I need to explain a few things about The world of Fitness Training. There are the categories of trainers.
Paper Trainers = These are the MeatHeads of the gym that read Flex Magazine and give cookie cutter workouts from they’re favorite issue. I wish my profession was more regulated to keep these guys out.
Social Trainers = These trainers serve a great purpose in life. They teach the basic fundamentals on health and fitness. They also make people feel good about themselves by boosting their confidence level and selfesteem. They’re very capable in their job and changing people’s bodies and lives for the better.
Strength Coaches or Fitness Professional Trainers = These guys know the Science and are very good at manipulating the body for an athelete or regular person off the street.
So if your one of the people who rag my profession. Then do something about it. Quit crying in front of the computer and become a Trainer. Maybe then you’ll realize how much is involed in each client. We need more good trainers anyway. But like every profession. It only taks one seed to spoil the apple… Thanks…
[quote]tg1234 wrote:
So if your one of the people who rag my profession. Then do something about it. Quit crying in front of the computer and become a Trainer. [/quote]
Who’s crying? You’re the one griping about people making fun of personal trainers. Like it or not there are some crappy trainers out there. And you’re saying we should either become a trainer or shut up?
OK then, don’t criticize any politician, pro sports athlete, or business executive until you’ve worked in their profession. Do you have to have the same job as someone else in order to have an opinion of what they’re doing? I think not.
[quote]tg1234 wrote:
Maybe then you’ll realize how much is involed in each client. [/quote]
When you see trainers do the same weight-machine circuit workout with every client that comes through the door, it’s obvious that they’re not greatly involved in each individual’s needs.
[quote]tg1234 wrote:
So if your one of the people who rag my profession. Then do something about it. Quit crying in front of the computer and become a Trainer. Maybe then you’ll realize how much is involed in each client. We need more good trainers anyway. But like every profession. It only taks one seed to spoil the apple… Thanks…[/quote]
They are doing something about it: they are showing many of the inherent weaknesses in our profession; face it, there are more boobs working with clients than their are educated, effective trainers.
I decided to go with the ISSA as my certifying organization for personal training after having read this site; Coach Staley’s involvement with them made me think they had something going for them. But, I digress.
Again, by offering the information that they do, the staff of T-Nation is making it (at least a little bit) tougher for the unqualified trainers
to pass themselves off as knowledgeable, thus making it harder for them to mess over a client.
And do try to take what you read here as an impersonal attack on misinformation. That’s what it is, after all.
I’d guess that more than 75% of the trainers an average gymgoer encounters are this variety of trainer.
Why? Because the QUALITY trainers are more exclusive. You don’t walk into 24 Hour Fitness or Bally’s and run into a world-class strength coach. You run into the dumbass trainers who ended up there because it’s the fitness industry equivalent of working at Burger Shack.
So while the quality trainers are out hiding somewhere with their exclusive clientele, the average lifter is being exposed to trainers who are almost exclusively ignorant and incompetent. Sure, there are quality trainers, but I never run into them. I would have to go looking for them.
Meanwhile, the dipshits who work out of my gym are in my face almost every day telling me I eat too much protein, and I need to do more work with fitness balls, and I would burn more calories on the elliptical than on the treadmill. I’m not saying you aren’t a good trainer; I don’t even know you. But these jackasses who can’t keep their stupid noses out of my business, they’re shitty trainers who don’t really know a damn thing.
There is at least one high-quality trainer working at my gym. Unfortunately, our schedules don’t mesh, so I can’t work with him – but I do recognise that he is there, and that he knows his shit. But that doesn’t mean the rest of them can’t fuck all the way off.
TG I have a degree in HPF(Human Performance and Fitness, what my Universtity called it) and you’re right I feel bad that myself as well as a few others do talk about trainners. I know it’s very hard to make an honest living in that world because a)people always want quick results, and b)not many are willing to stick out the trainning long enough to see said results. For 6 months I worked as a personal trainner/salesman for a gym and I can honestly say after getting fed up with the lack of quality trainners they hired I stayed just as a salesman, and then finally left when the money dried up. As far as how you train TG I must say just the fact that you are on this site proves you are leaps and bounds above most of the other trainers around you, keep it up, most of us have had real bad experiences and we are sharing them with everyone else.
They can say whatever they want about trainers. I say the same things and I’m certified through ISSA. 99.9% of trainer don’t have a clue about what they are talking about, what they are doing and what they should have each client participating in. I’m not a know it all and never will be but I think I have earned some respect from some of the T-Staff. Maybe one day I will be able to contribute an article or two for the readers but not yet. They can say whatever the feel like about trainers they are correct for the most part. Most trainers are the ones you described first. I cannot tell you how may times I want to scream at trainers because of how they are training someone. I know VERY FEW PTers that are good. Three at my gym and a close friend of mine and thats out of seeing a TON of “PTers.”
ALL personal trainer certifications are about money PERIOD. Thats why this industry is flodded with people who dont have a clue about what they are doing. The PT industry is run by the buck and nothing else. Its all about $$$. There are some certifications that actually care about the industry. That is why I chose ISSA. The head of ISSA is one of the people responsible for regulating the PT industry before the govt steps in. He actually cares about the PT industry.
I think the bottom line here is to just get over it.
You know that most people are clueless, you may not be, so don’t consider yourself part of the flock! Obviously, you enjoy what you do, help people the best you can, and make some coin while doing something you enjoy, so use your expertise and info to make your clients really show improvement, and thereby get more clients as they get more results.