It seems every other person these days is a personal trainer.
To qualify as a personal trainer is easy and to be honest the quality of the material a student has to learn is pretty poor and much of it is incorrect.
Qualifying as a personal trainer is a bit like learning to drive; you learn enough to pass and then you learn through experience once you start training clients.
Having been involved in personal training and gyms I have seen all sorts of trainers, a few great ones, some good ones but the majority are just rubbish.
Let me tell you about a trainer I used to work with.
I used to work at Virgin Active where as trainers we were set goals each month; New Clients, Sessions Sold and Sessions Delivered.
There was constant pressure to sell sessions and gain new clients.
I was rubbish at selling.
Bad in the short term but better for me in the long run.
Anyway, this guy was relentless with sales.
He was like a shark, circling around the gym, eyeing up his next victim to prey on and SELL SELL SELL.
I once heard him tell an overweight person
“You’re going to die of a heart attack unless you get personal training”.
SHOCKING!!
Nothing quite like pressuring someone in to buying personal training!
There’s a saying in the fitness industry;
The best personal trainers are the ones who are broke with only a few clients.
This is so true.
He would promise all sorts of results and not be able to deliver.
So it comes as no surprise that this personal trainer was the HIGHEST selling trainer for the entire REGION!
Not the club, or the group of local clubs, but for the whole of North London.
So what has this got to do with trainers being worth it?
Well, in a club like Virgin Active, the personal trainers are all the same cost (generally), but the quality of their sessions varies massively.
As a prospective client who doesn’t know much about training, all personal trainers look the same to you. But if you look closely you will hopefully pick up on details which seperate one personal trainer from the next.
Things such as;
- Is the personal trainer watching their client or too busy looking at their phone?
- Is the personal trainer correcting technique or letting their client get away with bad form?
- Does the personal trainer have a good rapport with the client or is that client just another number?
- Is the client having fun or do they look like they would prefer to be elsewhere?
If I’m honest, my colleague was guilty of all of those bad points above.
But this wasn’t even the worst of it.
One day he was training a female client who weighed around the 55kg mark.
He got her on the Smith machine (a bar fixed to two vertical runners allowing the bar to only move in one plane) to do squats.
There was around 70kg on the bar and he hadn’t even set the safety stops in place.
She unclipped the bar and as she started the downward phase of her squat she crumpled under the weight with the bar pinning her to the floor.
Her trainer, too weak and panicked couldn’t get the bar off her without help.
Once the bar was off she couldn’t move so an ambulance was called.
It turned out that the incident had crushed one of her vertebra.
The situation could have been avoided had the trainer had some sense.
So, are all personal trainers the same?
No.
Is it worth paying more for a good trainer?
Yes.
But does paying more mean that the trainer will be better?
No. I’ve also seen trainers who are charging £1000’s for only a few weeks of training. Literally only the rich and famous can afford those prices and they have been pretty bad too; not paying attention to their clients, looking at their phone and not correcting bad technique.
So Is A Good Trainer Worth It?
Absolutely. A good trainer will get you results, effectively and safely and they will make you feel comfortable and pleased to be training with them.
Having a trainer helps to keep you accountable, motivated and it takes the thinking out of what you are supposed to be doing next.
Before you hire a trainer you must check them out first. Get to know them. Watch them training someone else if you can.
The personal trainers at Precision Wellbeing here in North Finchley only train people on a one to one basis with only one other trainer and client in the studio at any given time.
This means there are no other distractions and all your trainer’s focus is on you and only you.
We believe in quality, not quantity.
This is why we only work with people who really want results and not people who are going to waste their time or money or moan about being there.
If you think you are willing to put the work in to getting results then call us or email us today to set up a FREE no obligation consultation where we can see if you will work well with us and we can answer any questions or concerns you might have.
Call us today on 0203 3567060
or email us at info@precisionwellbeing.co.uk