A woman is suing Club Fitness and one of its trainers after she was allegedly hospitalized for a week due to overexertion.
Nhydia Walker filed the complaint Jan. 24 in St. Clair County Circuit Court against Club Fitness Inc., CF of Fairview Heights LLC, Dynamic Fitness Management, and Dominick Young, alleging negligence.
According to the complaint, Walker claims she went to the Club Fitness in Fairview Heights with her sister on Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, 2018 for a training session with Young. Walker claims she understood Young worked for Club Fitness and would provide workouts for her at a discount. Young acted as an agent of Club Fitness, the suit states.
Walker alleges that before the start of any workout, she explained to Young that she had not been to a gym in about a year and had not run in several years. He allegedly assured her she would be able to handle the workout regimen.
Young was not a certified trainer but provided coaching to members with the consent of the defendants, the suit states.
On Jan. 29, 2018, Walker’s workout included squats up against a wall, lunges with dumb-bells, various pulley exercises, and a rigorous martial arts-like stretching program.
During the stretching, Young had Walker “lay in a prone position on a table while he grabbed her wrists behind her back and pulled her up off the table; where he would pull her leg and have her ankle pulled to her buttocks to the point where the heel of her foot was aligned with her hip; where, while she was standing up, he repeatedly pulled her legs up to her head.”
Walker allegedly complained about being in pain and said she couldn’t complete the workout, but Young encouraged her to work through the pain.
On Jan. 30, 2018, Walker returned and was allegedly instructed to consume a pre-workout drink. Then she did a similar stretching and exercise routine.
The following day, Walker claims she noticed her arms were swollen. She went to the emergency room at Memorial Hospital, where she was hospitalized until Feb. 7, 2018.
“While in the hospital, she was diagnosed with Rhabdomyolysis, a condition caused by overexertion during exercises due to the death of muscle fibers and the release of their contents into the bloodstream,” the suit states.
Walker alleges the defendants failed to ensure that an appropriate fitness program was applied, failed to warn her of the dangers, failed to supervise her during her workout, instructed her to continue her workout despite the risk of injury, failed to discontinue her workout after she said she couldn’t handle the rigorous training, failed to supervise Young to ensure a safe fitness program for the plaintiff, and failed to provide proper certifications for fitness trainers.
As a result, Walker claims she sustained damages including medical treatment, pain and suffering, and loss of earnings.
The plaintiff seeks a judgment in excess of $50,000 for each count.
This article was first published by Madison Record.
