A personal trainer at a commercial gym raised concerns after his gym banned trainers from drinking water from bottles while training clients. Posted to r/mildlyinfuriating on September 10, the post drew more than 1,300 comments, with many commenters advising the trainer to ignore the rule or push back through official channels.
Explaining his gym’s new policy, the trainer wrote, “We can’t drink from a water bottle on the gym floor while training clients.” Stating the reason, he wrote that the gym feels it looks “unprofessional.” He added, “We ARE, however, allowed to time our hydration and sip from the water fountain if we really need to.”
Questioning this new policy, the gym trainer wrote, “Drinking from a water bottle is unprofessional, but running to one of two water fountains for a quick sip of water isn’t ??” He said that most of them have five or more clients back to back with no gaps in between and called it “insanity.”
In edits to the post [ETA, or 'edited to add'], the trainer clarified that water bottles were not explicitly prohibited in the written policy, but the gym had verbally specified that no water bottles or other drinks were permitted.
Concluding his post, the gym trainer wrote, “I contacted my doctor, and she’s going to write me a note saying I need my water on me lol.”
One commenter wrote, “Ignore the rule completely or raise concerns with management about it. Pretty ridiculous rule.” Another commenter wrote, “Seeing trainers drink water should enforce to clients the importance of drinking water.”
A third commenter offered the trainer an idea, writing, “Fill the 0.75l vodka bottle with water and sip from that.” One commenter wrote: “I can't think of anything less professional than my personal trainer having to leave his presumably gym-branded water bottle behind so that he can wait in line behind a kid and a very old man to use the water fountain… insanity on their part.”
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the events described in this post. The details above reflect the account shared in r/mildlyinfuriating. The gym and the poster have not been independently identified. The gym referenced in the post was not identified and could not be contacted for comment.
