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SmartMoney Magazine by Reneé DeFranco (Author Archive)
10 Things Your Personal Trainer Won't Tell You
1. "I'm a specialist — in marketing myself as a health expert."
Personal training is more popular than ever. Today an estimated 91% of health clubs offer it, and some 6.3 million Americans are signing up for sessions, up from four million in 1998, says the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. But the growth has fueled competition among trainers, who are battling to stand out. The latest way: specialization. Trainers offer expertise in such areas as injury recovery, cardiac rehabilitation and the condition du jour, diabetes. "There's a real demand for these trainers," says Todd Galati, certification manager for the American Council on Exercise. "More people walking through the door are overweight or diabetic."And yet not all so-called specialists are properly trained — on the fast-and-loose end of the spectrum, you'll find certification requirements as minimal as a $500 fee and passing an online exam. That worries John Buse, president of medicine and science at the American Diabetes Association, because when exercise isn't done properly, any vision problems and nerve damage in the feet that some diabetics develop could worsen, he says, in extreme cases to the point of blindness or amputation.
2. "I'll push you till you collapse."
When Richard Thomas of Brooklyn, N.Y., was a trainer at Bally Total Fitness in 2004, he says he witnessed an out-of-shape man in his 40s being worked so hard by a fellow trainer that he practically fainted. "I had to catch him," Thomas says. Sounds extreme, but it's not the only time he says he's seen a trainer push clients too hard to show them how out of shape they are — and thus in need of more personal-training sessions. (Bally Total Fitness declined to comment.)Given that 37% of health club members are beginners, personal trainers are largely catering to the unfit, according to IDEA Health & Fitness Association, a San Diego-based organization for fitness professionals. They're reaching out to seniors as well, since clients 55 years and older constitute one of the fastest-growing segments of gym members, says IDEA's executive director, Kathie Davis. Nonetheless, many trainers are guiding clients with a less-than-gentle hand. "The majority of people that come into the club haven't worked out since their high school gym class," Thomas says. "Then we're told to work them hard. It's dangerous." If you feel your trainer is being too tough, speak up. Remember, you're the boss.
3. "Caution: Might not work well with kids."
One of the biggest trends in fitness today: enrolling Junior in a little one-on-one training. Concerned about their kids' weight and lack of physical activity, parents are increasingly turning to personal trainers at rates of up to $60 an hour. Seventeen percent of personal-training clients — over one million total — were between the ages of six and 17 in 2006, says the IHRSA; that's a 20% increase from 1998.
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This niche is growing because our kids are: Roughly 15% of American children are overweight, ranging from a high of 22.8% in Washington, D.C., to a low of 8.5% in Utah, according to nonprofit Trust for America's Health. But not all health clubs have trainers who work well with kids — or even know how to work them out safely, says Davis. Even a good trainer with the wrong attitude can turn impressionable kids off to working out.
Bottom line: Be selective. For starters, ask for a trainer with a background in teaching, coaching or child development, Davis says. And if your kid is involved in a particular sport, requesting a trainer with a similar background can help develop specific muscles and prevent injuries.
4. "Bring a few pals and I'll charge you half price."
Fees for personal trainers can be pretty steep. Sign up for a session with personal-training superstar Jackie Warner of SkySport&Spa in Beverly Hills, Calif., for example, and it could run you about $400 an hour. But with most trainers there's a way to save in the neighborhood of 30% to 50% if you know what to ask for: More than 70% of personal trainers offer group sessions at a discount, according to a recent survey by IDEA. Even Warner has been known to offer reduced prices now and again — about 30% — when training two to five clients at once.Though health clubs don't typically dangle the group option in front of you, most personal trainers will work something out if you ask. After all, it's a win-win situation. For a group of three, for example, the average fee of $60 per hour is reduced by half for each client, while the trainer brings in about 50% more than he typically makes in an hour. And it could mean a better workout: "There's a lot to benefit from group camaraderie, as long as you don't need a trainer counting every rep you do," says Richard Cotton, national director of certification for the American College of Sports Medicine.
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There are many good personal trainers out there, that have dedicated years to helping others achieve a level of health, and fitness that they were not able to accomplish on there own, that really care about what is best for there client's. This article does them a serious dis-service. Maybe the article is just titled wrong, but you are obviously just trying to stur up some controversy, guess it is working, but you should not be so broad with your strokes.
This article is certainly quite biased. The section saying a personal trainer will push you till you drop is certainly not always the case. Many under-qualified low experienced personal trainers would possibly push you too far not reading into your past exercise regime, yet good personal trainers would adapt the workout to suit you. I am a personal trainer and have been training people for quite a few years and I always spend allot of time looking into my clients past exercise history. Most of my client are over 50 and have not exercised for years although at the end of the session they want to feel like they have worked out I tell them that the first few sessions will have to be gentle so they don't do themselves any damage. I cover allot of my clients personal training experiences in my personal trainers blog at http://www.myfitnessstudio.co.uk/news-and-specials/ here you can read about how we adapt our personal training methods to suit the clients. Personal trainers do get a b...(Read more of this comment)
I spent 10 years being a gym member and going occassionally. Over the years my metabolism has slowed down, so if i don't go, the consequences get more and more severe (im mid 30s). From a new promotion and the new amount of stress as large as my new office, I slowly gained more weight, until most of the clothes in my closet didnt fit anymore. The wake up call came when I experienced side pain due to overeating, being overweight, and a bad diet.
Went to gym classes for 3 times a week. But the results didn't come as easily as they once did. So, by luck my teacher (who was really good) also happened to do personal training. I signed up with her, very expensive (but #1 my new diet is cheaper than always eating out...so it pays for itself in a few months, #2 why put in tons of money in a car that you're going to have for only a few years and not spend money on your body that you'll have for your entire life??).
Anyway, there was no doubt she was good and she knew ...(Read more of this comment)
Finding a good personal trainer is like anything else, u have to shop around for the best one and know what you are getting. All these stupid stories on here about bad PT are silly. You just got a bad PT, and other should not be sterotyped.
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Now, let me start out by saying that I AM a personal trainer so some of my views may be a little biased. However, this article makes the fellow men and women in my profession look like sidewalk swindlers. I'm not out to get your money. I never have been and I never will be. I tell every single potential client to really think about what their goals are before we shake hands. Personal training is a large monetary commitment. There is no talking anyone out of that point. If someone is going to pay for my time I'm not going to feed them lies and I'm certainly not going to do anything to sacrifice my certifications which I have worked VERY hard for. The other part of this article that really irked me was the fact that they make it sound like becoming a Personal Trainer is SO easy. To get my Personal Fitness Trainer certification alone took me 6 months of intense study and I couldn't make less than an 80% on one test and no less than a 90% on my practical exam. It's not a cake walk. You are...(Read more of this comment)