There, I said it! As fitness professionals, most of us started our career in a gym, some are still there! Most have diversified, found exciting niches and used additional training to break free from the walls of the gym. The gym made for an excellent place to practice our knowledge, communication skills and training with new and varying clients. However, it’s pretty easy, most gym based trainers see so many back to back clients in order to make enough money to pay their gym rent, they no doubt don’t bother planning each session. Now, as a client, if your trainer is not actively planning your sessions with exercises, equipment and training methods most suited to for you, are you getting a personal training session? In my view, no!You are getting what I call a “Sweat Session”, it’s all in the name, it’s just a session that makes you sweat, hopefully that’s assured the client they have spent their hard earned money wisely.
I guess , it’s not the trainers fault, we’re all prone to short cuts. In a gym you can bounce your client from one machine to the next with little thought until the 60 minutes are up, next?! No one wants to feel like they are on a covey-about especially not when they are paying a premium for it, although granted, somewhat cheaper in gyms.
I quit my job in a gym because it was so dull, I needed to break free from the walls, the confines, the restrictions and do things my way. If I had stayed, I know I would not have felt challenged, and when that happens we get dissatisfied with our jobs, lose motivation and so on. Our performance drops making our service worse and intrinsic motivation becomes non existent.
So gym based trainers! I’m not saying you’re rubbish, I’m saying you need to be the best at what you do, you do it because you love it and 90% of personal trainers do their job because they enjoy it, that’s what makes us different to the 9-5. The truth is, the gym will limit your potential and climbing up to gym manager just reduces the amount of time you will be doing what you love.
You’re not valuable in a gym because anyone with a Level 3 personal trainer qualification can do what you do and the gym doesn’t care who does it. Make yourself a valuable resource, refine your skills and start working for yourself.
You’re not valuable in a gym because anyone with a Level 3 personal trainer qualification can do what you do and the gym doesn’t care who does it. Make yourself a valuable resource, refine your skills and start working for yourself.