Ever thought of taking up the services of a Personal Trainer at your local gym?
I remember starting off as a personal trainer many moons ago. At that time personal training wasn’t a popular thing and only heard of for ‘ The celebrities’.
Today many turn to a personal trainer, placing faith in their hands, from losing weight, and toning their body.
The sad thing is:
Most people’s perception when hiring a personal trainer, they will reach their goals as they are professional right?
Let’s look at the bigger picture
Gym chains like ‘Easygym, The Gym group, Pure gym’, more affordable than other gyms. Where else David Lloyds, Nutfield and Virgin active’, charging between £80-£120 a month for membership,
It’s no brainer, members are increasing by the minute, from all walks of life making gym business lucrative, with this comes more PT.
Choices for personal trainers to grow their business:
You have one lot of personal trainer, who prefer to pay a monthly rent enabling them to work in gyms and have access to the gym members database.
Other personal trainers, prefers gyms giving them leads, in exchange for taking most of their money and leaving them earning around £15-£20.
The new way in for personal trainers to earn money and avoid monthly rent fees is to teach classes for free and maintain gym equipment daily by ensuring they are clean, yes cleaning it themselves.
The reality is, personal trainers, either way, are pressured to make a living and as harsh as it sounds, the focus of quality has been automatically thrown out the window. Instead pressure has been placed on personal trainers hitting numbers, than giving a decent service.
When you read a personal trainer BIO, (which I will now refer to as a PT) often advertised in gyms. A lot state, they offer a specialized program that they are able to tailor to your needs, getting you that result. Really!
If you’re a busy PT and don’t have the time to even sit down for at least an hour and your commitment is merely on finishing client after client to hit them numbers, how the hell are you able to offer a quality service?
What I mean by this is;
- Does your trainer assess your health?
- Has your PT Given you a body fat and BMI, before training you?
- Does your trainer ask you to keep a food diary so he/she can monitor your eating habits?
- Assessed for any medical conditions: eg- asthma, heart diabetes etc?
- Fitness test monitoring your heart rate, has your trainer done this?
- Does your trainer chase you up either by email/phone ensuring you are sticking to your goals and advice given?
- Is your trainer working through a program designed for you, or just training you randomly?
It’s just business, right?
When you look at taking a personal training course nowadays, supposed to before, more focus is spent on time learning marketing skills with recommended tools to gain clientele, than actual knowledge on the subject.
An exception for those studying at a degree level on the subject, who have a better academically knowledge on the subject, though it’s a known fact the practical side doesn’t balance well; (not everyone but the majority).
Let’s not forget the educational providers now offering 6 weeks courses on becoming a PT. With a lack of knowledge on nutrition, let alone the human body and its functions.
Their lack of knowledge shows, therefore are targets to distribute ‘Herbalife and JuicePlus” as a means of nutritional advice: Or the other classic advice on nutrition, to simply eat, ‘Proteins’ and no ‘Carbs’.
Qualities you should be looking for when hiring a personal Trainer:
-Image of Harpenden fat pinch:
- Measuring your body fat, with a proper Harpenden fat pinch, involving 9 pinches to different parts body. This is more accurate for measuring body fat, supposed to the handheld devices that a lot of gyms have.
- Assessing your lifestyle: a PT should be asking these questions in order to give you suggestions in identifying your mindset and to accommodate you in reaching your goal.
- Suggesting you keep a food diary, so your trainer can identify your eating habits and at the same time track if you are listening to the advice given.
- Make sure they know all your medical history, eg: asthma, diabetes, any operations diagnosis given in the back, legs etc.
- Checking your weight & BMI
- Your PT should be phoning/email at the end of the week ensuring your sticking to the advice.
- If your PT is on the phone all the time whilst training you, that’s a no, no, attention should be on you.
- Has your PT carried out fitness test to get an idea of your heart rate and physical ability?
- Is there a good rapport with your PT?
- Have you seen your PT REPS membership number? by doing this you have access to your trainer’s credentials.
- Has your PT got valid insurance?
Helenaphil-fitness
#TheCommonsensecoach 😉