photo by Angela7dreams
“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”
Ernest Hemingway
The personal training and sports performance training field has many young up and coming professionals, especially in New York City. Unfortunately these young personal trainers have been mentored by unqualified trainers or through “YouTube”… This is where unprofessionalism becomes very apparent.
The typical NYC personal trainer comes into the field looking to help clients obtain their goals. The young personal trainer is super eager and motivated, while this can be good it sometimes can be bad too.
Why you ask? Good question!
Over the past few years I’ve watched MANY personal trainers in NYC push their clients beyond their threshold of tolerance. Just the other day I watched a personal trainer in NYC push the client to do hip thrusters:
All good and dandy right? Mmmm not so fast…sadly this personal trainer had his client’s head dangling off the bench, which lead to her complaining of neck pain. His response was “just relax the neck”, and then he executed the movement himself. She clearly wasn’t getting it, but was told to do the 2nd set…she set up the same exact way (head dangling off) and complained yet again and the cycle went on.
Qualified Personal Trainer vs. Unqualified Personal Trainer
Now a qualified personal trainer would’ve noticed this off the bat or if he didn’t the trainer at least would’ve noticed and made adjustments after the 2nd set. Merely showing isn’t enough, the personal trainer will need to manually place the client in the correct positioning. If the client is still having issues, then maybe the movement isn’t for them at this time. A qualified and professional personal trainer would LISTEN to the client’s feed back and adjust accordingly. You should NEVER push your client to do something that they feel uncomfortable with or even worse… to cause pain.
Do NO Harm
While minor injuries can happen, it is your JOB as the personal trainer or sports performance coach to minimize the risk as much as possible. If the client or athlete is complaining of pain you’ll need to make adjustments, if the adjustments don’t work, move on to another movement. The mark of an experienced coach/trainer is one that can make adjustments on the fly and still obtain goals. Bottom line be safe with your clients, they trust you with their body and time, respect that by:
- Being educated.
- Listening to the clients feedback.
- Paying ATTENTION.
- Being flexible.
Don’t have tunnel vision and fixate on the programs workout for the day. It’s great to be eager to help them obtain their goals, but sometimes you’ll need to take a step back. It’s typical to make adjustments for your client based on how they are feeling the day of.
Train smart,
Team Fusion Trained