord. She achieved that accomplishment last week.
There are currently no plans of expanding programming services to include in-depth personal training advice for an added fee, Parks and Recreation Director Carlene Brown said, but noted more discussion on the matter is expected.
She commended Smart’s dedication to improving her skills and said those extra skills do impact services provided to clients who use the weight room, especially to those seeking more out of their routines.
“For those people who are there to get the fullest potential out of that workout, she’s going to have the ability to do that now,” Brown said.
Prior to being certified, which involved several months of learning about muscles and equipment, writing essays, interviewing other personal trainers and taking a 140-question exam, Smart was forbidden to advise people on specific exercises.
She would instead give clients a fitness chart where they could document their own progress over the course of 3 months.
“I was limited on what to say. Before, I would say, ‘I think this would work best for you.’ Now I can say, ‘I think this is best for you,'” she said.
One of Smart’s goals is to try to encourage fitness in the community and to especially encourage the obese to get fit.
“Even if they can’t do one thing, they can do another. They can’t do weights, but they can do cardio,” she said. “And there’s just a lot of lazy people who say, ‘I’ve been like this and I don’t want to do anything about it.'”
Smart said she cannot give nutritional advice, but for someone moderately out of shape, she would start off asking health-related questions, would check weight and body fat and ask about personal goals.
Depending upon those answers, she would advise using the weight machines for weight loss, performing cardiovascular exercises and working out with free weights and progress to more difficult levels.
“Instead of going with the blue sheet the Civic Center provides for individuals, now I can say, ‘Let me go show you some free weights,'” she added.
“And I’m not scared if the individual will get hurt. At least now I know what muscles they’re working and what it’s going to do for that person.”
Smart would basically be donating her expertise to clients at this point since she achieved the personal trainer certification on her own time, but indicated she is willing to do that for the time being.
“Right now, if you pay the $1 to $2 if you come in, we can provide that,” she said. Smart works weekdays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.