Gym staff are sub-franchise-ees? There's no one to help with basic information unless you pay extra.

I'm pretty unclear on the whole personal trainer thing at the gym. Obviously if I have specific issues, or I need advice on how to work with my body compared, I would think that would be something I would expect to pay for as a personalized service.

I was told today that basic instruction on how to use the machines is not a staff function, but is something that is covered in personal training. I understand that they don't want to be constantly hovering, but every machine should have clear diagrams for use and coherent instructions and anyone should be able to get a demonstration of the basic premise. I was told it matters what order one does one's weight training in, but was not told what those parameters are.

There should be information online (as part of the gym's website, not random wikis) about what kinds of workout order is best generically. I was told that one should work bigger muscles before smaller ones, but when I asked if there was reference material, I was told that my trainer would teach me. I'm not an auditory learner. I need to focus and keep good notes if there is a lecture. My information retention comes from reading. For a physical action I can learn by doing, but as far as muscle groupings, it makes sense that there is some sort of written material one can study externally.

I can understand wanting to sell extra services, but I believe gym equipment should be self-service. Most megamart grocery stores have more people working who are happy to help than I have found in the gym. There are proportionately more staff people working, but they are all assisting other people who have paid more for the privilege.

It doesn't seem like I should need a personal trainer at my current level of (non-)fitness. I am providing my own motivation. I have found things I enjoy and personal rewards that encourage me to do the less fun cardio parts of my workout.

So, today, while I'm doing laundry (which is surprisingly easier now that I am stronger and can hold more baskets of laundry at once) I'm going to research online to see how much of the basics of fitness training are available. I'm certainly not going to pay someone to summarize wikipedia for me.

media roundup

I'm watching the movie Breakfast With Scot. (via Netflix streaming.)
I discovered that Hulu has the first three seasons of Doc Martin so I don't have to fight with my cable box refusing to change to PBS. Blood Ties is available online, which I found via Hulu redirecting me somewhere else.

I finished 3 books:
a re-read of Dark Lies by Vivi Anna.
The Trickster by Kathleen Nance
Wolf In Night by Tara K. Harper

I still think Vivi Anna is ill-served by being published in a pulp romance. It could have been much more than that.

The Trickster is the first in the Olympians series and I'm a little meh. about it so far. I like the premise that Zeus decides to make things up to the long-lost descendants of his paramours whose lineages were cursed. Admittedly this had a rather grating heroine. It's still set in Louisiana, but despite being pre-Katrina it's really mystifying why anyone on Earth would live there purposefully. I ordered the rest of the series, so I obviously liked it well enough.

I've read all of the Wolfwalker series by Harper. Either there was a long gap or I missed this one. It's okay. But the main character is like superpowered. The alien world they live on is really strange but has an overlay of business-as-usual politics like you'd see on any western. This one doesn't have a lot of funny surreal disjointed crap with the alien birdpeople that made one of the Dione (previous main character) books seem like a drug trip combined with smoke inhalation. Well, the copyright date says 2005, and the first book's copyright date says 1990, so 7 books in 15 years isn't horrible, but it sure feels like the gap was much longer than that. Since nothing was really resolved, I'm not sure anyone should bother reading these. She'll probably die with the series unfinished like Robert Jordan did.