I hate personal trainers

Hahaha! It's crazy how things have changed with years.

We have a trainer at the small gym I'm training at, he's has no muscles (maybe he had in the past ??) and a big belly. All I see he is training old women. Only staying like a bored post waiting for the old lady to finish her reps sited on the balloon. Tons of people around him that don't know how to train.

Since I used to be a trainer myself for 3 years full time, when I see someone training wrong, it's very hard for me to say nothing, I want to help, even if it's not my business. Like the last week I saw a guy doing bench press dumbbell half way, you know when the arm stop a 90 degree and the dumbbells are something like 10'' over the chest, I asked him if he had shoulder problems to do that, he said : the trainer said it's as good as the full motion! Wow. So now there is a bunch of guy with toothpick arms doings 80lbs dumbbell press all proud of themselves.

I say things have changed because today you have to pay for a trainer to show you the stuff and often people are too proud (or too cheap to pay), they 'know' how to train, so it's terrible to see them mixing different exercises/muscles jumping to one and another without logic, bad form on most exercises... + most trainers have arms like matches, so anyone with a minimum of logic can see there is no point in asking to someone with no results for himself.

So basically at my gym most people don't know how to train and have no one to help them.

I have been a trainer from 88 to 91 and in that time, the trainer was free with membership, when you were a member you had access to the trainer, evaluation and follow-up. It was pretty easy for everyone, me I was on the floor and I was helping everyone that needed help, if someone had a bad form I was intervening, those with potential I was pushing them to reach it, more weight and/or more reps for the lazy, pushing people to make the extra mile.

I was training with the guys, in fact I was paid to train, I was working 40-50hrs a week, 6 days a week, so I was training on my working hours and this was keeping the guys motivated to see that I was doing what I was preaching and even more.

This was creating such an ambiance! Everybody was talking to everybody, it was camaraderie, everyone spotting everyone and pushing each one and another.

When I started back training in 2003 for about a year before I popped 2 more hernias, I was shock to see that compared to what I was in 15 years ago, gyms today are 'cold' and without personality. People training wrong and nobody to tell them, cause you have to pay to have a trainer and if you don't pay you can train wrong for years (and even if you pay you might end-up training wrong too).

Even if a trainer time was free, you had to own the respect! I remember once, I had an accident and lost 30lbs, basically I was unable to eat for about 2 weeks, barely drinking, so when I was back at work, there was a bunch of guys that didn't knew me, so they were training all wrong but had potential, one of those guy was like Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV, very strong but without Dolph's muscles. And I told this guys they would have more results if they were doing this or that... and one of them told me ''I would listen to you if you were big, you are not so we don't listen'' --- slap in the face. hahaha Luckily for me I was able to put back on those 30lbs very fast.

If I had to be owner of a gym, trainers would be included with membership as it was before, guys that train and are motivated. They should be able to speak by their actions and their results in their own life. Even the ex-champion bodybuilder with lots of experience should show that he's taking care of himself and not wear a fat belly. IMO

Eric

^^^^

Great post Eric....you nailed it.

a lot of trainers dont know jack these days. They just pretend like they do. I had a trainer kick me off the double cable pulleys to do ****ing wide grip pulldowns. Her excuse was less enertia because of the double pulley. Yes less inertia ok but ur doing a ****ing wide grip pulldown for christ sake the diff is minimal

I would agree with everything you say but with a lot of reservation on the "friendship" aspect. While your/a personal trainer could possibly become a friend, since you're now sharing a similar interest, I wouldn't make the assumption that they're required to. Yes, you may spend a lot of time together, getting to know one another, and sharing anecdotes about your lives but keep in mind they are professionals (I use the word loosely for many). While you do share a lot of personal information with your trainer, as anyone would in a close knit situation where there's a lot of time/silence to fill, they are WORKING while doing it. This is their job/career, not so much their personal time. You don't expect to become "pals" with your doctor, mechanic, or grocer do you? In many business situations you may have individuals who genuinely care about you and many who don't but who have to feign (fake) it. They may not be bad people but it may be that they've dealt with dozens/scores/hundreds of clients and to them, it's a job. While you may want to have a solid relationship with a trainer, they may like you but may not necessarily want to have anything further than that. I've known some trainers who are technically proficient, excellent at their job, and NOT outgoing yet I've also known trainers who have dynamic personalities, can come across as your best friend, don't know spit about training. That's why you shop around for a trainer. Just don't put unrealistic expectations on them, they're there to train you not be your therapist or bff. If it happens, cool, but if it doesn't then realize that's not what you hired them for.

Funny thing yesterday, when I was training I noticed the dude beside me, he was doing some rowing machine with a clear improper form, mainly just working his arms and having being a trainer, I often have the reflex to help those people training wrongly by telling them how to do the exercise correctly. Luckily this guy was training with music in the ears and since it's not my place/job to do that, I told myself STFU and continued to train like most of the time I do... just to recognize this guy later with his usual clothes... he's one of the personal trainers there... WTF!

2 weeks ago I got my membership in a GL, before I was training in a real small place with barely no equipment, so I changed for a place with more stuff and GL was the only place, along with a YMCA, that I could walk from my home to train there. So here I am in a place with over 2000 'check-in' per day and I'm shocked to see how things haven't improved, in fact they I think it devolved in the last 20-25 years. More people then ever train wrong. It amaze me to see people doing all sorts of crazy things with dumbbells, trainers push away their customer from the compound movements and when they do, they do it wrong ; aka newbies on the squat with 115lbs and going no more then 45 degree with their legs. There is only 2 bench press in the room and they are available all the time, 2 Leg press, rarely someone on them. I see tons of people doing kick back almost standing upright and arms not even reaching 45 degrees. People with dumbbells making weird thing like if they were training to open a door. Pretty impressive, I think there is like 60 trainers there, but nobody knows how to train, vs the gym where I was working we were 5-6 trainers with 2000 members and people knew how to train, we weren't letting anyone doing stupid things and were coaching them to have results. More knowledge available but people know less then before.

Eric

I think a lot of the problem is in the education of trainers and the owners of these gyms. The education of the majority of trainers seems to be a either a weekend certification or a college/university education that is inadequate for practical situations. The weekend certification seems to imply that once you pass a course you are qualified to be a trainer, but where is the shadowing/intern/volunteer process or real life experience. It seems like in the past the people who were the trainers were the people that were always at the gym busting their ass to get in shape. This real world experience is the difference for a lot of these trainers. Same situation for the college/university educated. There is no requirement for them to be active people just able to do some homework. I know people in Human Kinetics that don't train and look like shit and it baffles me and they have dreams of personal training whole teams. Most of there knowledge is not practical it is done in lab setting under ideal conditions. Ex. science shows that going past 45 degrees squat generates no more muscle activation, well maybe not in the muscles measured and what about the tendons of practically of using full ROM that wasnt part of the study.

And these new gym are about membership they don't care if you come and probably dont want you to come so they can reasonably restrict hours of operation, cleaning supplies etc etc. It is in their financial interest for you to become frustrated and not come to the gym anymore and you pack on another 20 and reapply for membership next year maybe even buy some personal training from some loser who cant get himself in shape. Frankly these kinds of gyms don't offer the kind of benefits or money to attract a good trainer, anyone with talent will work privately for 3-4 times more money in less hours.

Again yesterday, I saw a trainer doing bench press, lowering the bar 10 inch over the chest and up. And another one coaching a member on the leg press 45, 4 plates, barely moving the weight ankles not even near knee levels yelling louder then Ronnie Coleman do when he was preparing for Olympia with the trainer pushing the weight for him. So I decided to tell the manager about how bad trainers train them self and their clients, shes seemed very pissed, she told me that they are extremely selective and they only hire the top qualified people, blablabla... so I apologized as I didn't want to attack the reputation of the place or else.

So even though there is more trainer (there is 20 full time trainer) then ever, people train more wrong then ever.

Eric

i love that Eric, the manager got pissed at you for complaining lol not even to go check on the trainer or try to appease the customer lol jesus

Like everything else in life, there are good personal trainers and there are bad personal trainers. If you are going to pick a personal trainer, find one with a good physique. If they had success training themselves, they will have success training you. Guys with an awesome physique will get results for you. For example a trainer like Charles Glass is way better than a trainer from Goodlife Gyms. So they are good trainers out there, if you are smart enough to make the right choice.

The only argument I'd have to that is, "knowing" and "doing" aren't always the same thing.

Just because someone has a good physique doesn't mean they're a good trainer and vise versa.