Dating At The Gym: What’s Appropriate?
April 07, 2011
Anne P. Irwin, MA, CSCS, ACSM-HFI, ACE-PT & GFI
Fitness Coordinator, Johns Hopkins University
If you watch the Bravo television series “Workout,” you’ve seen the entertaining and sensationalized side of gym-culture, spliced in with some of the realities of personal training. Recently the series called into question the ramifications of intimate relationships in the workplace. Jackie Warner — the owner and managing director of Sky Sport and Spa, the Beverly Hills gym featured in the show — began dating one of her employees, a personal trainer. When questioned on the affair, she stated, “A gym is a very different environment than say a bank or corporate structured environment. I’ve dated other trainers that have worked for me. Trainers date clients. Clients date clients. I mean, there’s flexibility in our environment… It’s just an easy environment to date in.”