Bob Harper for those of you that don’t know is a personal trainer and one of the 2 trainers on the hit NBC show The Biggest Loser. I finished watching this episode last night and was left thinking about how great Bob’s freak out was on one of the contestants, Joelle.
Quick recap: During the last chance workout near the end Bob’s team was finishing up with a 30 second sprint on the treadmills. Joelle kept stopping at the 20 second mark, this sent Bob into an all out rage. He was yelling at her, dropping f bombs and making everyone do the sprint again. Joelle stopped short again and Bob got even madder until Joelle eventually completed the 30 second sprint.
I can’t believe the buzz this little incident had caused. I have gotten 4 emails about it, I’ve seen stories on Yahoo and there are a lot of bloggers talking about it. Quiet frankly Bob is getting hated on. Some of the comments I see are calling him a “disgrace” and “unprofessional“. Here is my take on it.
Just Shut The F*** Up and Do It
This incident servers as a great example of why people fail at losing weight on their own. Joelle kept making the point that she was giving it all she had and that she couldn’t do the 30 second sprint. Bob knew better.
Earlier in the show Bob sat down with Joelle and had a nice motivational talk with her. He was calm and got his point across to her. Obviously that message didn’t sink in with Joelle and she was slacking again during the workouts while everyone else was giving 110%.
Joelle gave up on herself, believing that she couldn’t complete the task, hiding behind the fact that she is overweight and out of shape. Being the great trainer that he is, Bob recognized this and called her on it and summed up it all up in one sentence. The quote, “Just shut the F*** up and do it”.
All Trainers Should Be This Passionate
That rage comes from being passionate about what he is doing and knowing what it takes to get people to lose over 100 lbs. Those kind of results don’t come from stopping short and whining about how hard it is. They come from just putting in the work and doing what is required of you, even more so on a weight loss show!
I hope she sticks around, besides making for good TV people can identify with the excuses she makes because those are the same ones that are keeping a lot of other people fat as well.
Bob you’re doing a great job and changing lives, no matter how hard they fight it.
Amen to that!
I don’t watch the show, so I may not have the full story, but I would welcome that kind of brutal talk sometimes. Sometimes people just need someone to get rough with them to push past the obsticle that is in their way.
I think I and everyone else was SHOCKED when Bob blew up like that. But it was good to see to know how much passion he has for what he is doing and how much he wants the contestants to be putting in the work.
I don’t really like Joelle and I was hoping she would get kicked off this episode, especially before someone like Jerry! However you make a good point – she is like a lot of people at home with excuses. She has excuse after excuse for why she is not working hard and I think a lot of people will identify with that. If she succeeds then maybe the people at home will believe they can too – and thats what its all about this season.
I loved it personally. She needed it. All the yes sirs and I will try harder and I will be perfect from her was a load of crap. Bob was not asking for perfection. He was asking for everything she had. The show has been on long enough that you have to have some sort of idea that you are going to have to give more effort than you ever thought you could.
Bob was right on. That is what she needed. She will either shape up or she will be gone.
You’ve got to know who you’re training but yes, some folks require dropping the ‘f’ bomb on ‘em to get them motivated. You simply have to know your clients and learn what they respond to. Some poeple I train, I just put my head down when they quit on me and they pick it back up. Different strokes…
I love this show (and found your blog through pastaqueen’s site!)
I must say – I was 110% behind Bob! Joelle was making me so incredibly angry because you could tell that it was like he was pulling teeth with her. Anyone who has seen this show KNOWS that just because you’re extremely overweight (as everyone on TBL is at first) – doesn’t mean you can’t do the work. I have one of Jillian’s work out DVD’s and she says during one of the exercises, “I have 400 people who can do jumping jacks – you can too!” so I have absolutely no sympathy for Joelle and do not blame Bob one bit for screaming at her the way he did.
How many people applied for that show who’d KILL to be there but didn’t make it?
I do agree though – that as far as “good tv” goes – keeping her there will help the show’s ratings because you’re right – there are WAY too many people out there whohave her exact same attitude and they all need to see someone get yelled at and MADE to do what needs to be done.
GO BOB!
I do watch The Biggest Loser occasionally and I am impressed with some of the contestants who put in 110% percent but there are also some of them who only has the talk but not the walk to prove it.
In my opinion, I fully support Bob’s reaction to Joelle. Being an experienced fitness trainer, he must have known what Joelle needs in order to complete the sprints. And that is what he gave her..
Great post. Thanks!
I don’t watch the show. But keeping in view what I read on your post, as a trainer Bob should have know about the positive and negative point of his trainees, and losing your cool on national television shows his unprofessionalism,
Regards
Padmaja
http://www.p2w2.com/padmajavenkata/
i nearly peed myself it was so funny!
I like it!
Some people just need ot be pushed.
If you never go over your breaking point, how will you ever know hard you can push yourself?
-Justin
You know I never really watched biggest loser until last season… I always thought it was some touchy feely show and I don’t real like reality tv. But then I started watching cause it was tivo’ed and I couldn’t get enough of Bob and Jillian. I didn’t realize Jillian was such a nasty fox… I love it!
I agree with your post, though i have never seen that episode. Although it was quite awful pertaining you were covered by national television, it was quite impressive for the motivation spirit.