Today I was teaching the 101st squatter. He did well, then said, "I feel lightheaded."
"Lots of people do after squats. Walk around a bit, get the blood flowing."
Then he fell over.
I steadied him on a bench, got out the radio, "Reception, this is gym, I had a guy faint, need medical help." The Duty Manager came along. "Could you go to the office and get the oxygen?" We have it stored there for the pool lifeguards to use. I've used it before in the Army, but not recently, and Level 2 First Aid doesn't cover it, I knew the DM's lifeguard qualifications would cover it.
We gave him oxygen, he seemed to perk up. "I need to go to the toilet." I had him lean on me and we started walking, after three steps he stumbled, we sat him down again and called an ambulance. The Centre Manager came along, too. About this time the gym supervisor wandered in and went into the office.
Kept talking to him, asking him questions, the paramedics came along and checked him out, low blood pressure - he'd had good blood pressure two days before. He's in his 30s, no major health issues, and I only gave him low repetitions and low weight to lift, just to learn. But apparently he'd been staying up late studying, and last night was up to 3am, woke up early, had no breakfast and ran the 2km to the gym. And then had his first ever session of weight training.
The gym supervisor joked, "He fainted? What'd you do to him in the session, Kyle?"
"Nothing, just some low reps, low weight squats."
"Well it's better when they faint than when they spew."
"I'd prefer the spew. Spew is just spew. When they faint, it could be something serious." I thought of the Indian guy choking to death on his sushi roll.
The medics said, "Go home, have something to eat, sleep, wake up, eat some more, go back to sleep." After he'd recovered and the medics head off, I walked him home. It would be a bit unprofessional to just send him off then maybe read in the paper tomorrow, "man found collapsed in street, abandoned by PT."
He had an exam at uni this afternoon, I know a guy in the faculty, called him up so his lecturer would know he might miss it.
I hope it doesn't scare him away from the gym!
After I got back I had someone else's PT session to cover. Healthy woman in her 50s. I had her do a deep bodyweight squat, she had a hard time doing five repetitions, but soon got into it. Then I put a 15kg dumbbell under her and she lifted that, wasn't easy but again she got into it. A few other exercises and she was done. She said she'd not done that before in her several months of PT sessions.
Recently I had an interesting discussion with a psychologist friend. He was quoting some guy with the unlikely name of Daniel Pink, who reckons that for motivation people need autonomy, mastery and purpose. That is, they need some control over what they're doing, some sense of getting better at things, and to have a feeling that all this hard work is going somewhere useful.
He commented that this was the genius of
Starting Strength and the like, basic barbell exercises. You judge for yourself when to add weight (autonomy), you improve in technical lifting skill and strength (mastery), and you realise that in doing it all, you're getting somewhere (purpose). In contrast, balancing on a Bosu ball gives you no autonomy - you need an instructor there - no sense of mastery - you always feel like you suck - and really what's it all for? Thus no purpose.
On the other hand, if an exercise always needs an instructor, then this helps keep the trainer or coach employed. Hmmm, I have to think about this...
Again, whatever people are doing, they're getting their bodies moving, which is always good. But perhaps could be done a bit simpler.... And after the squats, the person felt a sense of autonomy - "I can do this at home!" - of mastery - "hey that last set was better than the first, right?" - and of purpose - "wow this works my bum! and picking up the groceries would be easier if I did this more often!" And that was the 102nd squatter. She didn't faint.
Straight after the PT session the manager grabbed me, "Just wanted a chat, time for another performance review."
"Well I assume I do alright in the first aid part."
Busy day.