What are the trainers like at your gym?

[PixieRae]

I mean if you had to ask them to show you a certain lift, could they?

When I started lifting I asked a few of the trainers at my gym to show me how to squat and DL. They didn't have a clue so couldn't show me. I had to get a PT that I know to show me.

Just curious.

[jennifay3]

Some are better than others at my gym (a Crunch location in NYC). Sometimes I watch them training clients and letting them have the worst form ever... rounded back on a RDL anyone?? I have a trainer actually, who I really like. He pushes me hard and can spot me on weights I can't do without him there.

[lilmisspink]

At my gym there is maybe one decent trainer, the rest are pretty useless.

I organised a couple of sessions with the good one, and without notice they gave me different one instead, who was straight out of getting his certificate and insisted i do medicine ball/light weight dumbell work outs instead of teaching me to squat/DL with correct form (the whole reason i bought the sessions).

Needless to say i wasnt impressed and wont be spending anymore cash at that gym once my membership has run out.

[Christina1990]

I work out sometimes at my university gym, but the staff there are OK considering they are young. I have been to other gyms where most of the male trainers would just walk around and stare and knew nothing. The typical 25 something guy that still thinks he is 19. It really is hit and miss. Whenever I need help I just youtube a lot of exercises, it helps a lot! Good luck!

[Jmhager]

I workout at a 24 hr gym... All the trainers are intelligent, respectful, and JACKED... seriously, they are awesome. I have gotten to know them pretty well. They give me advice all the time, converse with me, etc.

[lotusdeva]

I joined my current gym in November and had 2 free PT sessions. I remember a PT had me lift 10 lbs dumbbells on one leg on this bouncy thing And then lower that 10 lbs dumbbell on one leg. He said that if I bought more sessions, we would be doing that for 8 weeks - establishing balance and then move to strength. I never got more sessions. I saw a trainer last week deadlift with a back that was more round then a rainbow . Just my experience there.

[TheAmazon]

I come in with some routinues thrown together from this website, work out for a week, come back the next week the PT's are doing my stuff...no joke.

[malamujer]

There was a trainer that was watching me do squats and he stopped me. Told me that I should be looking up at the ceiling. I told him I've read "Starting Strength" and it says not to look up. He didn't even know about the book. I tried it his way and I could not maintain my balance. It just didn't feel right. Last time I listen to him.

[thehobbes]

I mean if you had to ask them to show you a certain lift, could they?

No, pretty sure they don't squat or DL, if it's not something that can be done on that stupid Bosu thing with 5lb dbs then no they wouldn't be able to show anybody. I love my gym, great equipment in the gym, plenty of power racks, awesome amenities, but my god the trainers are useless. I went all ham rage on two of em in the year I've been at this particular gym - one dude stuck his stupid elbow in my squat rack while I was in the middle of my set, almost hit him with the bar too, another decided to have his client do some retarded thing with 5lb dbs right between the back of the power rack (where I was doing my rows) and the mirror. Total lack of courtesy and common sense. Would not let them walk my dog let alone show me how to DL. SRS

/trainer rage

[MaLiBu24]

The trainers at LA Fitness suck, at least here in Florida....my old gym had some pretty awesome trainers, they were all former athletes (NFL or NBA players) and they taught people how to squat and deadlift. I learned at lot just from watching them train their clients..it was a 24 Hour Fitness (Shaq O'Neil signature club in Boynton Beach).

[lSOFit]

The trainers at LA Fitness suck, at least here in Florida....my old gym had some pretty awesome trainers, they were all former athletes (NFL or NBA players) and they taught people how to squat and deadlift. I learned at lot just from watching them train their clients..it was a 24 Hour Fitness (Shaq O'Neil signature club in Boynton Beach).

The trainers at LA Fitness in Ohio suck too! I would never hire any of them, i always seeing them doing the dumbest workouts with people, for instance, there was this one kid that was obese and obviously new to the gym and the trainer had him jumping up onto steps, not only is that unsafe for an obese person to be doing, but it embarrassed the living heck outta the poor thing.
Im not sure how some gyms hire their trainers but its actually sad.

[johnwall2]

I am very fortunate with my trainers. There are two of them in my gym from 6am to 6pm. If I have a question they know the exact answer and also they monitor my workouts from there office and tell me if I am doing something wrong. So I am lucky to have them.

[WariorGoddess]

Useless and not in shape what-so-ever! When I over hear them talking about "training" I cringe and want to correct them...like for example the other day I heard one of them tell someone that if you are sore the next day that means you are doing it right? WTF? So if I slip on the ice and fall down and as a result bruse my butt does this mean I'm "doing it right?"

[bbycakes]

When i was completely new to weightlifting i asked the PT to show me the correct form for squats and DL...
My first response was 'we dont do olympic lifting at this gym sorry'
but i managed to get him to show me deadlifts, he wasnt too happy since 'its such an unnatural movement for the body to preform'
so then he showed me the romanian deadlift and im like no i want to learn the regular version but according to him that was the only deadlift that existed.. 'you arent supposed to pick the weights up straight from the floor'

[Redstyx]

I rarely ever see trainers take clients to the free weights. Its usually all medicine ball, light cable machine, or body weight excercises...... never any serious lifting....... ever.

[TheAmazon]

my workout at LA lasted longer than three different clients one PT trained yesterday. I had to lol.

[TheAmazon]

My side dreams of being a trainer might be put on hold. I juust had an epiphany that the vast majority of people don't like to work hard in the gym. I'd lose clientele becaue I was too mean and pushing them too hard probably.

[itsagoodday]

The trainers at my gym are great, actually, and it's a women's gym. They do serious work with people, including the big lifts. My trainer is trying to get them to put in a squat rack, we actually don't have one, and no power rack either. It makes barbell squats extra interesting.

[kjake55]

I feel sorry for you guys who work out in te "chain-store" gyms. I got lucky, the place I work out in is owned by a former powerlifter and the guy knows his sh!t. Before that I worked out in a crossfit box and the guy who owned that place was a former oly lifter. They're both HS strength coachs also so the keep up on stuff. Got a form question, ask. Got a metabolic question, ask. Need a demo or spot, right there to show you and work with you. Gyms aren't fancy but the answers are always spot on and there's no such beast as a cardio bunny cause there's no classes or anything like that. Just good old fashion weight lifting going on. I couldn't ask for more.

[Artemis00]

I think there is a training at my gym, but I've never seen that person.

I have seen trainers at other facilities (either ones in local new reports or gyms I frequent when on vacation).
A local LA Fitness trainer was interviewed on the News and all I have to say is if that is what I will look like after being trained by you, then no thanks. The trainer needed to lose at least 40 lbs (but they had college degrees in training and nutrition, WTF?). And then at a gym down in Virginia Beach, it was a similar case to what someone posted above. They had new people that never trained before not touching any of the free weights but instead had them jumping up onto steps, messing around with kettle bells, and even had this one woman playing with the ropes (stuff that UFC fighters train with). Basically everything these new people did was stuff that brings a huge amount of attention to themselves. I wonder if they really did want to keep the new clientele or just make such an azs out of these people so that they would never comeback.

[solesurvivor]

Actually, it seems like with the increased popularity of CrossFit I've noticed the personal trainers incorporating olympic lifts and heavier lifting, especially with the female clients (who far outweigh the male, it seems). I had a membership a couple of years ago, cancelled and started a home gym, then joined again a few months ago and I've seen a huge, positive difference in what I was seeing around 2008.

I've also noticed them bringing more females down into the weight room and I think it's pretty cool. I distinctly remember doing a leg routine a couple of years ago and one of the trainers told me it was awesome to see because he rarely sees women doing that. Now I see it quite often. Pretty cool.

And I'm not sure the correlation between the popularity of crossfit has anything to do with it but I never saw trainers teaching clients a power clean before.

[Kemo1990]

trainers at my gym dont talk to you unless you're a woman wearing almost nothing...theyll walk right past people who are about to kill themselves on the bench

[Michelle_Rose]

My side dreams of being a trainer might be put on hold. I juust had an epiphany that the vast majority of people don't like to work hard in the gym. I'd lose clientele becaue I was too mean and pushing them too hard probably.

Exactly !

i think the main problem is from clients, not trainers.

so many clients (mainly female) hire a personal trainer and think all they have to do is chilling with a hot guy for 1 hour/week to lose weight. You can hire the best pt on earth, but you cannot buy motivation.

[strongerbyday]

I mean if you had to ask them to show you a certain lift, could they?

When I started lifting I asked a few of the trainers at my gym to show me how to squat and DL. They didn't have a clue so couldn't show me. I had to get a PT that I know to show me.

Just curious.

wow those trainers are terrible, squats and DL's are the basics of any program, those trainers need training.

[itsagoodday]

chilling with a hot guy for 1 hour/week to lose weight

Sign me up for that!!!!! Oh wait, you said it didn't work. Well, sign me up anyway, I'm willing to re-test a good theory in the name of science.

[liuzhoudragon]

I have worked with people with certain mental deficiences (2 years) taught children (5 years) and consider myself a very patient person, but the trainers in my gym don't have the excuse of being diagnoised with a mental disorder or being under the age of 6.....and they drive me nuts.

twice while doing hack squats one guy has pushed the bar down to the ground when I squat down, then proceeds to tell me not to play around , be carefull cause I might hurt myself and do a real exercise (this guy doesn't squat)

broke patella while in the gym, bleed all over the floor, walk around shirtless becuase I tied my shirt around my knee, hobble around until I leave.......not a single "are you ok?" or "what happend" or "can I help you" happened.

Sister-in-law is obese, goes to gym with membership card I got her for her brithday.....trainer proceeds to talk about spot reduction for her stomach and legs, sits her on a ab crunch machine FOR 15-20 MINUTES with no weight, and sells her some high calorie smoothie afterwards because it is "healthy".

Finaly got my fiance to start squating. During a back squat set (she did about 15 ish reps) trainer comes but behind her and helps lift the weight for her (i am 3 feet away watching...finace is doing fine). Set ends and he tells her to be careful because the barbell is to heavy for her and will hurt her. * she was 100% fine)

[anastasiab1621]

That damn bosu ball!!!!

I got some free sessions with my new membership (24hr gym) and told the trainer that the reason I signed up there was for heavy weightlifting only, I do my HIIT/cardio elsewhere.

First session was.... light bar and dumbbell work on the bosu ball. And him telling me that I don't want to 'be lifting heavy weights anyway.' Thank God I wasn't paying for those sessions.

[KyleAaron]

The trainers at LA Fitness in Ohio suck too! I would never hire any of them, [...]
Im not sure how some gyms hire their trainers but its actually sad.

As I understand it, for most members of LA Fitness the rates are about US$20 a month, some may pay up to US$35. You can't hire extremely competent trainers when you're charging people twenty bucks a month.

Here Down Under a typical rate is $20 a week for the whole centre - gym, swimming pool, sauna and spa, as many group classes as you want, etc. And there are trainers who can coach you to squat and deadlift.

You get what you pay for, you choose to pay less, you get less.

[illiniStrive]

You get what you pay for, you choose to pay less, you get less.

Or, if PT certifications weren't a pay-to-play type deal, people would feel more secure paying their hard earned cash. But I've heard even the so-called luxury gyms have bird-brained trainers. If so, what are patrons paying for?

I attend an extremely nice campus gym, basically nicer than any gym I've seen in-person or online, and it costs about $350 per semester (4 months). But the trainers there are pretty much all students. So you can guess the level of 'quality' training their clients are getting. I fear for the trainers' well-being when I see them workout alone, let alone the well-being of their clients!

The gym I attend close to home is a little bit better, as the trainers are considerably older. But I still see some pretty questionable things. Only 2-3 out of probably 5-6 trainers are people I would even consider training with if I had the money. The rest are your standard commercial gym trainers, bosu ball and all.

Obviously I have a pretty biased view of personal trainers. Mainly because I'm a person who just started with SS and a barbell and have built my knowledge from there. No, I haven't come to where I am (not proposing I'm in such a great place of expertise, but I'm comfortable saying I know more than the average gym rat) alone, per se, since I have done a good amount of reading; but I didn't need to drop 90 bucks 3x a week to learn how to work out.

I don't know how it's done in other countries, but personal training in America has a long way to go. Unless a PT has a proven track record and/or an area of specialization (no, Zumba and bootcamp classes don't count ; thinking more athletic training, very overweight clients, older clients, youth clients, competition coaching, pregnant women) I don't see it worth the money for just your average gym goer looking to get "fit and toned" -- unless of course that person happens to have oodles of it (money, that is)

[KyleAaron]

Sure, the US has a lot of problems in this regard. But that's a free market for you. The basic free market model is one of the village marketplace, where everyone knows everyone and how things are done. That is, the consumer is not making choices, they're making informed choices. You started with SS and built your knowledge - you can make informed choices. A town with lots of people like you would end up with some serious gyms and good trainers, the supply would appear to meet the demand.

The typical fitness product and services consumer is not informed. They assume all gyms and trainers are about the same, so they choose based on price. The supply appears to meet the demand.

Better gyms and trainers will be found when gym members look for and demand them. If all they ask for is some equipment and cheap rates, that's what they'll get. There's a reason gyms have feedback forms, managers respond to that stuff. If 50 gym members write, "I want a trainer who can coach the powerlifts and Olympic lifts and kettlebells, and I am willing to pay PT rates to get them," that person will be hired within a week.

Unfortunately that demand, while it exists, is not widespread. I recently had a performance review where I was cautioned for "pressuring people to squat." And we're not even talking about heavy barbell squats, just the basic unweighted movement. The manager, who was a master Olympic weightlifter, said, "I agree with you, they should do it - but it's not what everyone wants." Why would my manager bother hiring others with the same knowledge as me when gym members are rejecting my advice?

Just see this thread. When gyms are full of people like that, what's the point in spending extra to hire someone who knows what they're doing?

Supply follows demand. If you pay $20 a month to work out in a place with clueless trainers, more gyms will appear like that, and managers will continue to hire clueless trainers. If you eat drivethru McDs every night don't scratch your head wondering why there aren't more gourmet restaurants around your neighbourhood.