By Cavino Johnson Athletic Xtreme
Oh, boy… what a touchy subject. You guys have no idea how much crap I get for voicing my opinions on the average personal trainer. So, before I dive into this, head first, if you are a personal trainer and feel that this piece will hurt your feelings, exit, with grace.
Plethora of Personal Trainers
Now that the disclaimer is done, let’s talk about personal trainers. There are (especially now) just about as many personal trainers (aka PT or CPTs) as there are lawyers. I mean, there’s no study that confirms that, but when you consider the possibility, it has its validity.
What, exactly, is a PT? Wikipedia describes it like this:
“A personal trainer is a fitness professional involved in exercise prescription and instruction. They motivate clients by setting goals and providing feedback and accountability to clients. Trainers also measure their client’s strengths and weaknesses with fitness assessments. These fitness assessments may also be performed before and after an exercise program to measure their client’s improvements in physical fitness. They may also educate their clients in many other aspects of wellness besides exercise, including general health and nutrition guidelines.”
Pretty clean cut, right? Easy definition by design. But, it’s more than that. Now, I may be a little biased, as I am a personal trainer, as you may know, especially if you have subscribed to the free Athletic Xtreme Muscle Book Training Program, that I, myself, personally, create. I can, honestly, say, that most people should utilize a personal trainer. I’ll tell you why, but first, let me add, and I will elaborate, shortly, that not all PTs are created equal.
The Hunt Begins
Ok. You’ve decided to make the change to live healthier, which we all know, means, not only adapting to more nutritious eating, but also, a great deal of exercise and activity accompanies. Once you have joined some local gym, and you’ve paid them X amount of money to use it, they will offer you an “assessment” with one of their in-house trainers. This assessment will last about 45 minutes to an hour and MOST times, these trainers will want to put you through a kamikaze session, ensuring that every muscle you have, even muscles you never knew exexisted, hurt. Hurt for days. What an initiation, right? Rarely do they offer any basic education or explanation for any of the exercises. What they might know about you comes from a clipboard that holds a simple questionnaire about how serious you are about exercise, the kind of time you are willing to put into it, brief medical history, and what your current eating habits look like. Granted, this little information should be used in ASSESSING your needs, but generally, it is most commonly used to sell you on a training package. A lot of people, and I mean, a lot, will purchase these packages. That’s ok.
Now, you have a trainer. You don’t know much about them, but they know their job. The trainer will schedule your sessions with them, which usually come at 30 minutes at a time. For 30 minutes, they will pulvarize you. They will push you through free weights, machines and plyometrics. Then, you get a high five, a confirmation of your next session, and instruction to look in your file to see what exercise program you have for when you train on your own. Easy peasy.
You can relate, right?
How many of you are familiar with the scenario I described above? I know this routine because I’ve spent quite a few years in member services AND as a PT in several franchise gyms. What they don’t really tell you is that a customized nutrition guide isn’t obligatory to be provided by your new trainer. Well, why not? I mean, you’re paying, possibly, hundreds of dollars for the service, why isn’t it FULL service? I’ll tell you why. The majority of franchise gym trainers are not certified or educated enough to provide adequate and successful nutrition programs. That’s why. So, this leaves you guessing. Remember though, you’re new. It’s almost the equivalent to walking into a new classroom, sitting down at your desk and the teacher hands you your final exam. Guaranteed failure.
If you really want to know what you’re paying for, here’s a quick break down: Say you pruchase a training package for two 30-minute sessions per week. Each session at a cost of about $35. That’s $70 per week… for 1 HOUR of training, making it, roughly, $280 per month, that will be drafted from your account whether you use the sessions or not. Of that $280, your trainer MIGHT get $10 per session, which means each month, he/she will earn $80, while the other $200 goes to… who? Now, tack on the actual gym membership that will range from $15-$40 per month, again, drafted whether you make it to the gym or not. Oh, let’s not forget to mention the “Initiation Fee” that you paid when you joined or the “Maintenance Fee”, which is usually a fee of about $50 per year, per gym membership. Anyway, $280 a month, but no nutritional guidance that has been constructed for YOU. Seems a little ludicrous. But hey, the ink is dry, now. You are, unfortunately, left to find your nutritional needs, elsewhere. I mean, you have made the commitment to live a bit longer and be a bit healthier, so you want to do it right, right? Enters– the internet.
My 5 minute certification says “Expert Trainer”
Man, what can I say that hasn’t been said by other opinionated a**hole columnists, such as myself, on the subject of online training and nutrition? It seems that social media has created an army of self-proclaimed experts. You can tell who they are because every. single. “progress” picture. looks like the same one from yesterday, but with a different pair of undergarments or the picture is that of a “throwback”. This goes for the dudes, too. Most have either won or placed well in some kind of fitness competiton, got crazy lean, et cetera. Which, I guess, makes them experts on how to provide services to the 300lb individual that needs to lose bodyfat so that they can undergo knee surgery and who happens to be diabetic and allergic to fish and has IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), all while not further damaging said knee or any other bodyparts. I’m laughing and shaking my head, right now, by the way. They key to finding a true online professional, which with anything you will spend money on, is research. Ask them questions. Ask them as many questions as you deem necessary to ensure that they are real. Ask about past client testimonials and pictures, certifications/degrees, years of experience, client mishaps and failures, even go as far as giving them your issues and have them, in detail, explain to you how and why they will go about helping you. All of these questions, amongst others, are so crucial. Remember, you made a commitment to yourself and you want to do it right, right?
The problem with social media and PT and Nutrition is that many people see an ideal physique, physiques that they are partially envious and admirable of, so they set their goals to look like someone else. These goals are also set with a mindstate that says, it happens quickly and safely, simply because they see a picture posted yesterday, in good lighting, and then they see another picture posted today, still great lighting, but the angles are a bit different, giving the picture an illusion of “progress”, yet, most people don’t know that the person in the picture has been carb deprived for 2 full days. Come on, people. Don’t believe the hype.
Don’t hate the player…
I know… this seems to be a complete bash to any and everything PT and nutritionist driven. But let me remind you, I am a personal trainer. I, too, provide customized nutrition plans to my clients… and, guess what else? I even have a nutrition coach of my own. After 8 years of working my own nutrition, it got to a point where I needed a better understanding about how food is broken down in my body and what each and every macronutrient and micronutrient is good for when it comes to bulking, cutting, energy, building lean mass, elevating my natural testosterone, exciting my natural growth hormones, all the way down to what to eat and why when I am 60 minutes away from stepping on a stage to be judged alongside my peers. It was never enough to just eat. I wanted the education and I have spent years learning and becoming educated and having my nutrition coach, who happens to also be a professional chef and bodybuilding champion, himself, has done nothing short of making me look how I look today, because I understand the process more and I trust him because of his successes with people before me and with his current clients, now.
That’s what you want. You want to be educated. I do have some clients that just say, “Give me the plans and I’ll follow them. I don’t care why it works, just as long as it works.”. To each their own. I also let my clients know that I do not want to be their trainer/nutritionist forever. I want to school them with as much knowledge as I can in the time that we have, so that when the time comes, they can exercise and expand the knowledge to better their success. I can’t imagine spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on something and not coming out of it smarter and better. Again, in reference to an education, that would be like spending thousands to get a college education but the only thing you come away with is the perfection of a proper keg stand.
Qualities of a great PT
A great trainer, will start you at the level you are qualified to begin at. They will assess every single issue, whether it be medical (with physicians’ clearance and communication with said physician if and when necessary) or internal, or a physical issue that hinders certain ranges of motion or specific exercises, all together. Not only will they note these issues, but instead of working around them, they will be able to conduct a safe and proper training regime that not only works those particular areas but may also strengthen them. A great trainer will have a solid, yet expanding, foundation of nutritional knowledge that will be applied to your training and will be based on your needs. They will not take an obese individual and put them on a bodybuilder’s nutrition plan. I see that way too often and it pisses me off. Instead, a great PT will utilize the formulas and necessities of certain micro- and macronutrients that will benefit the individual, allowing them to reach their full potential and ultimately, be successful at reaching every milestone set before them.
You need a trainer… you deserve a great one. Just remember, any program you use only works if you do and any great trainer will work just as hard for you.
Source: http://www.athleticx.net/articles/wh…-why-you-dont/
