Personal Trainers - do they know anything?

[simon m]

Do we have any PT's on the Site?

The reason I ask is that every gym I've gone to has members who are training with very poor, even dangerous techniques and the PT's seem oblivious to this.

Thee's been the odd time, I've spoken to people to help them avoid injury, such as the idiot who was trying to bench on one of those ball things, but usually, I ignore them, but yesterday the majority down my gym hadn't a clue what they were doing!

Is this common, or are the PT's more interested in their tans and posing?

[nrage04]

Most PT's I've come across arent actually interested in living the lifestyle and being knowledgable in their field. You'll get some good ones (Tom&MartinM for example) and alot of crap ones. I plan to change this

[turtleboy]

must be same across the country/world. Most of the PTs at my gym are muppets and i wouldn't want any advice from them just on the account of how they look.(poor physique, diet, knowledge)

[Tom]

IMO most are pretty crap and yes even dangerous. the training you get is pretty basic, premier and future fit etc etc tell you that a bicep curl makes ur biceps bigger but what they fail to look at is how the bicep works funtionaly as a whole. i think the problem is that being a PT is all too simple which is why i wanted to diversify into a differnt area (corrective health) but some of the things i have seen PT's do is scary and sometimes plain stupid. My manager had to step in when one PT had a woman doing situps when she was 4 weeks pregant which can terminate the birth of the baby. its really quite scary. then on the otherhand you have some AMAZING people with almost an autistic knowledge of AnP and how to make you achieve your goals. you just gotta hope ur lucky and you find the right guy or girl to train you

[nrage04]

cheeky bugger I'm studying with FutureFit although simple costs a bomb!

[hank_marvin]

The personal trainers I have met haven't had a clue. One didn't even know what glucagon is!. He kept trying to correct me telling me it was glycogen!. I even explained it to him and he just stood there looking vacant.

Another one proudly told me how he knew how to diet hard, because he'd hospitalised himself on his last diet and had burnt off organ tissue in the process.

I haven't found one that knew what he was talking about yet.

[MartinM]

Its obvious why this is and Tom has pretty much summed it up. Its too easy to become a PT, the same goes for gym instructors.

.....however, there is nothing habitually wrong with doing a DB Bench press on a 'ball thing' (swiss ball).

[Tegid]

Long long ago I did get a personal trainers' certificate with YMCA Fitness Industry Training (the cries of 'Stone him! Stone him!' start...) and went on to assist with the training of other Instructors at a leafy little place called Loughborough... (oops- heavy artillery is now being wheeled into view). BUT I did not use it to make sweeping (and dumb-a$$) statements: I concentrated on getting the basic moves right and improving my own technique. I admit that I'm nowhere near perfect in the squat or deadlift yet - when I am it'll show in my personal bests.

(Firing squad still out there?)

One of the most important things that Personal Trainers need to do before attempting to 'teach' anyone is to look inward and really get to know themselves - the good and the bad bits. They need to understand WHY they want to be personal trainers. If it's to look good and have adoring followers, the consequences are those that have been described above. If it's because they want to make a genuine difference in people's lives, and to help them change - the way that the people choose to change - then maybe there's hope....

I've had my run-ins with the training organisations (SPRITO) who see fitness training using CV machines classes with small dumbbells. An instructor needs to be able to successfully teach the deadlift, clean, squat and decent spotting for a start. If someone gets into trouble on the bench, the instructor needs to be able to get to them and get them out of trouble. That's before you go anywhere near 'Personal Training' level.

Plus they need to know when to keep their g0bs shut - particularly when they get the urge to spout off drivel about nutrition!!

For anyone that wants to know, glucagon is a hormone (a protein) that signals for the liver to release its glucose stores (funnily enough in the form of glycogen). For this reason it's used for first aid (injected) with certain types of diabetes.

[Tegid]

B.T.W Tom - I have taught a number of people that are affected by the autistic spectrum and I'm pleased to see it get mentioned here. Autism - like all manner of conditions/labels affects people who adore training and who want to join in. I'm glad to see it being referred to positively

[pausk]

I am a qualified PT and the gym that I train at (fitness first-not where i work)
hassome cringeworthy examples of personal training, for example one guy I see, training with a personal trainer, has some shocking form on the exercises he performs yet his trainer (who isn't a very good example of good nutrition and training) seems more interested in standing back and drinking a protein shake or something-and he charges for this!! It gets me irate as it gives us trainers a bad name as has been shown here.

My sessions consist of working in a studio with minimal equipment, actually having to put some thought into the routine and tailoring it to the client. Not like these personal trainers who lean against machines telling their clients to do such and such a programme on the treadmill etc, these are just glorified instructors IMO who are in the job because of the hype surrounding the earning potential etc.

Anyway thats my rant over, I feel that as a trainer I am always hungry to learn, hence the reason I spend so much time on here, and I am passionate for the job, so much so I took a pay cut to get into the industry.