Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
12/23/2009 9:55 AM
Travelling the World over, I get to see a lot of gyms and of course, lots of personal trainers, the quality is horrendous to say the least.
The best personal trainers are usually found in the province of Quebec, the Dominican Republic, and Ireland. The worse are to be found in France, Italy, and New York City.
Here are ten easy ways to spot a useless personal trainer:
1. He never records anything.
Unless he has a way to show your average load used, your relative strength index on each exercise, progress curves etc…, your trainer is a big dweeb. He cannot produce any data on how you have made progress outside of weight on scale.
When you hire one, ask him/her if he can show the software he uses, and show you a sample progression he has done with a client.
2. He is more into entertaining you than training you.
Jumping laterally from a Bosu ball to a bench while pressing overhead a dumbbell with the opposite arm won’t get you lean or strong. It may very well injure you though. A fun 10 minutes is okay to motivate the weak minded, to make it the core of the workout design is sheer dweebness.
3. Program design is a function of the equipment closest to the person he is interested looking at.
That one always make me laugh, the guy has a crush on some nymph in microspandex so he selects the station nearest her. He should select equipment based on your goals.
4. He talks to you about random stuff while you are doing your set…while being seated.
He should be monitoring your rep count, tempo pace, and exercise technique instead. I have fired staff for sitting down while coaching. The coach should stand.
5. He tells you about his personal problems.
Hey, you pay him to get you in shape, not to be his personal counselor. Outside of greetings and goodbyes, talk should be centered around your exercise performance and the whys of what you are doing.
6. He uses his cell phone to take calls, make call, or text while you are working out.
You certainly don’t need the radiation..
7. His video does not match the audio.
In other words, he either is a skinny fat bastard with the calf development of parrot, or could consider a career in Sumo wrestling. He tells you that carnitine does not work while he finishes his Triple Fudge Sundae in front of you. He drinks coffee while coaching. "Hey asshole, you need to be awake before you coach me!"
He talks the walk, but cant walk the talk. Would you go see a dentist who sports a dentition that looks like a piano?
8. He does not associate with a functional medicine practitioner to make sure your health is not limiting your progress in the gym.
A great trainer has a team of health professionals he can refer you to in order to maximize your progress,
9. He has not learned anything new since Jimmy Carter was President.
He has never taken a class to expand his horizons and his knowledge on the basics of training: such as anatomy, program design, stretching, etc..
The most successful trainers learn…every day.
10. He cannot sell his business.
Why? It is worth nothing.
The sad truth is that 99.99% of personal trainers could not sell their business tomorrow. Why? They have no records, no results to show for. They work for their business, not on their business. Look at any of my top students like Nick Mitchell, Michael Pellegrino or Juan Carlos Simo, they can sell their business tomorrow - and for a hefty price.
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13 comment(s) so far...
Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
Great post Charles, so very true.
By Ryan Hewitt on
2/18/2010 11:00 AM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
Thanks charles,
i will make sure i follow these pointers to make sure i don't fail my business or my future goal of being a strength trainer for athletes.
By Dan on
6/13/2010 5:35 AM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
Have you heard about the amazing Female Trainers?
By Melanie Ades on
6/13/2010 10:08 PM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
so very very true. I am from Australia and we have one major chain with loads of those trainers!
By Liz Holman on
7/16/2010 9:10 AM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
It is true that we take much calories easily and it takes too much effort to burn them,,, So if one can take control on the calories consumed then the person can control the getting weight..On top of that regular exercise in also needs to be done.
By personal training brisbane on
5/10/2011 12:04 AM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
Great article. Being a Personal Trainer from Ireland I like how you name Irish PT's among your top 3 PT countries. Thanks Charles
By Personal Best PT on
5/16/2011 1:09 PM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
Im glad to be dominican and work as a coach at Juan Carlos Simo's gym, the best school!
By Hamid Yaryura on
6/20/2011 12:20 PM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
My addendum to #4: he (or she) stands off to the side and talks about anything while the client is doing deadlifts, RDLs, etc.
By Christopher John on
6/20/2011 4:48 PM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
Charles you may want to ad , " Hey want do you want to work on today ?" i heard trainers ask ....No evaluations , no corrective movements at all ...no program design ..
By gordon duffy on
9/20/2011 11:05 AM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
Poor clients are not picking these things up,see too much people being trained by PT's who's goal is to make the client feel as close to vomiting as possible and as sweaty as possible coming back looking the same every week.
No diet plan and a scribbled up session plan with random progressions and terrible form often making postural problems and muscular imbalances even worse.
By Daniel Joseph on
10/15/2011 10:33 AM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
I know a pt whose trade mark exercise is oblique side bend when holding weights in both hands. The expert in question also takes his cli... I mean victims' blood pressure and body fat (hand held digital device) right after he's trained them...
By Dominik Szweda on
10/15/2011 6:42 PM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
Your artilcle is spot on. It has been like this for over 10 years and is steadily getting worse. The growth of the chain style Personal Training offer has been a disaster for customers and trainers alike. One of my biggest bug bears is even Trainers that achieve high marks in other standards still do not effectively record what happens in their appointments. The best trainers appear to be those that have done your Certifications or Chek Certifications who then have had the opportunity to work in a team multidisciplinary environement, continue their education and allow continued eveluation of their performance.
By Jeff Murray on
10/23/2011 12:58 PM
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Re: Ten ways to spot a useless personal trainer.
Thanks Charles this article was very useful to me, I am getting certified in March and I do not want to make the above mistakes, but I think the problems all start went they start looking at they're clients as a paycheck or a way to get out of debt, I've seen these guys too. Very sad.
By Andrew Wilber on
1/5/2012 7:01 PM
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