LA Fitness: Member is frustrated about getting harassed over her workouts with friends.

 Rhonda Smith used to be a bodybuilder. A pretty serious one. The 40-year-old Chandler mother of two competed in 2000 at the National Physique Committee event in Denver and again in 2010 in Chandler.When she goes to the gym, she knows what she’s doing. But the LA Fitness member says she’s frustrated about getting harassed over her workouts with friends.During a recent trip to the gym at 24th Street and Baseline Road in south Phoenix, Smith said a trainer at LA Fitness approached her as she worked out with her friends.“He’s not happy. He asks to speak with me privately,” Smith said.Smith said the trainer told her that she wasn’t allowed to work out in groups and the women she was with were not allowed to coach each other. Smith said the trainer told her she could face a lawsuit if the club found out she was providing instruction for her friends.“We (me and my friends) are there for the same purpose, to motivate each other, to encourage, to provide instruction,” Smith said. “If my form is wrong, I expect them to tell me, if their form is wrong, I will correct them as well.”Smith complained to a gym manager, who contacted the LA Fitness corporate office in Los Angeles.The corporate representative and the gym manager confirmed what the trainer had originally told Smith. LA Fitness does not allow its members to coach or train each other. Language outlining that rule is written in the standard LA Fitness contract. The company also told Smith that if she continued the practice, the gym could revoke her membership.Smith said she was not charging any of the women for training sessions. She believes LA Fitness’ goal is to get its members to pay for coaching from the gym’s personal trainers. “That point was clearly made by the trainer and the woman from headquarters,” Smith said.Call 12 for Action reached out to LA Fitness’ public-relations department, but no one responded with a comment.Call 12 for Action checked with other large popular gyms in the Phoenix area, and they all have different policies. Some allow members to coach each other as long as they don’t charge money. Others don’t have any rules forbidding it.Bottom line for all consumers: Check the fine print before signing gym contracts.