So I had my personal training session Saturday

LauraMax

LauraMax

Cathlete
Some of you may recall that since I joined a new gym I got a free PT session, so I asked for an hour of serious core work that incorporated my bosu, stability ball & light weights.

Well, it was a complete waste of time. Pretty much every exercise this poor kid tried to show me I either already knew on my own or was already in Core Max.

The only thing I really got out of it was how important mirrors are when you're working out, especially with planks. It is really hard to keep proper form with those kinds of exercises without being able to see what you're doing.

So there's an hour of my life I'll never get back. :-(
 
He must not have understood what you are looking to achieve or learn. Some people need things spelled out for them. He must have thought you are a beginer or something. OR, even scarier, the PT didnt know himself.
 
No, I don't think that's it. I was pretty clear when we spoke on the phone. I told him I was an advanced exerciser, I told him the equipment that I had at home & I told him I wanted a butt-kicking core workout I could do at home.

THEN I actually met him in the gym that night, so he saw w/his own eyes I wasn't a beginner.

I think it's either 1) he didn't know what the heck he was doing or 2) he was too lazy to sit down & figure out a routine for someone at an advanced level.

Either way, it was quite disappointing.
 
Laura, I know what you mean. I used PT's for years and only a couple of them were really good. You have to remember that anyone can be a PT. It really doesn't require much training. Basically all you have to do is a little self study and then pass a test. Let's face it, most advanced exercisers probably do know more than most PT's. Your average PT doesn't have a college degree that is in any way related to fitness. Those with degrees in things like exercise physiology couldn't make enough money as a PT.
 
I'm going to play the devil's advocate of sorts here and say...maybe he did provide you with a great ab workout, but the issue was you already know alot of the more advanced exercises BECAUSE you have so much experience with great ab DVD workouts already??? Could this have been it???

Say if you were an exerciser who didn't have the background you do with such great ab routines via Cathe, Tony, whoever, would his ab routine have been decent??? Was it more than just the standard crunches?? Or did he involve other exercises that most people wouldn't have thought of?? Like plank work...I had NEVER heard of plank work until I came across Cathe, and to this day I've never taken a class since that has incorporated them.

This reminds me of an example of this, and how I'm often struck now, when working out with others, or when taking a class at the gym that I've really learned ALOT about exercise since doing DVD's. I worked out with my cousin, who's a personal trainer...I was in the middle of doing my first P90X rotation and was out of town so I asked if he'd meet up with me at the local gym and work out with me...hoping he'd be able to give me some pointers and show me some new "moves". Well let's just say he walked away learning alot more than I did when I started doing alot of the exercises Tony had "showed" me. He was shocked at how much I knew, and that on top of that I had learned it all from a DVD workout. It's kind of made going to the gym a disappointment at times because I don't really get the same kind of challenge as I do when I do Cathe, Tony, Jari, etc.


Or maybe this isn't it at all and his routine just really sucked :-( :D. Just thought I'd throw out another take on it. From reading your posts and the level of fitness you are at...it could be tough to think of stuff (especially when put in the parameters of an "at home" workout) that's different from what you've already been exposed to. Now if you had asked for a killer ab workout incorporating gym equipment maybe he would have come up with something completely different and would have blown you away. Who knows???


Deni
 
Glad it was a freebie! I know that even w/ personal recommendations it can be hard to find a good fit - just because each of us is "advanced" in different areas. I have friends that are marathoners and triathletes but I swear they can't get thru a 90 minute Cathe workout.... guess thats why there are thousands of PTs out there... keep trying LauraMax ... for free of course;-)
 
I don't know Deni--you could've hit on part of it. I think what bothered me most was I specifically told him I wanted exercises w/the bosu & weights, & we didn't even go near a bosu the whole hour. He showed me planks, supermans, crunches, roman chair, a few variations on old exercises, but nothing at all creative.

Plus, I thought I'd spend an hour doing core work, & instead I spent an hour while he talked & demonstrated & I just stood there. I was at the gym for 1 1/2 hours for my core day on Sat & ended up going home & doing Core Max LOL.

I think the real problem was my PT was a dink.
 
LOL...too funny!!! Yeah from this description of your experience I would have to agree with the dink assessment:D :D . He obviously didn't listen to you, and ultimately that is a sign of a REALLY bad trainer. He must not have been too eager to potentially make any more money by trying to wow you into signing up for any other sessions. In actuality because he so disregarded your requests the fitness director may want to know about that...not sure if you would want to involve yourself in that process though.

Deni
 
Honestly, at my gym the trainers are lazy and lame quite frankly. A clent is doing planks or whatever and the trainer is looking around....scoping out perspective new clients, etc.

I have repetitvely seen poor form, momentum, etc. and the trainer does not even correct the obvious problems.

It is becoming way too common!
 
Latley trainers are sucky hax( IMO the only good trainers are the ones who teach step or kickbox. They're always motivating and accually "fun" to see IMO.

Laura- I guess your too smart for your trainer:D Why not train him and teach him a thing or two:7 :p You would be better than him IMO;-)


Laugh and the world laughs with you. Cry and you cry with your girlfriends.
-Laurie Kuslansky-

~Adri~
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When I was a trainer at our local Y, I was the only one who took a lot of courses, even tho' it was required of all of us! The rest really protested that they did not have time, etc., and their training methods showed! You MUST keep current, not just for your clients who will demand it, but for yourself to be educated on new an better methods of training. What I teach now is so WAY different than when I began at a PT in 2002! Besides that, you have to walk the talk, and I think, look the part.

"You can't win them all - but you can try." - Babe Zaharias http://www.clicksmilies.com/s0105/musik/music-smiley-004.gif[/img]
 
I'm a trainer and I agree with a lot of you. #1 it's not that hard to become a trainer, and #2 most of them don't care and don't know enough to even put someone through a good workout. I have been a personal trainer for about 4 and a half years. I worked at lifetime fitness for a very short time because I couldn't stand the trainers there. All they wanted to do was sell, sell, sell, and the ones that sold a lot of training packages were best friends with management. They didn't even care how they trained their clients. Then I did in home training that I loved because I could do it my way and I didn't have to sell training packages. Now I work part time in a gym teaching step and ball conditioning and training a few members throughout the week. Honestly, I think that you can spend the money on books and such rather than waste it on a trainer (I know that's bad that I'm saying it because HELLO I'm a trainer)

My goal is for my clients to learn and to keep the motivated and coming back for more. Either they need me 3 times a week or once a month for questions and possibly some new exercises. I doing Cathe workouts at home, she's like my own personal trainer.

Sorry that you had such a bad experience, but at least it was free.:)

Jenny
 
Yeah, I was an ACE certified PT for 3 years to pay my way through college & I worked at this really meathead, grubby gym where they only let me train women (of whom there were very few). But I made sure I tailored every workout to each individual.

Actually his best line of the day was when I was leaving: "if you know anyone else who needs a PT, give them my name." LMAO!
 
lol, that's funny, yeah, right I'll give them your name, whatever! ACE, huh, so you know exactly what I'm talking about!! hehe I'm ISSA cert. but I also went to the NASM workshop and I could take the test but I just graduated with a Nutrition degree and I'm going back to school in Janurary for a Masters in Elementary Education, so I said forget it. These certs. are all the same, blah, blah, blah. That's how I feel about them, I've learned more on my own than through ISSA, although, I have to say that the NASM workshop was very cool and I did learn a lot.

Infact any of you heard of self-myofacil release using a foam roller? Ever sore after a Cathe workout, get yourself a foam roller and it's like giving yourself a deep tissue massage! It feels good after a tough workout!!!!

Jenny
 
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