Planet Fitness has built a brand -- and brought in plenty profits -- by creating a space that doesn't appeal to gym rats. In fact, the company's PR director has even said that Planet Fitness is "not a gym." But the facility's push to keep serious exercisers away is at odds with its "no judgment" policy, Men's Health contributing editor Lou Schuler argued on HuffPost Live.
Schuler outlined Planet Fitness's business model to host Nancy Redd on Monday: The company profits off the fees of members who don't usually exercise and will likely disappear after a few weeks, then simultaneously pushes away "hardcore" fitness devotees who would "actually wear out the equipment." Schuler explained:
Their corporate marketing is based on the idea that you're not going to have some big strong person lifting weights and making you feel bad about yourself. ... And so their strategy is, 'We're going to discriminate against these people [avid exercisers] and then we're going to pretend we're not discriminating against anybody. It's like Fox News, only they say, "Hey, we judge people and then we claim we're a no-judgment zone."
Stories of Planet Fitness's strategies for weeding out bodybuilders are well documented, and the company's spokesperson told Schuler for his story in Men's Health the the gym appeals to people who are "not lunkheads." Planet Fitness even offers members free pizza and bagels, which Schuler called completely counterintuitive to exercise.
Still, it's a business model that has succeeded for Planet Fitness, and it will continue to thrive especially during the first months of the year, when New Year's resolutions push fitness novices to sign up.
"It's clearly working for them. They're making money. Judge that how you will," Schuler said.
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You've probably been taught that if you're going to pick a heavy object off the ground and you don't want to hurt your spine, you should bend at the knees and not at the back. But anytime you do a crunch or a sit-up, you're bending at the back -- over and over and over again!"
--Ben Greenfield, certified strength and conditioning coach and sports nutritionist, and HuffPost blogger
A better option: Get more bang for your buck and do lunges -- walking lunges, cross-behind lunges, step-ups -- you will engage and use your inner and outer thighs, while also training your whole leg and functional movement."
--Chris Freytag, national fitness expert, author and HuffPost blogger
It requires you to have very flexible shoulders, and if you don't, you can impinge your shoulder and suffer great pain in your rotator cuff. Most trainers now recommend pulling the bar down in front of the shoulders, which still has you using your lats but in a safer way."
--Ramona Braganza, celebrity trainer and founder of 321 Fitness
The American kettlebell swing has the same start point as the Russian kettlebell swing, but it ends with the kettlebell overhead. When a kettlebell is in the overhead position, I see lots of people who overextend their backs to compensate for the weight. This is also seen when someone is fatiguing. This can be fixed by mobilizing the shoulder girdle and the thoracic spine, as well as by scaling the movement to a lighter weight or less repetitions.
You should only complete American kettlebell swings if you have proper core stabilization at the top of the lift, as well as solid shoulder mobility. If done improperly, this can lead to back and shoulder injuries."
--Collette Stohler, author of The Intuitive Athlete, and HuffPost blogger
If you're curling in the squat rack, you should probably stop because you just might be aggravating the exact person you don't want to get upset, which just might make the squat rack curl the most unsafe exercise to perform of all."
--Pat Davidson, Ph.D., director of training methodology at Peak Performance in New York City
--Alena Hall, HuffPost Third Metric Fellow and certified personal trainer
[The] smooth balance and fixed motion can also make you believe you can lift more weight than you should be. Continue to use the Smith machine and you will get very strong in exactly one plane of motion, which would be great if there was only one plane of motion. Over time you can develop over-use injuries depending on which exercises you are doing with the Smith machine.
The takeaway: Learn proper form with free weights. Strive to be as symmetrical as possible to avoid injuries and build up to heavier weights safely and with the appropriate amount of time."
--Alison Peters, NYU Langone Medical Center exercise physiologist
