Biggest Problems PT's Face!

[LaifA99]

Hey guys. Im curious as to what other trainers believe the hardest part of being a PT is. List the biggest problem that you have in this forum.

[Ronin4help]

Responding to these types of threads.

[KyleAaron]

The low barrier to entry in the industry, coupled with most of the work being casual part-time. So it attracts unenthusiastic amateurs.

[PulseTraining]

The low barrier to entry in the industry, coupled with most of the work being casual part-time. So it attracts unenthusiastic amateurs.

Oh so much of this.

[PulseTraining]

I would say perceived value is a tough one. Potential clients either think it will be too expensive, or are unwilling to invest into themselves at any rate. There's no easy way for them to know the value of a purchase of this magnitude without the time accumulated with the trainer.

Hope that helps!

[CharlottePT]

Getting clients to understand that food dictates their visual results....Convincing clients that media/blogs and what "they" say is garbage
-can't eat carbs
-can't eat after 5pm or ill be fat
-artifical sweeteners make me fat
-i think my metabolism is too slow
-i think i'm over training and thats why i'm not losing weight

People take the nutrition side of things so much more personally than the lifting side.

Getting clients to buy in and adhere to the program is what makes or breaks their success

[413BarbellClub]

I would say it's the idea people have that a quality workout means pain, lots of sweat, sore muscles, etc. Sometimes a lower intensity workout or even microcycle is exactly what someone needs to continue to grow, yet Johnny Bravo is over there bragging about not being able to walk from the workout HIS trainer gave him.

I guess what I'm saying is so many bad trainers think that super tough workouts are what make them great. Anyone can exercise, but who can train to get better? That is my philosophy, and it is hard to get that across to many clients who think like Johnny Bravo. Not hating on Bravo though, he's diced.

[Ronin4help]

I would say it's the idea people have that a quality workout means pain, lots of sweat, sore muscles, etc. Sometimes a lower intensity workout or even microcycle is exactly what someone needs to continue to grow, yet Johnny Bravo is over there bragging about not being able to walk from the workout HIS trainer gave him.

I guess what I'm saying is so many bad trainers think that super tough workouts are what make them great. Anyone can exercise, but who can train to get better? That is my philosophy, and it is hard to get that across to many clients who think like Johnny Bravo. Not hating on Bravo though, he's diced.

People see personal trainers in the same way they see chefs. If you are just going to serve them grilled chicken and a salad, well most people feel there is no point in going out for that. They can do that themselves. The only way to get people to come to you and pay you week in and week out is to serve them food they can't make on their own....hence the reason Johnny Bravo has a ton of clients.

[JohnSmeton]

great discussion

biggest problem I've had is people not staying because of money, as it costs too much for them. Ive had so many issues from being late, to not committing, to not even showing for sessions, and ive had some success, being committed, client having lots of money where its no problem, and being having a good connection, I think thats the main thing where people will stay or not the connection

[nctarheels21]

I would say it's the idea people have that a quality workout means pain, lots of sweat, sore muscles, etc. Sometimes a lower intensity workout or even microcycle is exactly what someone needs to continue to grow, yet Johnny Bravo is over there bragging about not being able to walk from the workout HIS trainer gave him.

I guess what I'm saying is so many bad trainers think that super tough workouts are what make them great. Anyone can exercise, but who can train to get better? That is my philosophy, and it is hard to get that across to many clients who think like Johnny Bravo. Not hating on Bravo though, he's diced.

People see personal trainers in the same way they see chefs. If you are just going to serve them grilled chicken and a salad, well most people feel there is no point in going out for that. They can do that themselves. The only way to get people to come to you and pay you week in and week out is to serve them food they can't make on their own....hence the reason Johnny Bravo has a ton of clients.

This^^^

You think you're benefiting your client by doing a low intensity workout focusing on their inactive glutes and posterior chain, but your client is bored and "since I'm not sweating, I'm not losing weight, what am I even paying this guy for?!"

[nctarheels21]

I struggled mostly with convincing people 1. that I was worth $40 an hour compared to joe blow at $25 an hour. and 2. that I can produce results compared to joe blow who has you doing 3x10 bicep curls.

Fuking frustrates the fuk out of me that I was unable to succeed...

[413BarbellClub]

Only the "Johnny Bravo" trainers who sweat their clients to death are the chefs at Taco Bell. Sure you're satisfied at first, but 10 minutes later after a nice dump you're hungry again.

Who ever said the trainers who care about seeing clients progress and care about their health long term are "serving something you can make on their own"? On the contrary, anyone can get a bootcamp workout off of Pinterest and sweat for an hour.

People see personal trainers in the same way they see chefs. If you are just going to serve them grilled chicken and a salad, well most people feel there is no point in going out for that. They can do that themselves. The only way to get people to come to you and pay you week in and week out is to serve them food they can't make on their own....hence the reason Johnny Bravo has a ton of clients.

[413BarbellClub]

Because you are making them better in the long run. Why is it so hard to understand that it's a marathon, not a sprint?

This^^^

You think you're benefiting your client by doing a low intensity workout focusing on their inactive glutes and posterior chain, but your client is bored and "since I'm not sweating, I'm not losing weight, what am I even paying this guy for?!"

[KyleAaron]

Because you are making them better in the long run. Why is it so hard to understand that it's a marathon, not a sprint?

Most PT clients get it. I think one of the unspoken issues here is the hard sell. It's like asking why that chick you were grinding on all night at the club just stayed for a one night stand and never returned your calls. She didn't really want you, she just gave in at some point.

Many commercial gyms will put the pressure on PTs to do the hard sell, and many inexperienced PTs don't know any better, and are panicking thinking of their gym rent payments they can't afford, so they do the hard sell. It's here we see the "smash them!" workouts, instinctively PTs feel they should keep the client too out of breath to say, "I quit."

The hard sell works, but it only works today, it doesn't stick. This is okay for goods - once you drive the car off the lot, it's yours, you change your mind, tough sht - but terrible for services, since the person can quit at any time. For a service like PT we want the soft sell, we want the person to genuinely want to be there. And the sort of person who understands it's a long-term process will be the sort of person who genuinely wants to be there.

To find this person the PT must demonstrate competence, establish trust and build rapport. But if all you know is smashing people, you're not competent. If you're the sort of person who mocks fat or weak people and bitches about your clients to other clients you're not trustworthy. And if you only talk to gym members when you think they'll sign up today then there'll be no rapport.

You need to know how to train, not [i]exercise[/i}. You need to have a genuine interest in gym members and respect them wherever they are in their abilities. If you do all that then you don't have to do the hard sell. The hard sell is for incompetent trainers. My experience is that because the fitness industry has a low barrier to entry and is dominated by casual part-time work, it gets a lot of unenthusiastic amateurs - clueless 19 year olds who've never trained themselves and say, "oh, it'd be nice to be paid to get fit, plus I like to wear lycra all day, haha." So there's no competence to demonstrate, but more importantly they're self-absorbed so they're not trustworthy and have no rapport with anyone outside a bar.

But they never last even 6 months. Past that I see a lot of people who genuinely care about and respect gym members, but they don't know what to do with them. They don't know how to train, and think it's the same as exercising. This gets results for about six weeks, which is how long they keep their clients. So a lack of training experience and knowledge is a big issue in the industry. And that is why I'm always saying things like: you should work at a big gym just so you work with hundreds of people and learn some things, and you yourself should have had a trainer before you become one.

[TrainBetter]

Most PT clients get it. I think one of the unspoken issues here is the hard sell. It's like asking why that chick you were grinding on all night at the club just stayed for a one night stand and never returned your calls. She didn't really want you, she just gave in at some point.

Many commercial gyms will put the pressure on PTs to do the hard sell, and many inexperienced PTs don't know any better, and are panicking thinking of their gym rent payments they can't afford, so they do the hard sell. It's here we see the "smash them!" workouts, instinctively PTs feel they should keep the client too out of breath to say, "I quit."

The hard sell works, but it only works today, it doesn't stick. This is okay for goods - once you drive the car off the lot, it's yours, you change your mind, tough sht - but terrible for services, since the person can quit at any time. For a service like PT we want the soft sell, we want the person to genuinely want to be there. And the sort of person who understands it's a long-term process will be the sort of person who genuinely wants to be there.

To find this person the PT must demonstrate competence, establish trust and build rapport. But if all you know is smashing people, you're not competent. If you're the sort of person who mocks fat or weak people and bitches about your clients to other clients you're not trustworthy. And if you only talk to gym members when you think they'll sign up today then there'll be no rapport.

You need to know how to train, not [i]exercise[/i}. You need to have a genuine interest in gym members and respect them wherever they are in their abilities. If you do all that then you don't have to do the hard sell. The hard sell is for incompetent trainers. My experience is that because the fitness industry has a low barrier to entry and is dominated by casual part-time work, it gets a lot of unenthusiastic amateurs - clueless 19 year olds who've never trained themselves and say, "oh, it'd be nice to be paid to get fit, plus I like to wear lycra all day, haha." So there's no competence to demonstrate, but more importantly they're self-absorbed so they're not trustworthy and have no rapport with anyone outside a bar.

But they never last even 6 months. Past that I see a lot of people who genuinely care about and respect gym members, but they don't know what to do with them. They don't know how to train, and think it's the same as exercising. This gets results for about six weeks, which is how long they keep their clients. So a lack of training experience and knowledge is a big issue in the industry. And that is why I'm always saying things like: you should work at a big gym just so you work with hundreds of people and learn some things, and you yourself should have had a trainer before you become one.

It's pretty well agreed that certification programs don't properly prepare trainers. What would you like to see as far as a required certification process?

[KyleAaron]

Ideally, PT would be an apprenticeship, same as electrician, chef etc - you go to school for the theory, then work under a master for so many hours of practical (in practice, usually 2-4 years, I think 1-2 would be sufficient for PT). Unfortunately, as with most apprenticeships, most people don't want to spend time sweeping floors just because they're a newbie, and most employers don't want to hire someone with no skills who might quit as soon as they get any skills at all.

Failing that, part of certification would be going through a supervised training programme yourself. Starting from sedentary (as most student PTs are) working up over 6 months or so to some moderately ambitious goal, like a woman squatting 100kg or running 5km in under 25'. Going through that process - with all the struggles, setbacks, failures and it taking longer than expected - would teach them something.

Both methods would filter out those with no real interest in the industry, I'd expect not more than 1 in 6 to finish.

[swiftsloth]

Ideally, PT would be an apprenticeship, same as electrician, chef etc - you go to school for the theory, then work under a master for so many hours of practical (in practice, usually 2-4 years, I think 1-2 would be sufficient for PT). Unfortunately, as with most apprenticeships, most people don't want to spend time sweeping floors just because they're a newbie, and most employers don't want to hire someone with no skills who might quit as soon as they get any skills at all.

Failing that, part of certification would be going through a supervised training programme yourself. Starting from sedentary (as most student PTs are) working up over 6 months or so to some moderately ambitious goal, like a woman squatting 100kg or running 5km in under 25'. Going through that process - with all the struggles, setbacks, failures and it taking longer than expected - would teach them something.

Both methods would filter out those with no real interest in the industry, I'd expect not more than 1 in 6 to finish.

couldn't agree more! So many flakey pt's.
I know a girl who did her cert 3/4 in PT same time as she started exersizing and she was challenging my knowledge (I haven't done a certificate) and I told her I already knew everything she was talking about because I've done my own research and experiences which she has never known like you said setbacks, challenges and failures making you have to readjust approaches it's something you need to be ready for and have another option up your sleeve as soon as progress stales out instead of wasting peoples time figuring it out when its costing someone money

[jalundah]

I would say it's the idea people have that a quality workout means pain, lots of sweat, sore muscles, etc. Sometimes a lower intensity workout or even microcycle is exactly what someone needs to continue to grow, yet Johnny Bravo is over there bragging about not being able to walk from the workout HIS trainer gave him.

I guess what I'm saying is so many bad trainers think that super tough workouts are what make them great. Anyone can exercise, but who can train to get better? That is my philosophy, and it is hard to get that across to many clients who think like Johnny Bravo. Not hating on Bravo though, he's diced.

So much this. There has to be a great balance between making workouts challenging AND "functional"(as in conducive to correcting posture and technique-oriented goals). The best trainers can do both, even in a 30 minute session.