I see it every single day.

Trainer does some ill-conceived, pointless exercise with Client and Client says, “Wow, what a great exercise.”

Well, maybe not.

You see, clients are, in the true sense of the word, ignorant.

While some otherwise motivated people need a trainer for that extra little push, most people come to us for our so-called expertise.

They don’t know what they’re doing and they hire a personal fitness trainer to teach them what to do.

The problem is that most personal trainers don’t have a clue.

Trust me. I speak at national conventions and teach biomechanics and scientific fitness program design.

At least I used to.

I was banned from a certain convention because I once launched into a tirade (I’m trying to work on Patience but it takes too long) after none of the dozens of trainers in the room could even begin to answer a basic Anatomy 101-level question.

(What was the question, you ask? “What does the psoas do?” If you can’t answer that, you should be in a different business – and that’s pretty much what I said to the audience).

And these were trainers who even bothered to pay for a convention so they could enhance their educations. just think about the great majority of trainers who never bother to attend a seminar. most trainers I know haven’t touched a book since passing their certification exams.

Back to the title of this post: are You and your Personal Fitness Trainers Fools?

World renown fitness trainer Dr. Mel Siff had what he called the “Any Fool Theory.”

He said, “Any fool could train any other fool successfully for about a year.”

And it’s true. As long as you’re getting more exercise today than you were a few weeks or a few months ago, you’ll get “results” regardless of expertise – or lack thereof – of your trainer.

So even though you’re losing weight, getter leaner, getting stronger, increasing your bone density – whatever your goal may be – that doesn’t necessarily mean your trainer purposely and intelligently selected the optimal way to get to that goal.

In many cases, it’s pure luck.

Your trainer should be able to explain the scientific rationale behind every aspect of your program, whether it’s exercise selection, exercise order, rest periods, loads, repetitions, number of sets, etc.

Don’t be a fool.

Tags: exercise program, fitness program

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