Lately I’ve been answering questions from potential personal training clients that some what surprised me. So I thought I’d go over some basic fallacies and misconception of personal training and personal trainers.
Militant
Personal training is exactly what it is, training personalized for you. Unfortunately this field is very unregulated and unfortunately has developed many personal trainers to become “militant”. They believe smashing the client to the ground is the way to train, as it’s glorified on TV i.e. “The Biggest Loser“.
These unqualified personal trainers take no consideration regarding your previous exercise history, contraindications, the level of intensity you feel comfortable training at, and so on. If the client wants a tough workout, then clearly the personal trainer should give it to them, within reason. However having this type of mentality toward every client, in my opinion, is not a professional way to treat your clients.
This is why hiring a qualified, experienced, and professional personal trainer is so important. An experienced and well trained personal trainer will first have a consultation with you to understand exactly what you’re looking to do and then gear the workout around your goals,
Need to Be Fit First
Some clients want to hold off hiring a personal trainer until they are fit first. Which seems counter-intuitive since you hire a personal trainer for that exact reason. You don’t have to be fit first, in fact hiring a personal trainer first will expedite your results. You get the benefit of the trainers expertise and now you’re committed to your goal!
Multiple Personal Training Sessions
While it maybe ideal to meet your personal trainer x3-4 a week, this just may not be a viable option for some. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t hire a personal trainer. Many personal trainers work with clients that they see x1-2 a week and once they start to understand the movements, tempo, and program design the sessions may switch to every other week, once a month, and so on. All the while, the client will still be following a personalized structured program developed by their personal trainer.
If you were ever thinking about hiring a personal trainer, there’s always a way to budget it and still get great guidance. Just make sure to do your research on the trainers background, once you’ve find a good match, email/call them, and set up a consultation 🙂
Fit Personal Trainer
While I believe a personal trainer should be fit, the fallacy that you should look like a bodybuilder is far from the truth. There are many variables that comes into play but the biggest being what the personal trainers goals are. In my 12+ years coaching and training I’ve yet to find any correlation between a personal trainers physique and how well they are at their profession. In fact in my experience I’ve found people that find fitness to come easy to them to have a harder time relating to their clients struggle.
In the end, when hiring a personal trainer I would recommend not to go based on appearance but off of their experience, professionalism, and how you relate to them.
That’s it for today and don’t forget to subscribe to our email list below!
Stay strong,