Many of the trainers at Tuoguan Fitness were attractive men and women with good image and temperament.

Of course, for ordinary people, as long as they worked out regularly and developed a good physique, it was hard to look too unattractive.

Especially that confidence and composure cultivated through fitness would greatly enhance one’s image.

The selection process for trainers at Tuoguan Fitness was different from other gyms.

These trainers were all carefully selected by Guo Licheng, each with genuine skills. Tuoguan Fitness would never hire trainers who only knew how to sell memberships but had terrible fitness abilities themselves.

After all, Tuoguan Fitness didn’t need trainers to sell memberships; they just needed to be in good shape themselves and be able to provide guidance to members.

Li Yaling selected the best from among the trainers, regardless of gender. Anyone who was well-trained and articulate was brought out to introduce the products.

The professional filming crew arrived quickly. Tenda Group had no shortage of such personnel, as it was very convenient to find photographers either from the Advertising and Marketing Department or from Fei Huang Studio.

Yao Bo watched from the side as these fitness trainers introduced the co-branded fitness equipment.

This time, Jinding Group and Tuoguan Fitness had released several co-branded fitness products, such as workout gloves, fitness apparel, and fitness drinks.

Fitness equipment was something that could be both useful and useless, depending on how you used it.

If you were a complete beginner with no experience, perseverance, or willpower, then wearing the best fitness equipment wouldn’t help your workout at all.

But for someone who already had fitness habits and worked out regularly, good fitness equipment could make your training twice as effective. For instance, workout gloves could effectively prevent palm abrasions and wrist joint injuries, making them essential for fitness enthusiasts.

The fitness equipment this time was jointly developed by Jinding Group and several Tuoguan Fitness trainers, so the materials and professionalism were excellent.

After all, they had incorporated input from professionals, so the quality couldn’t be bad.

Compared to other fitness products on the market, these Tuoguan Fitness products were more aligned with the training habits of Tuoguan Fitness members and matched the gym’s training model. They also considered the workout methods for the fully automatic smart fitness drying rack used at home.

Take these fitness gloves, for example. They were standard half-finger gloves made of silicone and high-quality polyester fabric with mesh material, providing excellent breathability.

The gloves had wrist bands that could protect the wrist joints from injury when lifting weights. Compared to other fitness gloves on the market, they were a very cost-effective choice.

Of course, a pair of gloves alone would find it difficult to stand out from other fitness gloves in terms of practicality. However, these fitness gloves and apparel had a certain fashionable design, looked good, and matched the style and character of Tuoguan Fitness.

In short, they could be considered excellent products.

All the gym trainers were professionals who had personally participated in designing these products, so they introduced them with great familiarity, clearly explaining various advantages and disadvantages.

The video recording went very smoothly. After filming, Yao Bo had someone edit the video slightly, then prepared to release it directly as a product promotional video on the official website.

…

…

April 17th, Wednesday.

Yao Bo sat in the rest area of Tuoguan Fitness, feeling somewhat bored.

He came across several promotional videos from Hao Xiang Fitness again, which made him furious.

“Hao Xiang Fitness is making more and more noise. How much money did they get from the Anti-Tenda Alliance?”

“These investment companies have really invested heavily. I guess they’re afraid that their financial channels will be cut off by Tenda’s Dream Venture Capital in the future, so they’re putting in so much effort?”

Through price cuts and hiring internet celebrities, combined with increasingly fierce promotional campaigns, Hao Xiang Fitness had actually gradually established a foothold under the support of other companies in the Anti-Tenda Alliance. They hadn’t been directly defeated by Guo Licheng’s episode of “The Person in Charge Speaks”!

This was also normal, as not everyone had seen Guo Licheng’s episode about deconstructing their tactics.

Moreover, Hao Xiang Fitness had genuinely reduced their prices, since they had the financial support of other companies in the Anti-Tenda Alliance.

Under the dual strategy of real price cuts and internet celebrity promotions, many ordinary people couldn’t distinguish the specific pros and cons.

Yao Bo really wanted to record an episode of “The Person in Charge Speaks” himself to thoroughly expose these internet celebrities.

But he couldn’t do that because Mr. Pei had strict requirements against it.

The video introducing the co-branded products that was recorded yesterday had been released and received good feedback, but it was concentrated within a small circle and hadn’t created a breakout effect.

For Tuoguan Fitness members, long-standing members could receive a free set or purchase it at a discount, which was considered a very good benefit.

However, for outsiders who didn’t know the truth, this was just an ordinary co-branded product intended to make money. Besides, fitness gloves and apparel couldn’t really be fundamentally different from other brands, and couldn’t be that much ahead of other brands.

So the video didn’t break out of its niche. There was some reaction, but not much.

It couldn’t have a significant impact on Hao Xiang Fitness.

With a belly full of trump cards but nowhere to use them, Yao Bo could only browse videos idly to pass the time.

Suddenly, he came across a video that caught his eye.

“Hmm, what’s this? It’s actually a video exposing Hao Xiang Fitness!”

Yao Bo immediately perked up, discovering that this was from a fairly famous fitness content creator on AiLiDao!

This fitness creator had posted a video titled: “So This is the 5,000 Yuan Per Lesson Internet Celebrity Trainer Hired by Hao Xiang Fitness? I Can’t Take It Anymore!”

Yao Bo’s eyes lit up.

Just from the title, he knew that it was remarkably consistent with what he wanted to talk about on “The Person in Charge Speaks”!

Previously, to counteract the negative publicity from Tuoguan Fitness, Hao Xiang Fitness had made two decisions.

First, they reduced the price of their membership cards. Second, they heavily promoted that they had hired some internet celebrity trainers online and offered them to Hao Xiang Fitness premium members at discounted prices, with the difference subsidized by Hao Xiang Fitness.

This had indeed achieved a very good effect because the trainers hired by several large Hao Xiang Fitness branches were internet celebrity trainers with hundreds of thousands of followers on various video platforms. These internet celebrities already had large fan bases and recognition, so with Hao Xiang Fitness’s promotion, they had to some extent dispelled ordinary people’s doubts about them.

When they were selling the “Burn the Boats” membership cards before, Guo Licheng had already deconstructed their tactics, mainly attacking Hao Xiang Fitness’s professionalism.

Once netizens felt that buying the “Burn the Boats” card wouldn’t provide professional training or achieve the desired effects, making it inferior to Tuoguan Fitness, then naturally these “Burn the Boats” cards would be difficult to sell.

Hao Xiang Fitness’s invitation of these internet celebrity trainers to endorse them had, to some extent, restored their credibility and members’ trust in the gym.

However, although these so-called internet celebrity trainers had many followers, none of what they taught seemed reliable to Yao Bo. That’s why he wanted to personally go on “The Person in Charge Speaks” to criticize them.

But now he didn’t need to step up, because someone else was already criticizing them on his behalf!

Yao Bo quickly clicked to watch the video.

In the video, this well-known fitness content creator from AiLiDao was absolutely indignant. First, he showed several fitness videos of these internet celebrity trainers, and then began breaking down the fitness routines of these so-called internet celebrity trainers for all viewers.

These videos weren’t secretly recorded but were blatantly posted on their own accounts. Although they were all short videos, they were recorded during their lessons with clients.

These videos had received many likes and comments, with many viewers saying that these fitness effects looked great and very innovative, hoping to personally experience a lesson!

But these so-called very innovative movements were truly shocking.

One movement involved sitting on a bus and continuously tapping the floor with the soles of your feet, with the caption “Do just one movement every day to easily slim down your calves.”

Moreover, this trainer had actually brought this movement into private lessons, asking members to stand straight and repeatedly lift their right foot to tap the floor, insisting that the tapping had to be very loud.

During the tapping process, this internet celebrity trainer kept correcting the member’s movement, saying that the tapping wasn’t loud enough because there were certain defects in the calf muscles that needed strengthening, and this habit must be maintained.

Another movement had the student lying on their side with legs spread apart, with the trainer leaning on one thigh and pressing downward to create muscle tension. Meanwhile, the student continuously tapped their thigh with the back and palm of their hand.

According to this internet celebrity trainer, this could train the glutes, and the effect was even better than squats and deadlifts.

Yet another movement claimed that three minutes of daily practice could improve outward-turning legs, flat feet, X-shaped legs, and slim down the legs. This movement was simply standing on the ground, then using the toes to grip and continuously move forward.

There were also movements like having members lie on the ground doing rowing motions, having members bend their bodies with rounded backs and hunched shoulders to squat down and stand up, claiming it was a “freehand zombie squat”…

In short, the video showed many inconceivable movements that defied common sense.

And the price for these movements was 5,000 yuan per hour!

Even more interesting was that the 5,000 yuan per hour fee was only for ordinary students. If trainers came to learn, the price would increase to 7,000 yuan per hour.

As for why trainers had to pay more? That was hard to understand with normal logic.

After showing these videos, the well-known fitness content creator from AiLiDao finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“5,000 yuan per private lesson, and this is what they teach? I feel like I’m watching a magical realist drama. This world is becoming increasingly incomprehensible to me.”

“You should know that many professional athletes or fitness trainers abroad charge only a few hundred dollars per hour. What qualifications does this internet celebrity trainer have to charge 5,000 yuan per lesson?”

“In fact, the barrier to entry in China’s fitness industry is now very low. Most trainers in commercial gyms don’t even show many signs of fitness themselves. I’m not saying all of them, but most are like this. These trainers may not even have mastered basic exercises like bench press, deadlift, and squat, so how can they teach other students?”

“That’s why we see many trainers in commercial gyms in China following completely identical fitness routines.”

“If you want to lose fat from your belly, they’ll have you jumping around, doing planks, and jumping jacks; if you want to build muscle, they’ll have you do fixed equipment training. When you change from one gym to another and spend a few hundred yuan to take a private lesson, what you learn might be very similar. Of course, the variations differ, but they have one thing in common: basically, none of them are very effective.”

“People who really understand know that hiring an ordinary private trainer is not as good as finding a few fitness enthusiasts to train together. After all, fitness experts are generally friendly and enthusiastically guide newcomers.”

“A so-called internet celebrity trainer charges ten times more than an ordinary private trainer, yet teaches things that are even more ridiculous. This is truly a baffling phenomenon.”

“The key is that there are actually many trainers in China who are being fooled and paying to learn their so-called courses. I can’t help but ask, just how low is the barrier to entry in China’s fitness industry?”

“‘Train your brain before training your body’ is truly a golden piece of advice!”