Here's a story of an irresponsible gym instructor.
Just last month, a man visited the Push, Pull, Give gym in Tiong Bahru and for a beginner's calisthenics workout.
Calisthenics: A form of exercising comprising various gross motor movements
There, a young trainer made him go through a series of demanding workouts. At the second set of negative pull-ups, the man felt a sudden loss of strength but persisted through the second half of the session as it involved exercises for a different muscle group.
At the end of the session, he was exhausted and dehydrated and thought he would be fine the next day. However, that wasn't all.
"After just three hours of sleep that night, I woke with a start because my arms were on fire! My forearms and biceps hurt so much that I could not straighten them at all. The pain persisted all through the next day and the next night as well. On Saturday, my arms started to swell and they hurt like hell. Worse, my urine turned a dark yellow, almost brown. That was when I knew this was far more than just delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). I headed straight to the A&E at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. They took a blood test and as soon as the results came out, warded me immediately and put me on an IV drip. I was on the drip for three days."
The hospital told him that he was down with a condition called rhabdomyolysis, which basically means having an injured skeletal muscle. If serious, there could be life-threatening consequences.
The worried man contacted his gym trainer who later visited him in hospital. He also promised to offer some compensation as a measure of goodwill.
"But he never made the payment. And practically ghosted me thereafter.
