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Atlantic Islander
09-08-2013, 07:58 PM
1. “I’m a specialist—in marketing myself as a health expert.”

Once reserved for the wealthy, personal trainers are now a must-have for the sweating masses. Today 91% of the members of the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association trade group — typically full-service health clubs — offer training services, and some 6.4 million Americans are currently signed up for sessions. The personal-training profession is booming, defying the sluggish economy with faster-than-average job growth, projected to rise 24% between 2010 and 2020, according to the Department of Labor.

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 paying a few hundred dollars and passing an online exam. “The field is still full of charlatans that look great and have great smiles,” says Gregory Florez, CEO of v2performance.com, a health coaching firm. Some self-styled trainers don’t even bother to get the easiest certifications. For the consumer, Florez says, it’s “buyer beware.”

2. “There’s only so much I can do if you don’t lay off the doughnuts.”

Clients with serious weight-loss goals need to do more than just work out with a trainer, experts say. “Abs are made in the kitchen,” says Mike O’Donnell, a health coach and personal trainer in Atlanta. O’Donnell has seen clients overeat after exercising, or even munch while on the treadmill. To lose weight, clients need to couple regular training sessions with a reasonable diet and an active lifestyle, trainers say. Training helps ensure that clients lose fat, not muscle or water when they diet.

Consumers should be wary of trainers who offer pie-in-the-sky promises for weight loss. Even if someone helps a bride-to-be drop a few dress sizes before her wedding, that kind of rapid weight loss is rarely sustainable, experts say, noting that slow and that steady loss of one to two pounds a week is best for most dieters.

3. “I’ll push you till you collapse.”

When Jeanette DePatie was in college, she worked out with a trainer who pushed her so hard she threw up in the locker room afterwards. What’s more, he made her feel bad about her plus size. “There’s a sense among certain unethical trainers that desperation is a good way to get clients,” DePatie says. After DePatie decided to embrace her zaftig physique, she became a certified fitness instructor known as the Fat Chick, who specializes in training beginners. She says her philosophy for those starting out is, “I just want you to be safe and have fun and live to exercise another day.”

Indeed, many novice exercisers confuse pain with progress, experts say. Pain is a warning sign, not an indication of a good workout. Beginning exercisers can expect to feel soreness in muscles and tendons after the first few sessions, trainers say. This type of soreness is normal, while pain in the joints is not. A good trainer will always listen when a client says an exercise hurts and suggest a modification to the routine.

4. “We’re surfing the silver tsunami.”

Like many service providers, the training industry sees an opportunity in aging baby boomers. There’s been a rise in certifications for training seniors, observers note. “Everyone’s scrambling to get those out,” Florez says. Some 35% of gym members are 55 and over, according to a 2013 survey conducted by Idea Health & Fitness Association, one of the largest national trade groups for fitness professionals. Indeed, trends in fitness equipment reflect the graying of America’s gyms, with the increased use of balance-training apparatuses, body-weight leverage machines and other equipment that meets the needs of older exercisers, according to Sandy Todd Webster, Idea’s editor-in-chief.

Exercise can vastly improve older people’s quality of life and even mean the difference between independence and time spent in a care facility, experts say. Yet exercise injuries are common among older people, and some doctors recommend booking at least one session with a personal trainer to learn proper techniques before working out with weights or other gym equipment.

5. “We’ve got more fads than a middle school.”

Boot camps. Kettle bells. P90X. It’s hard to separate the noise from the substance with all the fads in the fitness industry. The good news? You don’t have to. Sure, the latest fads can be fun to try. Kyle Arteaga, 39, the founder of a PR firm in San Francisco, enjoys taking gym classes in boxing conditioning and other trendy themes. But he reserves his twice-weekly sessions with his personal trainer for unglamorous exercises that help him minimize muscle wear-and-tear when he runs marathons competitively. Arteaga has lived in four cities over the past 12 years and worked with multiple trainers. “It’s a very inexpensive way to look at health care,” he says.

Beginners should use caution before embracing the exercise du jour, especially if it involves a precise technique that takes time to acquire, DePatie says. For example, swinging a 30-pound kettle bell above your head leaves little margin for error: “A very small mistake can lead to a big injury and a lot of doctor’s bills,” she says. There are plenty of simple ways to do weight training and cardio, and the latest fads aren’t essential to follow, experts say.

6. “Bring a few pals and I’ll charge you half the price.”

An hour-long training session for two with The Biggest Loser celebrity trainer Jillian Michaels went for $4,250 this spring on an online auction site (proceeds benefitted the RFK Center for Justice & Human Rights). But not all trainers command such stratospheric prices for a shared sweat session. In fact, splitting the bill can be a great way to go. Many trainers offer group sessions that can cut individual prices by as much as half.

Though traditional 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, since each individual pays less while the trainer earns more than for a one-on-one session. In recent years, franchises such as Orangetheory Fitness have sprung up specifically to provide group-based training.

7. “I’m just as qualified to train you as, um, that guy lifting over there.”

There are almost too many personal training certifications to count, experts say. Idea has about 100 certifications in its free directory Idea FitnessConnect, which allows consumers to verify that a trainer actually holds a given certification and whether or not the certification is current. And quality is all over the map when it comes to certification standards. While some programs demand a broad-based understanding of human physiology, others require much less from their candidates. Experts point to certifications from the American Council on Exercise, the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Strength and Conditioning Association as among the gold standards of the industry.

8. “Just because I’m more expensive doesn’t mean you’ll get a better workout.”

Personal trainers charge more depending on their level of experience and how booked up they are, and any fees you pay them are obviously an investment in your health. Nonetheless, a more expensive trainer won’t necessarily yield better results. “At the end of the day, it’s about behavioral change,” fitness consultant Florez says. So safety aside, finding someone who personally motivates you and with whom you click is most important, and that person may not be a top-dollar seasoned veteran. And don’t let gym décor sway your decision, DePatie says, since there are great trainers and not-so-great trainers in every type of facility: “Just because they have a fancy café in front and a fabulous pro shop doesn’t mean those trainers know more than at the local mudshop.”

To find the right match, ask for a trial workout session with a trainer before you hire one. Florez specifically recommends a preliminary consultation, which should include no exercise but rather an in-depth conversation about your personality and goals. A good trainer should ask a lot of questions, not just dispense advice, he says. And the interviewing should go in both directions. To evaluate a prospective trainer’s ability to produce results, ask questions like, “Have you worked with someone like me before and been successful?” If the answer is yes, request a recommendation from that person.

Long-time trainer client Arteaga says that while certifications may be a good place to start, he places more stock in the types of clients a prospective trainer works with. Since he’s looking for a long-term relationship, he’s less interested in working with someone who primarily helps clients meet short-term goals. What’s more, he prefers working out with trainers at independent gyms, since in his experience they have more flexibility to customize workouts than those at large corporate chains.

That’s not to say the templates chains impose on trainers necessarily prevent them from creating custom workouts. Equinox, an upscale nationwide gym chain, for instance, requires that its trainers work within certain parameters, to ensure clients make safe progress, and requires trainers to document how altering well-known exercise principles will help a client meet his goals, says David Harris, vice president of personal training. Yet far from putting trainers in a bind, he says, the chain’s rules let them use creativity in program design, make it easy to get input from other coaches, and provide a clear record of progress.

9. “We don’t need a full hour.”

Sixty minutes remains the most popular duration for a personal training session, according to Idea. But some experts say a full hour isn’t necessary. O’Donnell cut his training sessions down to 30 minutes for most clients. Some clients had gotten too comfortable, preferring chatting to sweating. He started telling clients to warm up on their own before the session and do cardio on their own afterwards, saving their time together for quick interval workouts. “I’m not paid to watch you walk on the treadmill,” he told them. The economics of this shorter session benefitted both client and trainer: Once O’Donnell started charging clients $45 per half hour, versus $65 for a full hour, he was able to squeeze in more clients during peak hours, making more while saving his clients money.

Science supports even workouts shorter than 30 minutes: Researchers at Arizona State University found last year that subjects with slightly elevated blood pressure experienced longer lasting benefits from three 10-minute aerobic sessions a day than from one 30-minute session.

10. “We’re part-time pitchmen.”

Gyms and trainers alike are “bombarded” with offers from manufacturers to sell products such as vitamins, shakes and exercise equipment, Florez says. (See also: 10 things direct-sales marketers won’t say) What’s more, some gyms treat their trainers like salespeople on the floor, urging them to push products. Rank-and-file trainers don’t make big bucks: The average trainer makes under $30,000 a year, and fewer than half of trainers receive benefits, according to Idea. So it’s understandable if trainers want to—ahem—supplement their salaries by selling vitamins and protein shakes.

But any products for sale should offer real value to the client, DePatie says. And some gyms ban the practice entirely. Personal training clients should be wary of product pitches, especially if they come early in their relationship with a trainer, experts say. Consumers are pretty savvy these days, and no one likes to feel pressure, says Melissa Rodriguez, senior research manager at the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, a trade association serving the health and fitness industry: “We know when we’re being upsold.”

source (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-things-your-personal-trainer-wont-tell-you-2013-09-06?pagenumber=1)

Liwanu the Great
09-08-2013, 08:03 PM
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5) In a dual, White Devil would not beat American-Indian child
6) White Devils all use Steroids
7) White Devils Steal Children
8) White Devils want to Be Me
9) White Devils should eat Bear like Us
10) You a White Devil Want Sex with my 15 inch Snake.
Blessings of the Mighty And Wondrous Snake

thetank
09-09-2013, 10:55 PM
most personal trainers are idiots who have absolutely no knowledge of modern nutrition, exercise programs etc...they only know what they were taught in an outdated fitness book

Jackson
09-10-2013, 12:02 AM
most personal trainers are idiots who have absolutely no knowledge of modern nutrition, exercise programs etc...they only know what they were taught in an outdated fitness book

A friend of mine is aiming to be an independent PT (and he knows his stuff) and he says the same thing about most of them.