What is a Personal Trainer?
-By Erin Blaser, Personal Trainer at Life Time
The purpose of this blogging series has been to discuss what a coach is and what a trainer is, and to open up the subject for readers to think about what they want and expect from both roles. In part 1 by Coach Amer and Part 2 by Coach Morland have presented the differences between coaches and trainers, and a more detailed look into what the role of the coach is. This posting will focus on personal trainers: what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.
So, what is a personal trainer? According to a quick google search, a personal trainer is a fitness professional possessing the knowledge, skills and abilities for safe and effective exercise and fitness program design, instruction and assistance for the purpose of reaching personal health and fitness goals. However, in the past five months of working in this profession, I have found it to be a myriad of different positions, requiring many skills and qualities outside of this field. Working in a commercial fitness club setting, I have been required to fulfill the roles of fitness professional, small business owner, saleswoman, receptionist, customer service representative, event planner, graphic designer, and operations worker. Because the club that I work at is fairly small, we all help out where it is needed; however, I’m sure that if a fitness professional were to have their own individual business, their duties would cover all of these things.
Being a personal trainer, even in a large commercial company, is really like owning your own business. The company filters potential clients your way, but it is up to you to brand and market yourself, make a good impression, and make the sale with that new member. On top of that, the client needs to be retained both as a personal training client and as a member of the club. Welcome to the world of business and sales. Another part of the business is setting a revenue goal and making that goal happen. Each week, trainers submit a forecast for the rest of the month showing how much we have made, how much we intend to make, and what areas we are going to make those sales in. Granted, not all fitness clubs require this, but it is a great way to keep track of progress throughout the month.
The roles of receptionist, customer service representative, event planner, graphic designer, and operations worker all stem from being a part of a larger organization. Once the name tag is on, anyone can walk up and expect and answer about anything pertaining to the club, the staff, equipment, group fitness, events, etc. Trainers schedule appointments for ourselves and others, give fitness floor assistance, coordinate demonstrations and small group classes, and publicize themselves and those events. We have also been known to fold towels, clean equipment, and help members when they are locked out of their lockers.
All in a day’s work, right? Not quite…You may have noticed that I haven’t even touched on the fitness professional part of this job except to define it. Between those moments of administrative work, we get the chance to shine and do what we were trained to do: help improve the health and fitness of our clients.
Being a fitness professional involves having knowledge of metabolic processes, nutrition, and physical fitness. Physical exercise is perhaps the most commonly associated attribute of personal training. Clients spend 30-60 minutes with us to train their bodies, not have physiological discussions. However, with our knowledge and skill set, trainers program based on the principles of physiology, muscular development, and cardiovascular efficiency. Each program is individualized to the client, based on their needs, abilities, and goals. There can be some conflict when clients want to do work that their bodies are not yet ready for, but good trainers are able to plan workouts that challenge clients safely and give them the workout that they want.
Training goes hand in hand with nutrition. You may have heard the phrase “abs are made in the kitchen.” It’s not just a phrase; anything that you do at the gym can be undone by what you eat. Unfortunate, but true. As fitness professionals, personal trainers offer advice on pre- and post- workout nutrition, supplementation, and macronutrient distribution (what kinds of calories to consume at what times of day). We walk a thin line, as there is only so much nutritional information that we are allowed to discuss that is within the scope of our practice. More extreme dietary coaching is left to registered dieticians and nutritionists.
Metabolics is one of the harder subjects to communicate with clients. Some people just don’t care or can’t understand that the way that their bodies work has a tremendous impact on how and if they accomplish their goals. To explain, metabolics covers all of the chemical reactions that occur inside the body regarding how energy is created or used. The food we eat is the fuel, and the exercise we do is how we expend that energy. Based on genetics, disease, and dietary and activity habits, different people’s bodies process nutrients differently, which affects how they gain or lose muscle and fat mass.
In this part of the fitness industry, the most common goal of clients is weight loss. What clients fail to realize is that it’s not just how much work they are doing, but how their body responds to that work. A large percentage of weight loss clients that I train live sedentary lifestyles that include high intakes of carbohydrates, sugars, and fats. This has trained their bodies to burn mostly carbohydrates and store extra energy as fat mass. We end up needing to rewrite their cardio routines to be more metabolically efficient, centered around heart rate zone based training, which provides workouts that burn high numbers of fat and overall calories, as well as trains their metabolism to burn more fat calories at lower heart rates. When I explain this to my clients, I always say “this is super cool nerdy science stuff, but it works, and I love it.”
I will say one last thing about being a personal trainer: it requires a tremendous amount of support. Clients are not just customers; they are individuals with goals, desires, and stresses. A huge part of being a personal trainer is supporting clients as they work to accomplish their goals, whether it’s pushing them to finish a set or answering late-night text messages to help them avoid cravings. We walk alongside them on the journey to become healthier and happier. This relationship is one of the most gratifying parts of my job, and causes their successes to be something that we can celebrate together.
Erin Blaser, NASM CPT 10/19/15
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