Behind the Scenes of Personal Training

Written and Edited by Bryan Navarro (NASM-CPT & PES, NCSF Sports Nutrition)        

Ever since there have been athletes, there have been trainers who taught and encouraged them to be their very best. Whether that was spearing hogs in the wild or winning a sacred ball game to be sacrificed for the good of the tribe, someone helped train their teammates, counterparts, adversaries to become faster, stronger, and smarter in their pursuit of victory.

Today personal training is a transactional service, like all jobs, that can be catered to and performed at varying levels of proficiency. The problem is a lot of people don’t have the means of hiring a personal trainer as it can become quite the routine expense. Unfortunately this will cause millions of people to miss out on the health benefits learned from the trainers who’ve spent hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars and hours to become skilled and the best at what they do. Is this a sign that our populations’ skillsets and occupations have become inflated, oversaturating the job market? Are people missing out on an opportunity to improve their lives by learning from enthusiastic trainers who have a passion for health and fitness? Anyone who wants to improve their life via health and fitness can do so with personal training as this article will describe in detail.

Personal Training is a freelance, corporate, can be private, up-and-down, sales-based, service in hospitality that can be run like a boot camp at times. The focus of this article will be to explore the different facets of personal training for people that either don’t know much about it, don’t respect it is a profession, or simply are not sure if they want to continue training any longer as their chosen profession. This article will cover: money (compensation), commitment (trainers and clients), relationships (trainers and clients), how life outside the gym affects life and success inside the gym (trainers and clients), how culture influences clientele (location and expectations), when personal trainers and clients are at their best, and when it may be time to take a step down from the responsibility of being a personal trainer.?

Personal Training can be a lucrative business, but it depends on what you are selling. Some clients literally just need someone to stand there and bark orders at them to make sure they show up to the gym and workout. Some clients want someone to listen to all of their ideas, opinions, and struggles while working out or sitting motionless on a yoga mat for 59 minutes. Some clients want to be challenged and pushed to get results. Some clients want you to hold their hand and make things easy on them despite the amount of money being spent on a lack of progress in their weight loss program. Each scenario comes down to the precedents set by the trainer and the client.

If the client thinks the trainer offers them the help they need in terms of weight loss and/or training, being a shoulder to cry on, or a solid foundation of motivation they need on a daily basis, then they will pay the trainer their rate because the trainer is worth it. Money becomes an issue when the trainer no longer provides a proficient enough service, or if an outside factor affects the client’s finances. Clients have lives too and they are not forever money trees trainers can rely on every two weeks. Some trainers do not settle below a certain price point or bracket; others negotiate with their clients because money is money regardless the level of desire, need, or commitment. What does this mean in regards to personal training as a profession? It means that there are separate markets for different income levels like any other business, and that the consumer is confused yet still trusting of their trainer.

It’s far easier to cater to one bracket or demographic than to sabotage your brand’s quality, losing time and effort trying to span across multiple income levels or areas of expertise as a trainer. Most clients hire a trainer because they need help and they can afford it. It’s a shame that getting help to get healthy isn’t free and that personal trainers can’t be paid by some bond, grant, a private company that cares, or the government to keep the population healthy and fit. So transactions must be made, and they should be made according to the lifestyle and expectations of both the trainer and the client. If both parties are committed and on the same-page about what they want with the training service then cost won't be as much of an issue. If the trainer is working overtime for little in return in terms of payment or commitment from the client, then the trainer may have to rework boundaries and refuse settling for less in regards to future business. If the potential client doesn’t see the value in the cost, or understand what the trainer will actually do for them to get them fit, lose fat, eat better, and be held accountable 24/7 then they simply won’t buy. Once the client buys and the sessions are booked, commitment becomes the next variable.?

Commitment to the training program and the rate at which the client gets results depends on both the trainer and the client. The more committed both parties are, the faster results will be obtained. If one or both parties lack 100% commitment to the desired goals of the training program, then results will be delayed. If the trainer lacks commitment in regards to training the client, or is not helping the client overcome doubts, hurdles, or physiological roadblocks, if the trainer isn’t always improving the client’s confidence, or isn’t being punctual and consistent with the training schedule, and isn’t enforcing proper eating habits outside the gym when the client is on their own; then the client will falter in reaching their goals. If the client is lazy, doesn’t want to push themselves, doesn’t want to take advice from someone who’s been educated and practiced in health and fitness, doesn’t want to retain the training methods and skills the trainer is giving them, doesn’t care about eating the right way to lose fat and gain bone and muscle mass, and is looking for a casual social experience rather than a trainer, then the client will falter in reaching their goals. If you want to be a trainer you have to be a leader. If there are days, and there will be, that either the trainer or the client don’t want to work, then the trainer has to be willing to push through and be there for everyone to make sure the goals set at the beginning of the training program are achieved. If there are no clear goals, no clear agreements on the level of commitment, no clear daily re-affirmations on the dedication to achieving that goal, then the goal will be delayed and/or falter. The key to keeping commitment high over an extended period of time comes down to the relationship between the trainer and the client.?

The relationship between the trainer and the client will affect the quality of time working together, and whether or not the goals of the program are met. Some clients may prefer to befriend their trainer and be open to conversations and bonding outside of work. Other clients may prefer a strict, methodical, private training approach with total focus on training and little to no mingling or sharing of each other’s lives. Some clients fall in between both extremes, and sometimes the trainers and clients fall for each other. I’ve seen trainer and client relationships work and I’ve seen a few end in disaster. In the end just be kind and careful with people’s emotions, and be okay with possibly losing a client. Whatever relationship a trainer and client have between each other, there are two aspects to it. Do you like spending time with each other, and are you together moving towards the same goal? Remember to ask why the client is buying. Does the client want to lose weight, do they want to learn a new skill, do they want or need a friend, do they want or need a romantic partner, is the client training because they got a discount and it’s only temporary, is the client training because they spent the money already and they have to finish out the training sessions before they lose their investment? Once the trainer can identify the client's motivation and call to action, then the trainer can more appropriately adjust their program, presentation, and personality to better fit the client’s taste because personal training is providing a service.

Sometimes because trainers are young, fit, and walking around the floor trying to drum up new business, because it’s part of the job, one can feel like in the words of one of my colleagues, “a prostitute.” In order to get new business as a trainer, and usually made mandatory via sales and management, one must walk the floor to meet people, talk to them, and get them to buy what you’re selling. It can be similar to speed dating, managers and fellow trainers have agreed and said as such. One of my regular clients later said he felt like he was being picked up at a bar when I first met him and spoke to him about personal training, he was in his mid-70's. Maybe it’s an American issue where strangers are not allowed to be welcoming or open with one another nowadays, granted we were two straight men in a gym that was predominately gay so the odds were set. Sometimes finding a new client can be as easy as meeting a new best friend, sometimes it can be like pulling teeth, and sometimes people can take it too far and want something from you instead. Some trainers are good at this part of the job and can be accommodating to almost anyone, while other trainers are best at sticking with a certain demographic for their clientele.

Usually trainers’ and their clients share similar personalities, or the trainers have a look and energy the member trusts and will buy into. That’s how most fitness managers appear to match up gym-members and trainers. The main thing is to keep reaffirming the client’s goals and accomplishments every step of the way. Everyone needs feedback, client and trainer alike. The client needs to feel good about their purchase, their program, their progress, and their trainer for the most optimal experience. The trainer needs to feel good about their pay rate, have enthusiasm in their training methods, and feel pride in their clients’ achievements for the most optimal experience. To quote a previous client, “As long as you and your partner (business) have the same goals then you can work together without having to like each other, but if you don’t like each other and don’t have the same goals, then you better get out while you can.” The best results are achieved when the client and trainer are on the same page. When there is miscommunication, boredom or lack of interest in either party, or even aggression due to a plethora of possible topics that could have arisen between the client and trainer, then reassessing the relationship and if it is still beneficial for the client and trainer is necessary. Maybe the trainer and client can make adjustments and get back on track. Other times new matches need to be made before relationships get worse. Fortuneately trainers and clients don’t have to be married to each other. It’s great when both parties are meshing well, but if better results or a better quality of life can be obtained with a new match, then it may be the better option. ?

Success towards any goal will be influenced by life, and that goes for training as well. What the trainer and client do outside of training will affect the quality and progress towards the goals that were initially set by the trainer and client. This is where some trainers succeed in shepherding their clients, and a majority of clients will fail due to their lack of interest in changing their lifestyle. It’s not easy to break habits on our own. Most of the time we need severe variables like getting or losing a job, having health or mental illnesses, or going through a catastrophic life event to alter the routine of our life choices. For example, maybe you can’t afford a trainer to tell you how to lose fat, gain muscle, and how to eat, drink, rest, and recover 24 hours a day. Maybe you are obese and have already had a heart attack and have given up on changing your diet because you’ve accepted you’re fat and have lost hope. Maybe you’re married and changing your body may make your partner feel uncomfortable, so you don’t try as hard inside or outside the gym. Maybe you’ve just done things your way for so long having someone else tell you no, “Drinking seven shots before bed isn’t good for sleep or fat loss and that eating sugar in the middle of the night will make you fat”, is too much to take because life is hard and you just want to eat your Haagen-Dazs in peace. What you do outside the gym affects any progress worked on inside the gym. That applies to what you eat, the quality of your sleep, and even the support you get monetarily, emotionally, and practically on your journey towards your fitness goals. The more supportive and in-line life is outside the gym, the faster one will achieve the goals set inside the gym. In regards to the trainer, their physical and mental health is their responsibility.

The more trainers can take care of themselves, the better they can take care of their clients. The last thing a client wants is a late, lazy, scatter-brained, dispassionate person bleeding negativity at $135 an hour. The nature of freelance lifestyles and working around younger people tends to lean towards instability and impulsive behaviors, but there are a good number of trainers out there that can keep it together and take care of themselves long-term. That’s how they got fit to begin with consistency and dedication. Both are essential and should not be confused with the negative connotation associated with the word discipline. If life outside the gym is countering all the time and money that’s being spent inside the gym, then the clients’ goals may never be achieved. People that lose weight and get shredded eat less calories than they regularly have been gorging themselves on, they eat healthy (macro and micronutrients), and they stop drinking and smoking. The drinking part can be difficult as a lot of people require alcohol to relax or release endorphins after a long day. Some people may feel ridiculed by their peers, coworkers, and even family if they stop drinking the way they used too. This is when life and the people around the client come into play. Does the client have a support system or are they dependent on the trainer entirely? Some trainers fail to recognize their responsibility in enforcing the lifestyle change that the client is seeking. This is when the trainer either needs to become the support system, or help the client find one. Group talks and recaps between clients discussing progress and hurdles with their goals can help with accountability. However, there is still a lot outside of the trainer’s control that will influence the attitude and headspace of the clients. The general work-life culture and perceived lifestyles of the location the trainer, clients, and gym reside in will also influence the clients’ assumptions and responses to training.?

The vibe and company culture of the gym and the city the gym resides in will influence the experience of working there. Your clients will likely live in or around the city the gym is located. When I worked in San Francisco at a high-end gym that many people have heard of, the environment was primarily a middle-aged liberal corporate atmosphere where most people were more concerned about money and business than the way their bodies looked or performed. When I worked in Los Angeles at a Hollywood, LA-style gym, everyone was obsessed about how they looked and people did not hesitate to spend their money on training. You can make money in either city, but you had to play to a specific market and really know your strengths.

Young people either don’t have the money or don’t believe they need training, especially if they’re a young male. The gym membership is already “all they can afford”. You can find young professionals in their 20’s with money, thought they're mostly in urban gyms where high paying jobs are in close proximity. Overall you will find more success living as close as possible to the gym you work at. Don’t waste time or money on commuting back and forth. You’ll burn yourself out at a faster rate guaranteed. If you end up vibing well with the culture and demographics available to you at that gym: younger, older, fit, overweight, extroverted, or introverted pursue those clients and more power to you! Trainers work when everyone else is not, so get ready for an open flexible schedule that is entirely the trainer’s responsibility.

It takes time training and working with the people to see how best you communicate with others. You will find a style that works with you and your clients. At the end of the day the clients want what they want, not necessarily what the trainer wants. If you find yourself preferring a certain style of training: group fitness, personal training, online training, being a chiropractor, physical therapist, professional or boutique fitness trainer or manager then go for it! Extroverted trainers do well because they can usually talk anyone into ease and are more intuitive in making their clients feel reassured and catered too. Introverted trainers can also succeed in training, but it’s usually after the client experiences the mind of the trainer in action during a training session. Sometimes getting people to do something is better than talking them through a sales pitch. Know the type of gym you are in. If it’s a calm suburban gym where there’s not much industry, social competition, or influence to push people’s interests into physical fitness or aesthetics, don’t hold your breath thinking you are going to train the next Marvel Avenger, supermodel, or billionaire athlete. Trainers are generally dealing with people that don’t know what their Serratus Anterior muscles are. Trainers will succeed the most in training any client, rich or poor, famous or unknown, if all the trainers are focusing on is helping their clients. If you really want to help someone lose weight, get stronger, and achieve greatness then you as a trainer must be the client’s bedrock, their support system. If that sounds like a mantle you’d like to take up, then personal training is the profession for you. If for one reason or another you don’t find fulfillment with personal training and it becomes merely a job to pay the bills, then like me you may realize your time is coming to an end with the personal training profession. At this point it’s best to find an alternative way to help people with your knowledge and skills, if you can’t just abandon the job and walk away just yet.

There will be a moment when you realize that you can do something forever, or that you can’t. Like all jobs, that moment will also happen with training. The issue now is that your quality of service will be affected if you begin to lose passion, interest, faith, and discipline with your work. This is where the profession of personal training turns into the wild-west because you can find the most passionate and the dispassionate trainers in any gym. Some gyms do have strict hiring processes to make sure they only invest their time in people committed to them, but passion like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It’s also strange that healthcare and physical fitness aren’t so readily available or affordable, and seem to cost too much money, time, or mental energy to make it worth someone’s while. In a perfect world everything would be free for the sake of making the world a better place, but the world costs money, and trainers only get paid when they are training a client. So if you love it or can hack it keep doing it. If you’re tired, demotivated, or bringing others down along with you, find something else to do because you won’t be doing anyone, especially yourself any good.?

I don’t know why I wrote this breakdown of life as a personal trainer. It can be a dream job, it can be just a job, it can be a soul-sucking waste of time, or it can be a new career you find joy in after becoming exhausted working for corporate America for several years. Some trainers are late entries and come a previous career or two before making the jump to training. These late-bloomers can rock it because they appreciate the freedom of not being chained to a cubicle or desk free of a dress shirt, slacks, or dress shoes. Personally I am on my way out of personal training as I find new interests elsewhere, but I am interested in staying fit, healthy, and seeing what I can do to help others do the same. Perhaps I feel overwhelmed by all the amazing people out there that have more impressive skills than lifting weights, running, and getting a six pack. I never wanted to be a personal trainer to begin with; I just didn’t know what degree to choose in college. Note to future undergrads, exercise science doesn’t stretch across multiple jobs or internships the way a business or marketing degree can.?But hey it was my dream to be an action-hero movie star, and I thought all I needed were my muscles and my ideas to make amazing movies. Didn’t happen, but alas I’m now a thinker, inventor, writer trying to figure out how to use my creative energy to make the world a more interesting and better place.?