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10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Personal Training Industry

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What You Didn’t Know About the Personal Training Industry

Let’s take a look at our list of things to remember when making choices about the personal training industry.

The total number of gym memberships in the U.S. grew more than 38% in the past ten years, and the need for personal trainers has grown right along with them. Choosing a personal trainer can be a challenging task for someone new to fitness training because there are so many different programs and points of view. 

There are many unknowns about the personal training industry, mostly because it’s still a relatively new idea, and many things are still being ironed out. We are going to help by arming you with the information you need to make an educated decision about the qualifications of your trainer.

two woman doing sit-ups

1. Don’t Train

Many people feel that they should put off hiring a personal trainer until they get into better shape on their own. They believe that they need to hire a personal trainer only when they get stuck and need assistance. 

The downside to this approach is that you can learn bad habits that can be hard to break later. Sometimes bad habits can lead to personal injury and setbacks that will extend the time required to achieve your goals.

It’s a good idea to get your trainer early to prevent learning bad habits. They can also help to get you on track for fast results. Your trainer will prefer to be there at the start.

2. A Good Trainer Knows Your Limits

Your trainer should begin by discovering your physical limitations and areas of weakness. Your trainer will also need to look for any muscle imbalances and test your flexibility. The trainer will also want to check your form while doing each exercise to make sure you perform each of them correctly.

Your trainer will also need to know your goals for weight training, weight loss, etc. so hey can help you reach them. If your trainer does not do this evaluation, they cannot develop a plan to reach your goals. If you begin training without a plan, you could injure yourself. Skipping the evaluation could suggest that this trainer might not be right for you.

Your trainer will evaluate you and learn these things by beginning with a detailed written assessment called the Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire. You will need to supply your medical history, and might need a body fat measurement. You may also need an evaluation of your posture and diet.

3.  A Bad Trainer is Counter-Productive

A personal trainer needs to be right for you and your needs. They need to have your best interests and goals at heart and be knowledgable enough help you realize those goals.  

Using the wrong personal trainer can lead to injury or force you to pursue goals you do not wish to achieve. They will create a bad overall experience that can de-motivate you, and cause you to stay home instead of reaching your goals.

Many people might continue to use a poor trainer if they have a good reputation, or other people have recommended them. But if your trainer is not leading you towards your goals, they are leading you away from them. 

4. There is No Standard Certification 

One thing many people don’t know about the personal training industry is that there is no standardized certification program in place.  There is no college or exams you need to pass to become a personal trainer the way there is for becoming a lawyer or a public accountant. 

No standard certification means you need to look carefully into the credentials of any potential trainer to avoid scams. Don’t accept a long list of certifications without researching what it took to receive them. Some certifications only require an hour or two of training while others require going to college for years.

Here are a few popular certification programs that many personal trainers complete. Anyone certified from one of these places is very likely to know what they are doing, but this list is not exhaustive.

Top Certifications

  • National Acadamy of Sports Medicine
  • International Sports Sciences Association
  • American Council on Exercise
  • American College of Sports Medicine
  • National Strength and Conditioning Association

You can indeed get great results from a trainer that doesn’t have a certification, and not everyone certified will be a good trainer. Certification provides an excellent place to start when inquiring about the depth of knowledge someone has on a subject, and it can give insight into their specialties.

5. Personal Trainers Need Insurance

Any pro trainer with steady work will have liability insurance in case something goes wrong. If the trainer is an employee of the gym, they will likely provide the protection. Coverage will also protect you if you get hurt. If you get injured and the trainer does not have insurance, you might have to pay for care out of your pocket even if you win a settlement. Make sure your trainer is insured.

6. Reaching Your Goals Can be Expensive   

Depending on where you start and where you want to end up, it can get expensive and take a long time. As a general rule, it can take three to five months for the average person to get results, and cost can exceed $1200 per month in some cases.

Frequently when you begin training with a personal trainer, you will go several times a week until you have a plan in place. Once a program is in place, you may need to see your trainer less frequently, but costs can still add up over time.

It’s essential to budget for the trainer early on, so you are not surprised or forced to quit your program. A false start can set you back and reduce your morale.

7. The Trainer Doesn’t Get the Money

Even though the cost can be high, a trainer can help you reach your goals much faster than you could on your own, and the high fee is not just to pay the trainer. Often, a large portion of the cost goes to the gym or other facilities where the trainer works. Some of the money might be used to pay the insurance we talked about, and many times you might need special equipment.

8. Some Trainers Have an Agenda

Unfortunately, steroids are still prevalent in the gym, and some trainers might downplay their harmful and illegal aspects to make extra money. Any trainer that pushes a product over diet and exercise is not working for you. They are working for that product. They are not personal trainers. They’re salesmen. 

9. Training Goes Beyond the Trainer

You will only spend a fraction of your time in the gym with your trainer so you will need to set up a plan for what you do during the remaining time. Diet will play a big part, and so will exercise. There may also be times when you need to contact your trainer for unexpected help. Ultimately, reaching goals is up to you.

10. Fire Your Trainer

Many people struggle to get along with their trainer for any number of reasons and continue working with them longer than they should. If you feel that you’re not on track to meet your goals, it’s perfectly acceptable to fire your trainer. You should never enter any long term contracts with any trainer because you don’t know if they are right for you.

Summary

That brings us to the end of our insights into the personal training industry. We hope you have learned something, and will feel more confident next time you are looking to hire a personal trainer for yourself. Use this guide to help you make your choice. If you enjoyed these personal trainer tips, please share them.

 

Body Positivity in the Fitness Industry: An Interview with Carly Compton

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I’m ecstatic to share an in-depth and personal interview with someone I deeply look up to and have had the pleasure to work with. As co-facilitators at Project HEAL’s Communities of Healing program, she constantly inspires me to love and respect my body each and every day, and reminds me what it means to practice true self love and self-compassion.
Carly Compton is a model, fitness trainer, mentor, and coach, and I can’t wait for you to get up close and personal with her in this interview. She will explain the how and why behind her wellness company Paradise Fitness with Carly and how she practices body positivity within the fitness industry.
CARLY COMPTON model
Carly Compton from Paradise Fitness with Carly

ALI: What inspired you to start your own fitness brand?

CARLY: Despite being a multi-sport athlete and actively participating in things like yoga and hiking while growing up, I always hated my body. I struggled every single day to love my body and accept it for what it was even though it had always supported me and pushed me through difficult games, practices, drills, and other physical activities. Looking back, I believe the lack of representation I saw of my body type in popular media and especially in fitness played a huge role in fostering my insecurity, as did the diet and fitness industries that prey on your insecurities and always promise versions of a “better” you.

Throughout middle school and high school, I attempted every single diet and workout program, but none of them “worked” as I had wanted; my body wasn’t changing, and I was frustrated. My junior year of high school, I had a friend who was losing a lot of weight and getting a lot of attention for her “improved” looks. After asking what she was doing to get such visible results, I found out it was not because she had suddenly acquired a newfound passion for health and fitness but, rather, because she was bulimic. I immediately realized that I could do the same thing! I could lose weight and still eat in front of friends and family without them having any suspicion. 

After five long years of battling bulimia, I was constantly tired, my body was malnourished, I was over-exercising, my throat constantly hurt, and I was just tired of lying. I realized I could just no longer live that lifestyle and, instead of succumbing to societal expectations that were only negatively impacting my physical and mental health, I instead needed to fight the cause of my insecurities head-on. In my attempt to lose weight in order to become “more healthy,” I was actually the unhealthiest I had ever been. Throughout my recovery and afterward, I knew that I wanted to continue to exercise and properly fuel my body, but I also knew that I somehow had to do so without focusing on weight loss.

However, I did not know of any workout programs or nutrition guides that didn’t somehow have weight loss as an explicit or primary goal. I didn’t know of any trainers that weren’t going to ask me how much I weighed, how much weight I wanted to lose, and how quickly I wanted to do it. So, instead of relying on these toxic workout and nutrition plans that were counter to my actual goals, I created Paradise Fitness with Carly, an at-home workout and lifestyle program that helps individuals develop a HEALTHY relationship with food and exercise. Since recovering and changing my mindset toward physical activity and eating, my relationship with myself has never been better. I finally feel like I can truly be me.

CARLY COMPTON stretching

“Looking back, I believe the lack of representation I saw of my body type in popular media and especially in fitness played a huge role in fostering my insecurity…”

ALI: What is the mission behind Paradise Fitness with Carly?

CARLY: Paradise Fitness with Carly is, at its simplest, a lifestyle and way of thinking; it is everything I believe in and everything I hope to change about the fitness industry and its role in shaping society. The first thing that came about through Paradise Fitness with Carly was PFWC: At-Home Transformation, an at-home workout and lifestyle program that helps individuals develop a healthy relationship with food and exercise, but–most importantly–by starting with THEMSELVES. It takes the focus away from weight loss and shifts it toward strength, confidence, and self-love. The program consists of at-home high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts that don’t require weights or equipment. This was VERY intentional. I wanted to create something that was convenient, low-stress, low-cost, and great for all levels. My mission behind PFWC: At-Home Transformation is to allow individuals to take back control of their lives, move their bodies how and when they want to, fuel their bodies without complete restriction, and work everyday on strengthening that self-love muscle. Recently, I’ve started the PFWC Podcast to talk about similar topics like this with like-minded people.

ALI: What is the hardest part of being a body positivity advocate within the fitness industry?

CARLY: Many people believe I am promoting an “unhealthy” lifestyle by promoting body positivity. This could not be further from the truth. Body positivity to me is accepting every person’s body for what it is. It is about representing minorities in size and color, acceptance and de-stigmatizing of fat bodies, desexualizing black and brown bodies, and eschewing the gender binary, among other things. These ideas that form the backbone of the body positive movement are directly translatable to the fitness industry. Healthy looks different on every body; there is not just one specific body type that represents healthy. Most of the fitness industry unfortunately relies on the complete opposite of this idea, that there is a singular “type” or societal standard that we should all strive to look like. My hope is to change that idea.

ALI: How do you see body positivity portrayed in the fitness industry – online and in-person?

CARLY: Body positivity in the fitness industry is about loving and accepting every body no matter one’s shape, size, color, and ethnicity, as well their own respective athletic ability. It is about showing that people can move their bodies and do amazing things no matter their abilities. For me, it’s so important to remind individuals that their body type shouldn’t stop them from doing what they love. The toxic sides of the fitness industry and society at large should not stop them from moving their bodies in whatever way makes them happy.

CARLY COMPTON by a basketball court
“When people look at me, they don’t see what they expect a “typical” healthy lifestyle coach to look like. They see my bigger body and just assume I’m “unhealthy,” which is an incorrect correlation we have been fed by the diet and fitness industry.”

ALI: What obstacles have you come up against within the fitness industry related to your body?

CARLY: I have been fat shamed by so many people. When people look at me, they don’t see what they expect a “typical” healthy lifestyle coach to look like. They see my bigger body and just assume I’m “unhealthy,” which is an incorrect correlation we have been fed by the diet and fitness industry. It can be hard at times because I sometimes let the bully inside my head tell me that I don’t have the right to help people live a healthy life. I have days when the comments get to me, and I think “You’re right! Maybe I shouldn’t be a healthy lifestyle coach because I don’t have the ‘look.’” But then I simply ask myself, “What does a healthy lifestyle coach look like and why?” This always helps me snap out of any negative thoughts. There is not a specific look or body shape you must have in order to have a positive influence and help individuals take back control of their lives.

ALI: How do you stay aligned to your mission of body positivity as a fitness trainer?

CARLY: I always think back to the “junior in high school Carly”, the girl who hated her body because she did not see her shape and size represented. I think about how strong my body was and how active and successful it helped me become even though I had convinced myself it wasn’t good enough. These are feelings I have since overcome and that I am trying to help others avoid. I believe that as long as you move your body, fuel your body, talk positively to yourself, and give up comparing your body to others, you will do AMAZING things. When you treat your body with love and respect, it treats you back.

CARLY COMPTON in the desert
“Do what you LOVE.”

ALI: What advice would you give other women about their own journey with fitness and body positivity?

CARLY: Do what you LOVE. Find a form of exercise that brings you excitement and happiness. Stop looking at what everyone else is doing, stop falling for the fad diets and workout programs, and start doing what makes you happy, whether that is running, yoga, walking, rock climbing, etc. Do it for YOU! The same goes for food. Fuel your body and recognize when your body feels good and not so good. But, at the same time, take days to enjoy the foods you love. Life is all about balance; EMBRACE that balance! Lastly, embrace YOU. You are beautiful, strong, and capable already–it’s just about believing it within yourself.

CARLY COMPTON modeling at the beach
Website: Paradise Fitness with Carly
Instagram: @paradisefitnesswithcarly