We’ve seen it before with the Barry Bonds and Major League Baseball saga – personal trainers who go too far in recommending supplements and substances to their clients.
For those who haven’t been following the latest scandal, it involves a personal trainer and Eddy Curry, a New York Knick basketball player. According to reports, which are denied by the trainer, Curry was given ephedra to help him lose weight (30+ lbs) before last season when he was a member of the Chicago Bulls. The allegations never would have mattered except Curry began having issues with his heartbeat. At the end of the season, the Bulls demanded that Curry take a DNA test to see if he was predisposed to a specific genetic heart condition before they would resign him to a new contract. Curry refused and was traded to the Knicks. Now, these allegations brought forth regarding the personal trainer, raise questions about how ephedra may have played a part in his condition.
The scandal brings up a couple of issues:
1. Does the public believe in good results, or do they always believe in some other explanation to explain weight loss?
As a business person, the integrity of the trainer is now compromised, whether he provided the ephedra or not. Can you imagine another athlete choosing to use his services? Not likely. Any results achieved by another client are going to be scrutinized to no end. How can he prove that the results Curry achieved were genuine and not brought about by supplements? Are these types of scandals the price that a personal trainer might pay for having celebrity clients?
Lastly, is it possible for a trainer to repair a reputation damaged by such an account and develop a thriving business?
2. Did the trainer cross the line and unwittingly give a client, who happened to be pre-disposed to a genetic heart defect, ephedra?
It’s easy to imagine the kind of pressure that the trainer might have felt he was under, particularly if the pressure was from Chicago Bulls team management, which would have wanted to get results out of its multi-million dollar investment in Curry.
How can trainers handle celebrity-sized expectations? Is it realistic to assume that the traditional methods of training can “satisfy” a hungry media, etc. looking for results?
