The Cost of Hiring the Wrong Personal Trainer and How to Find the Right One (True Story)

I want to start by saying I'm not going to name any names or call anyone out in particular. There's been enough drama in the Collingwood Fitness Industry this past week and I'm not looking to add to it (If you know you know). But I had a consultation with a potential client this week that actually made me feel a way about it. I was shocked and honestly a little saddened by their experience and outcome. 3 Years with a trainer and ZERO results. I also do not think it's the fault entirely of their trainer and I don't know the whole story, maybe their program adherence was poor, or intensity wasn't there, but I was getting the impression from the information given to me that their trainer has no clue what they're doing. So let's talk about what happened, why it happened and things you can look out for when looking for the right trainer.

Trainer demonstrating with touch where to feel the contraction of movement.

Three years and no result. Why? Let's look at some of the information I was given by the client and break it down. The client stated they had done no real leg work with their trainer and never done a squat before (A king of leg developement). Now the client also made it clear, legs were no a priority and had no desire to work on them. I explained how building additional muscle throughout the whole body would benefit and help burn fat on the upper body plus bring in the look of the physique a little better. We don't have to build tree trunks but a solid base would only benefit them. Going through more movements with the client also indicated their trainer had not taught them any proper movement patterns or queueing. The client stated that most of the time it just felt like their trainer just counted reps and furthermore had almost no nutritional guidance.

Once we completed our movement assessments and consultation, we sat down to discuss trainer packages and pricing. I could tell immediately there was a pricing concern. This client had hired a cheap trainer and got cheap results. Compare this to a home repair for a second. You hire the cheap guy to fix a leak, the leak seems to be fixed in the short term, but in the long term the water just went elsewhere and caused ever more damage. Now it's cost you even more than you refused to pay the reputable guy with 20 years experience and a higher price. 3 Years at twice a week add's up! Tens of thousands of dollars wasted, not to mention time and effort.

So let's take a look at some tips you can use, things to look out for that can tell you whether the trainer you're looking at hiring is worth their salt.

Back Double Bicep Pose

There is a huge problem in the fitness industry from my experience. This starts with the certification process. Canfitpro, IDFA or whatever organisation you choose to get certified through, do not focus on any exercise or nutritional information. They do offer additional courses to learn more of that, but the base certificate (The one that most trainers have and all they need to work in a gym) does not touch on much of anything of value and practical use in the gym. Half the course is focused on muscle and bone names, half is focused on some basic programming and some cardio training pricipals. Nothing about Hypertrophy, nothing about how the body moves, nothing about lift safety, nothing much of value.

Next, this client informed me their trainer was not in shape themselves. If you can't build a solid, healthy, strong and lean physique yourself then how are you going to coach someone else to do it? How can you coach them on mistakes you've made, injuries you've worked around, food choices, macronutrient breakdown, eating enough to build muscle, eating right to burn fat, how to train consistently and work around lifes constant distractions. If you're thinking of becoming a personal trainer, I highly recommend you first spend a few years building yourself.

If your trainer does not offer nutritional guidance, meal plans, or anything inclusive with your training. RUN FAR AWAY. Nutrition is half or more of the battle, not tackling nutrition at the same time is a huge disservice to your clients.

Lastly the best advice I can give you is to look at how they coach. Are they able to spot weaknesses right away? Are they able to give you a reason why they are giving you certain movement queue's? Are they able to perform the movements themselves? If you have difficulty or pain in a movement, are they able to suggest a workaround or an alternative? If you have scheduling conflicts, are they able to suggest a strategy for you to still train? Do they just walk you through all the machines at the gym, but cannot show you how to do any functional barbell, dumbbell or cable movements? All of these points show your trainer has been there and done that, with themselves and with others before and found working solutions and spent hard hours in the gym themselves.

Now all that being said, there's so much more that makes a really great trainer than just driving results and in all honesty I can get too caught up in the grind. It's also important to develope a good relationship, a friendly and supporting atmosphere and to try and keep it a little fun at the same time. There's an important balance between having a good time, but making sure that we're not wasting your time and money. I never want to waste someone's time. Your time is your most valuable asset, so let's make the most of it. Book a free session with me at FlexEd. Personal Training in Collingwood, in person or virtually and let's talk about your goals and how to crush them this year.