6 Excuses Your Fitness Instructor Is Really Tired Of Hearing

It's been a long week. Work's been crazy, you couldn't get your kids out the door all week and you're fighting with your in-laws. With all that going on, you couldn't possibly be expected to make it to personal training or yoga. Sound familiar? Yeah, your fitness instructor has heard it all before.

In fact, your instructor has heard every excuse in the book for missing a class or training session -- "the dog ate my gym clothes" is surprisingly popular -- and they're more than a little skeptical.

Here are the top six excuses fitness instructors say they're tired of hearing from clients.

"I don't have enough time."

Pat Davidson, Director of Training Methodology at Peak Performance gym in New York City , gets the "time" excuse quite a bit -- and he thinks it all comes down to priorities.

"We all create a hierarchy of what's important in our lives," he said. "And for those who consistently make the same excuses about lacking time to be able to exercise, it seems clear that other factors outside exercise are higher up on that person's list of priorities. You only have one body in life though, and you can't trade it in like your car."

"I didn't feel like taking another shower."

Health and fitness expert Jessica Matthews gets this one from her female clients often. Although she gets where they're coming from, she thinks it's an easy one to work around.

"I know that showering can be a bit of a process sometimes, but I'm often a bit surprised when a client or student will share with me that they didn't work out because they didnt feel like having to take another shower," she said. "If the idea of multiple showers in a day is a big deterrent for someone, I often offer the suggestion to either structure exercise first thing in the morning so that you can break a sweat and take a shower before getting the rest of your day started, or to exercise toward the end of the day so that you can take a shower shortly before bedtime."

Celebrity trainer Brett Hoebel has heard similar excuses -- including one especially dramatic one.

"I will always remember a client who came in with full hair and makeup and stopped training in the middle of a session. When asked what was the matter she said, 'Youre going to make me sweat and ruin my hair!'"

After that, he learned his lesson: Now, when a woman comes in with a blowout, I ask her if shes prepared to pull her hair back and get into it."

"I needed a glass of wine."

Wine over workouts? It's a common excuse, but not a great one.

"A client told me her reason for bailing on her workout was because her mother-in-law was in town and the two options she had the night before were wine or her sanity. She chose wine," fitness trainer Traci D. Mitchell told HuffPost. "I advised her the next time she's in a mother-in-law rut, she ought to hit the sack early, come in for her workout and feel more prepared to deal with the day."

"I'm not flexible enough."

Yoga instructor Elena Brower said she gets the "I'm not flexible enough for yoga" excuse nonstop.

"We come to yoga to become flexible, to shift our preferences and expand our techniques for both body and behavior," she said.

Similarly, Strala Yoga founder Tara Stiles said people tell her they can't go to yoga because they can't touch their toes.

"'Bend your knees' is the most fun thing to say when someone proclaims they can't touch their toes. It actually works well to soften your knees as you move through a class or a routine at home," she said. "Easy knees create room in the body and also helps relax the mind. Great for improving a healthy range of motion all around!"

"I have bad genes."

Bad genes? Fitness instructor Natalie Jill has heard that one before.

"There always seems to be an excuse about genetics!" Jill said. "It may be easier for some, it may take more time for others, there may be more challenges for some or less for others, but you can always improve from where you are and become a better version of yourself."

"I didn't know how to do it."

So your trainer showed you a few exercises, and you forgot how to do them. You're not alone with that one, according to fitness instructor Ben Greenfield .

"I have a secret for you: The worlds second largest search engine -- YouTube -- shows you exactly how to do just about any exercise on the face of the planet in extreme detail," Greenfield said. "Watch and learn. Granted, there are a few hacks out there who demonstrate some exercises incorrectly, but I'd estimate about 80 percent of the questions I personally get about how to do an exercise correctly could be remedied with a simple YouTube search."