Full Disclosure
Knowledge is power they say, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s also a potential life saver. Imagine being with someone, in virtually any scenario, and all of a sudden they were to collapse. What would you do? What should you do? The answer depends upon a whole lot of variables, but a great starting point would be to know their medical needs, medications, and medical history. When you work with a
When you’ve been an Austin personal trainer as long as I have, you work with a great many different people, from different backgrounds, with different goals, and with different medical needs. If I don’t have a detailed medical history for each one of them, including any medications they happen to be taking, it can get dangerous very quickly.
Several years ago, I had a very odd day towards that end. A 68 year old seemingly healthy gentleman was having his first session with me, when halfway through his very unchallenging workout, he complained of dizziness. I had him sit down and relax a minute, but before he could even sit, he collapsed. Thankfully, I was standing right bedside him at the time, and caught his head before it hit a sharp corner. He awoke immediately and said with a smile, “I guess I should have told you that I have exceptionally low blood pressure, huh?” Yes, he absolutely should have told me that. In fact, he had every opportunity to do so, as all clients are asked to fill out a comprehensive health questionnaire asking for full disclosure of any and all current, as well as previous health issues. He had checked “no” to everything, for whatever reason. He was lucky that day, and so was I.
2 hours after the aforementioned incident, a lady whom I’d been training for several years, came in for her appointment. Midway through her workout, she said to me “I didn’t want to say anything for fear of jinxing anything, but my husband and I are 8 weeks pregnant!”. I was beside myself. That was insane to me that she would tell me she was 2 months pregnant then as opposed to as soon as she had found out, which according to her, was about 6 weeks prior. She was fortunate that she didn’t suffer a miscarriage, as what we were doing for training wasn’t appropriate for a pregnant lady.
That was a crazy day, and one that I won’t soon forget. The lesson that can be taken away, however, is that you need to give full disclosure to your personal trainer, and frankly, any professional who is in a position to potentially hurt you, should they not be privy to your current medical state and history.
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Andy
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