We have spent a lot of time over these last couple of weeks talking about the different things that go into creating your workouts and all of the steps that you need in order to be successful, but we have always mentioned personal training at the end of each blog post or somewhere in the post. Why is it such a big deal? Yes, this is the service that we offer so we do want to make sure that we market it and gather interest from people in it, but there is so much more behind it.
When I started personal training back in 2016, I had the preconceived idea that personal trainers just go in and create workouts for people with no regard to making it individualized or actually being knowledgeable in exercise science as this is what the media told me. I always grew up with this inherent idea that all personal trainers are bad, not knowledgeable, and they just chase easy money. Along with that, certifications were circling around telling people that they could be a certified coach in a weekend or all they had to do was take a test and they could be a personal trainer. While these are good gimmicks to get people in the door and getting these certifications, what is not talked about in-depth through these certifications is how the body works and moves, how to interact with people, or how to actually structure something that the client loves and is excited about when coming in along with giving people the experience of actually being a trainer and working to see what works for clients and what does not. This is why many clients fall off or they switch trainers, either one or all of these aspects are missing. Personal training is a service, yes, but it is an investment into your overall health and wellness, so you want someone who is a great coach and a great person all-around to help you with it. Just like you would be drawn to continued service with a bigger car dealership instead of a random smaller lot that you stumble across, you are drawn to the people who not only know what they are doing but also how to do it effectively so that you, as the client, get the results that you want and you also enjoy what you are doing.
Now, there are many great trainers out there who give great results to their clients and make them excited to come in, as I have seen plenty over the course of my personal training career, but many times we hear more about the bad rather than the good. We hear about the bad trainers and then allow them to shape our opinions on personal training as a whole. Our profession was created for the sole purpose of providing an individualized program to a client in order for them to achieve results they may not have gotten on their own along with providing an outlet and accountability for people who may not have someone to push them or talk with about health and fitness. Over the course of our profession, however, many have started to shift their understanding into providing quick fixes to big problems or allowing for singular certifications with no other education being their backbone when trying to help clients. For example, the majority of clients that I have experienced over my career have been an older population that have back, knee, or hip pain/discomfort. Without my degree and my ability to go and continue my education, I would not know to alleviate those issues and work to counteract issues that may come from it. Certifications are good for a broad range of clients and allow for help with losing weight and building muscle, but many times we run into clients who would benefit from functional training, balance exercises, more core stability, things that not only make them look better and perform better but help older clients move about their day with less discomfort and pain.
Now, why should we change this outlook and look more toward personal training? Many times, we look to resources online and YouTube for advice, but every single person is different. Since the person online knows nothing about you and is reaching out to a broad audience to help as many people as they can, there are individual things that may benefit you more in terms of exercise selection, how to exercise, proper form, nutritional advice for body type along with blood type, and many other limitations and pain that you may be experiencing. Personal trainers not only should have the knowledge and the ability to learn about you and create these individualized plans, but they should also be able to make this fun. Exercising is known to be valuable, but why do you think the majority of people fall off? Yes, many are looking for quick fixes and get discouraged at results but also over time we have developed this outlook that exercising is a chore. There is no way to make it fun but as trainers, we know this and we make sure that we provide the experience to make it fun while also getting the results that we want.
In short, personal training was created to create individualized plans for people and provide an outlet to help people reach their goals safely and effectively while also allowing the mental shift to make working out fun and enjoyable. Over time, personal trainers have gotten bad reputations because of the certifications that are out allowing for anyone to take a test and be a trainer, poor trainers that got more attention from unhappy clients, and the sales techniques that many trainers go through to try and get money from people for their generalized workout and nutritional plans. Our goal at Blades Fitness and Performance is all individualized training and nutritional guidance. We want to work to end the stigma that all trainers are bad, as we genuinely got into the profession just for the sheer love of training. No generalized advice will be given from us as we want to make a change, anything that we give our clients is individualized, whether it is an online coaching plan, an in-person workout plan, or even programs that we may offer on the site later on. All that we offer will be individualized to you and YOUR goals, not the goals of everyone else!
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