Burt Schmidt: Personal Trainer
an excerpt

Towards the end of the day, when the club was getting busier around 5pm I had some guy, that I sort of knew, take off his shirt and ask me to estimate his body fat percentage. The funny thing about this is that this is not unusual. The typical bodybuilder type really wants reassurance that he’s doing the right thing. To this end he will continually ask people if what he’s doing is working. Here’s a typical conversation a bodybuilder might have with some old lady he’s sitting next to at the bus stop:
Bodybuilder: So what bus are you waiting for?
Old Lady: The 5-19. I’m going to the mall to buy knitting supplies.
Bodybuilder: Really? I’m a knitter, too. Except what I’m making is enormously large biceps. Have you ever heard of beta-alanine? It’s the latest supplement and I think it’s really working for me. What do you think about it?
Old Lady: Oh, my…Isn’t that what they put in batteries?
It really doesn’t matter who the bodybuilder talks to because he’s going to assume that everyone is as into lifting weights (“getting cut”) as he is. So for him to rip off his shirt and flex in front of total strangers and ask them “are my lats coming out okay for me? I’ve been adding more pull-ups in, you know, with a wide grip.” doesn’t seem strange to him.
So as people stared at me and the bodybuilder, clad only in his early 90’s vintage Zubaz pants and shoes, I was completely at ease, and calmly replied, “about 12%. You carry a lot in your upper back. Here, turn around in this mirror and I’ll show you,” as I grabbed the skin just below the inferior angle of his scapula.
Being the educated lifter, he quickly agrees, “yeah, that’s always a problem spot for me.” The conversation goes back and forth for awhile, me giving him some basic suggestions and him half listening to me and half listening the headphones that are slipped above his ears but still pumping out Pantera. Gotta love Philip Anselmo.