Are these stats weak for a personal trainer?

[WannaGetJACKED]

Hey so I am going for my certification for personal training and was wondering if I am too weak right now to be taken seriously. I am about 175lbs and my stats are:

Deadlifts: 5x250
Squats:5x265
OHP:5X120
Bench Press:5X190
Rows: 5X205

Are these respectable numbers for a personal trainer?

[soren_xavier]

Stats are better than mine and you and I weigh about the same right now. I'd say those numbers are respectable.

Why are you stressing over something like this? I presume most clients aren't going to care how much you can deadlift. Nor will they ever know unless you tell them.

[titusricard]

No client will neither care not ask about how much you bench, squat or row. They will take you seriously if you build a rapport with them. They will notice your interaction with other gym members. Stats mean nothing to them, and the second you start talking about yourself (like how much you bench) you already lost them. Just my opinion through my experience.

[KyleAaron]

Squats are higher than deadlifts. For lifts in this range of weights, this suggests shallow squats.

Nobody cares what you lift, they do care if you do it properly or not, since you can't coach it if you've never done it. You don't have to have done it brilliantly or at a really high level, but you do have to have done it competently.

[rdferguson]

Unless you expect to be working with people who are focused on strength, it doesn't matter, so long as you know what safe and effective form looks like, what defines useful technique (it's better to look at technique as "useful" rather than "good," because it varies based on the reason why the exercise is being performed and by whom), and how to program and coach this stuff for your clients' goals. Even if you do intend on working with people who are focused on strength, you have beginner level experience, and so you should have some idea of what it's like to be a beginner, and would hopefully be able to get someone started towards being a stronger version of themself.

My lifts are in my sig. They currently warrant editing purely on the basis that I've recently hit those numbers for doubles and triples (I'll be competing in PL in a week's time, and will update with new PB's then), but you get the picture. If I were to walk into any random commercial gym, I'd be one of the top 10% of guys for max strength in those three lifts (actually, I'd rank poorly on BP, but outrank most guys on SQ and DL). And do you know what they mean when a 35yo mother of two asks me how to lose 30lb? Jack diddley squat. There are plenty of potential clients out there who are interested in strength, and for them, your stats may not make you look like a good choice (unless you happen to have other clients/athletes already who you coach who can lift far more than you and are getting results from your programming and coaching). But they make up a small portion of potential clients. Most clients want to be fit and healthy and look good by their definition of looking good. Their standards of beauty are far removed from what a lot of strength guys consider to look good, and so the standards we typically hold each other to on these forums don't mean anything to most PT clients.

ETA: Turns out my stats aren't in my sig after all. Squat 140kg, BP 90kg, DL 160kg.

[KyleAaron]

Unless you expect to be working with people who are focused on strength, it doesn't matter,

Even then it doesn't. At least half my clients are focused on strength, absolutely nobody has ever asked me what I have lifted, or can lift now.

[JohnSmeton]

people care about you getting them results, thats what they pay you for

that said, I think you're fine on your lifts for a personal trainer.

[rdferguson]

Even then it doesn't. At least half my clients are focused on strength, absolutely nobody has ever asked me what I have lifted, or can lift now.

Depends on the level of the client. Granted, most clients are going to be at a low level/early stage in their fitness journey, and if you're training elite lifters, it's probably not going to happen in a commercial gym environment. I was meaning more the "I want to be the strongest man in the world" clients than the "I want to be stronger than I currently am" clients. We've both trained the latter, and neither of us have particularly legendary levels of strength. We both know how to coach the basic movements and progress clients at a novice (and, perhaps, intermediate) level. So at that level, yeah, it doesn't matter. On the other hand, if the client were Stephen Pritchard, the fact that we have no experience in being at that end of the spectrum for our own potential does matter. I don't believe exact numbers ever make someone more or less qualified to coach others, but certainly if I don't know what it's like to be very advanced, then I have far less basis to be coaching someone who's in those shoes than if I did know what it's like (the reverse isn't entirely true, though -- I don't need to have been a beginner for 10 years to know how to train a beginner).

So, to clarify, I agree with you, I just wasn't clear enough in what I meant when I mentioned a strength focus. For a beginner or intermediate lifter, you don't need to be a tank to be able to train them, but you do need to know how to program and coach the lifts. But if you've never squatted 3 plates, someone who squats 6 plates and is working towards 7 is probably best served working with a different coach. Nomsaiyan?

[KyleAaron]

I've yet to hear of anyone lifting at Pritchard's level (or anywhere near it) who walked into a gym and asked to hire a PT. It's just not relevant to us. Asking how we'd train someone with a 300kg squat is like asking how we'd train someone with a 10.9' 100m, or a 2h30' marathon time, or someone going for a national bodybuilding competition. It just ain't happening. See sig.

Even top athletes don't really care what you've achieved, they care what people you've coached have achieved. Lots of people have asked what my clients have lifted.

[PeteratCastle]

I've yet to hear of anyone lifting at Pritchard's level (or anywhere near it) who walked into a gym and asked to hire a PT. It's just not relevant to us. Asking how we'd train someone with a 300kg squat is like asking how we'd train someone with a 10.9' 100m, or a 2h30' marathon time, or someone going for a national bodybuilding competition. It just ain't happening. See sig.

Even top athletes don't really care what you've achieved, they care what people you've coached have achieved. Lots of people have asked what my clients have lifted.

This. Having said that, I train one elite marathon runner (top 10 in the UK). She needs a trainer. Sure I can't keep up with her but that's completely irrelevant. She just wants someone to squeeze that extra bit of improvement out of her and who will tell her exactly what to improve on.

[rdferguson]

I've yet to hear of anyone lifting at Pritchard's level (or anywhere near it) who walked into a gym and asked to hire a PT. It's just not relevant to us. Asking how we'd train someone with a 300kg squat is like asking how we'd train someone with a 10.9' 100m, or a 2h30' marathon time, or someone going for a national bodybuilding competition. It just ain't happening. See sig.

Even top athletes don't really care what you've achieved, they care what people you've coached have achieved. Lots of people have asked what my clients have lifted.

Kyle, that's not even sort of my point. My point is that if you were to work with elite level strength athletes (which is a legitimate path to pursue; as an aside the owner of my gym still calls himself a personal trainer, and he is both on this list and works with multiple people on that list, so I don't think your sig holds true all the way, even though the sentiment does carry some weight), then asking if your lifts are good enough is a sure sign that you don't have the experience to take on that niche. Outside of that, it doesn't matter how strong you are. And I'm not saying you need to have achieved a certain high level of performance to be able to help those who are at high levels. I'm saying that you need to not be a f***ing noob to help those who are at high levels of performance. You need to know what a real plateau (not "it's been two weeks since I increased the weight, I must be plateauing") is, and how to fix it. You need to have a solid understanding of advanced programming to work with that niche. You need to have a very keen eye for technique and a selection of tried and true methods for fixing big and little technique breakdowns. The list goes on. Again, most PT's won't be working with that niche, and most people from that niche won't be going into a commercial gym and looking for a PT. But that niche does exist, as do trainers for that niche. And I'm pretty darn confident that none of the trainers of that niche are asking internet forums if they're strong enough to do their job.

[WoofieNugget]

In almost 14 years I don't think I have ever had a client care about what I can lift. In fact, due to a recently diagnosed heart condition I can't even lift anything heavy any more. However, I can coach technique really well. If anyone ever wants me to demonstrate or needs a visual confirmation I can do it with minimal weight - it makes no difference whatsoever if I'm lifting 45 pounds or 450 if my technique is flawless and I can show someone else how to duplicate it even if the load is different. Obviously the joint stresses are going to be different, but again this takes coaching and knowledge and experience within whatever parameters you can provide.

To the OP, I would say it is far more important if you can show other people how to perform and improve those lifts with skill, it doesn't matter what you can do personally.

[Keltron]

I think Kyle and ferg are pretty much on the same page.

W/that said OP, almost all my male clients have bigger squat and DL numbers than me.

[Endevorforever]

Nothing wrong with being what you teach others to be. In the states though, you don't need a PT to demonstrate proper technique. There are plenty'o books to help a person know how to squat, and even 3D examples that show all the muscles being used. The OP will be way more successful if he is a good example of his training.

RL experience: I went to a gym member who looked like he should be training(was in really bad shape), he asked me if the big guy was back from his leave of absence. I told him no( the big guy quit because he wasn't getting big guy pay.) Then he left. He was only interested in training with the big guy. Now I know the rest of the world is not like this, but in the USA a gym trainer needs to be the part. Is it necessary to be able to train someone? No. Is it necessary to train some people? Yes.

[Keltron]

Nothing wrong with being what you teach others to be. In the states though, you don't need a PT to demonstrate proper technique. There are plenty'o books to help a person know how to squat, and even 3D examples that show all the muscles being used. The OP will be way more successful if he is a good example of his training.

I don't know how long you've been training clients but if you've got mobility and flexibility issues, it doesn't matter how indepth and descriptive your book is or how cool of a 3D software you've got that shows multiple angles a la the Matrix.

[blkbelt42]

people care about you getting them results, thats what they pay you for

that said, I think you're fine on your lifts for a personal trainer.

I'd agree with this. Results you make/help happen for them is all they should
be worried about.

[JoeCannonMSCSCS]

Please do not define yourself by how much you can lift. your clients don't care. your clients only care about

1. can you help them
2. are you professional

Ask yourself how many times you worked out this week - and then ask yourself how many days this week you read a book about exercise or personal training. If you are not reading/studing (even after "getting certified") you are making a huge error in judgement.

I can see you are 22 years old and I do not mean to offend but I need you to understand that being a personal trainer is not about how much you can lift. If you hope to really make a decent living as as a personal trainer you will need to develop your mind.

Joe

[WannaGetJACKED]

I agree with you 100%... how can I develop my mind better to get results from clients on a consistent basis? Do you have any techniques or motivations that you use to get better results from clients?

[WoopItsKevin]

You have to be confident in yourself. The second a client sees you second guessing yourself or questioning your own methods they'll begin to lose trust in you. Be confident and keep on your clients even when they're not in the gym with you. Simple text messages here and there to your clients can go a long way to keep them motivated between sessions.