How to tell if your trainer is actually the worst…
In my experience I have seen how both good and bad trainers operate in our profession. Within this article I will provide some important insights that will help you in tell the difference between a good trainer and a bad trainer. Personal Training as a career as struggled to find validity within in the Health & Wellness community due to the fact that a few can ruin it for the whole. As a Head Trainer for Vasa Fitness it is part of my job to help create “A- Team Players” so that our clients get the results that they need and leave more uplifted than when they walked through our doors.
Before I start listing the mistakes of bad trainers I would like to divulge my own top three mistakes that are the hardest for me to overcome. This serves one of two purposes: first, it shows that even trainers with bachelors degrees, like myself, still have to fuel their passion everyday in order to provide the best quality of care to our clients and two it shows that we as fitness professionals are also human. We are not all huge bodybuilders or naturally really slender…. We work really hard everyday to achieve the same results we teach. So here goes:
- Too eager to teach scientifically
- Tend to train tricky complicated exercises rather than strengthening basics.
- Scheduling too many clients and then not having time for my own exercises.
For me, I have learned to develop specific strategies in my life to overcome those struggles and that is what separates me from those trainers who create bad experiences and bad reputations. Now I am here to help you do the same!
Below I will reveal the most common mistakes of bad trainers and explain how these create negative impacts within our fitness profession.
Mistake #1- Coaching what they haven’t done!
A lot of times you will see trainers do crazy exercises that they have never done themselves. This does not allow them to properly understand how that exercise affects the body. A trainer should never teach something they do not understand.
Mistake #2- Writing to impress not training to encourage
Some trainers care more about impressing their clients with all their scientific knowledge that they neglect to care about the client’s specific needs. This simply teaches one thing and that is EGO! “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Mistake #3- Overloading vs. Understanding
Anybody can overwork someone to the point of ultimate fatigue but not everyone can achieve proper results. Many times bad trainers just overwork their clients causing them to be sore for 2-3 weeks post workout. This is not the same as training your clients to achieve long lasting results. I repeat ANYONE can overwork someone.
Mistake #4- Belittling others
Bad trainers struggle with ego and therefore belittle others. If you are with a trainer and they start talking bad about other members or other trainers that is a very bad sign. It is our job to be motivating and positive. Therefore we DO NOT talk down about other people in our facilities whether they are big, small, square, round, blue or white.
Mistake #5- Practice what we preach
As a fitness professional it is very hard to create a good reputation if we do not stand by what we teach. Now I am not saying that your trainer must be a bodybuilder or super slender, I am simply saying they need to be healthy and in shape. We need to be able to train our own bodies in order to help train others. Simply put our bodies are part of our advertisement in building our business, bad advertisement leads to bad reputations.
Mistake #6- The Bypass
Bypass meaning they ignore their own beliefs to gain more clients or they bypass opportunities to help others if they are not being paid. Good trainers do not put their push aside their knowledge and understanding simply to get gain. We love the opportunity to help others because this allows us to promote ourselves; it is not giving away free services.
In conclusion Vasa is dedicated to providing you with the best possible trainers out there. As a team we work really hard to hire the best for our members. In our hiring process we make every individual undergo two interviews to first be accepted into our 4-6 week internship led by myself and four other head trainers. During this internship each intern receives countless hours worth of hands on experience to provide a critical foundation to their upcoming profession. This internship was developed to provide and replace the worst with the best. In this article I provided insight into the top mistakes of bad trainers so that our clients are receiving the best results from the highest quality trainers. Personal training is the future of fitness industries nation wide and we are here to provide the best trainers our industry has to offer.
