Before anyone makes fun of a bodybuilder or a trainer again, I want you to read this. Even though I will admit that most of these trainers and supplement sellers are my competition I will lay out a few problems with this industry.
I will admit that i come from a comparatively well to do background. My father is a footwear manufacturer and we live in our own house. Ofcourse we have seen a lot of tough time too but they had the money to send me to college and school and get me education.
I have faced enough struggle myself but i started at a much better level than these people do. And i feel bad for them.
Here, I am breaking it down in small parts so you can read on:
*An average trainer at the gym gets paid only 6 thousand rupees on an average. People at good gyms get paid barely 10 thousand a month and that is it. From that they manage their food, travelling, support their families and what not. Imagine the tough life.
*You cannot expect a man working for 10 thousand rupees a month to be as educated as a doctor or know everything about exercise science. Stop setting the bars for them so high.
*Their salaries are too small. Job is tough. Most want to be bodybuilders. This is why they have to resort to stuff such as selling fake supplements to their clients. You cannot afford to be honest while struggling for survival.
I have made it but I know it was tough. And i never had to struggle to make my ends meet.
*Even at the level of Mr. India competition they are paid only a few thousand rupees. it was printed on the newspaper when MR India-Mukesh gahlot(Guru ji) bagged a prize of 3 lakh rupees. I remember the clipping. Look at the size of the man and you can be very sure he spent more than that money in an year to get the body he showed over there in that competition. He works with Bhupender Dhawan ji's The Gym chain.
*No one is paid to workout and show off their body. To give a reality check, one vial of pharma grade testosterone costs 200 rupees. Novice users use tow of these a week. It is the cheapest of all steroids. Stuff such as tren can go as high as upto 3500 for 10 ml, and GH costs 20,000 rupees for a month's supply. All this apart from diet and supplement expenses. Insane right?
All bodybuilders including me have a job outside of gym. I am a dietitian. Not a bodybuilder.
* To open a gym captial is required in insane amounts. Commercial grade stuff all inclusive can cost upto 50 lakhs minimum. Check the interest on capital, rent of those gyms, salaries of trainers even tho how little they are, housekeeping, airconditioning etc etc, even then people think 1000 rupees a month for gym is too much.
However they think McDonald's single meal for 500 rupees is quite reasonable.
This is the level of competition. Most gyms resort to cheating trainer's salaries and PT commissions. Gareeb aadmi ke pet pe laat maarna at its best.
*Let me tell you what happens at Gold's Gym. I realized its a kind of mafia. First they ask you to do a certification for 22k rupees which is pretty shitty and has no standing in the industry. They won't give you a job without it. Then you work for them for free for a few months in name of internship. Gold's gym doesn't have helpers. Interns work as helpers. Then they give you barely 6k a month and rest you have to earn from PT. Out of what you are paid for personal training gym keeps 60-70% of it. And they hold your commissions for upto 6 months before releasing them and sometimes if people think of switching jobs in between they are gone forever.
Pretty shitty right? They have the biggest network of swanky gyms and hence if you want to train people with money you will have to take a job with them. And for that first you pay them 22k, then work for free then handle their tantrums.
Tell me this: if commissions are collected at branch level why they have to seek approval from centre to release them? This is clearly cheating and bullshitting.
*If all this were not enough, bodybuilders end up with bad livers and kidneys and heart failiures at young age due to drug usage. Looks sell and they go to any means to look sellable and compete in shows. I have seen people inject upto 4ml of stanazolol a day. Thats insane. And they are not even competing at state level.
*In India only sponsorships you get for a sport is cricket. No one wants to sponsor bodybuilders. If they are sponsored then their facebook password etc is taken by company, their lives are controlled totally and al they are given is a few supplements and clothes with brand's name printed on it. You are nothing but a walking advertisement. Too much reality for one day?
*I know these trainers are still full of shit and they act as if they are gods and shit. Their egos are way up their asses. I am not telling you to buy from them or me. Just that do not laugh at someone or their struggle.