You wouldn’t let this dog drive you around; why would you let a bad trainer train you?
I’ve noticed an unusual tendency among consumers of personal training/coaching to tolerate unprofessional and irresponsible behavior and practices from gyms and their personnel that wouldn’t be tolerated from members of other professions. I’m not sure why this tendency exists―and anyway, it’s not really the subject of this post―but hopefully, I can help you identify behaviors and practices that should raise your “red flag” whenever you’re evaluating your gym or trainer’s conduct, and deciding whether to stay or to go. You’re free, of course, to disregard or take issue with any of these, but know that I’ve tried to be as unbiased as possible with regards to the following, basing my conclusions on firsthand experience, on observations of the training practices of other trainers/coaches, and on discussions I’ve had with other trainers and coaches both in person and online.
Lack of Attention/Supervision
This mostly applies to your “garden-variety” trainers at any of the garden-variety commercial gyms that you’re apt to step into, although I’ve observed it at specialty gyms as well. I’ve seen trainers talking on their cell phones or texting, sometimes even staring off in to space, while their clients labored away at exercises haphazardly chosen. I’ve seen trainers stop to talk to the “cute girl” in the tight workout pants for extended periods while their clients performed exercises, complicated ones, involving heavy loads, and executed them poorly. And yet, the clients always came back. I can’t think of another profession in which this would be tolerated. Imagine having signed up for martial arts, and instead of being carefully coached at every step in your progression and at each new level of advancement, you were shown the drills once or twice and then left to execute them with little to no supervision. Imagine if surgeons, the guys and gals patching your loved one back together in the operating room, were taught surgery this way. The more technical or vital the skill, the more it seems to me that someone of know-how should be there to ensure a standard of excellence. Well, there are few things more vital than fitness and well-being. Nevertheless, you see trainers showing their clients how to execute exercises once or twice, then ducking away to do other things (after all, the trainee was doing it “well enough,” right?) or daydreaming. Even in cases where the skill isn’t all that “technical,” a trainer or coach should be there to give counsel and to provide feedback, even if it’s only in the form of encouragement; it’s easy to fall into the trap, as a trainer or coach, of expecting others to have the same internal drive that we do, and to dismiss those who don’t with a smug “They’re not able to hack it, so why should I give a damn?” As much as they might not enjoy dealing with that aspect of training, trainers and coaches should realize that the psychology of the client is something they are going to have to address at some point. If they refuse to, then they’re lazy or inept, or both. True, clients must deeply want whatever it is they’re after with training, but wanting it and possessing the mental and physical skill sets necessary to reach it are very different things. Suffice it to say, if you’re the client of someone who isn’t present either in the mental or physical sense, perhaps it’d be best if you moved on.
Failure To Coach Each and Every Rep
Two of my mentors, Mark Rippetoe and Juli Stephenson of Wichita Falls Athletic Club and the Starting Strength Coach Seminars, taught me the importance of coaching each and every rep of each and every exercise. This was in the context of movements like the barbell back squat and the power clean (which require a high degree of technical proficiency), but I’ve always interpreted their advice to mean something more. To make yourself available for every rep of every set, and to coach each of those reps so that each rep yields the best possible performance at that moment in time, takes a level of mindfulness on the part of that coach that is sorely absent amongst many. That mindfulness should extend beyond the technical aspects of training. Of all the things that one should be able to say about an excellent trainer or coach, the client should be able to say that he or she is mindful, which I characterize as possessing intense focus for the client, the exercise, the workout session, and the immediate and long-term outcomes of these, as well as a willingness mentally to labor over such. A mindful coach will, additionally, approach things with an attitude of open, rational inquiry. A good coach or trainer, insofar as is humanly possible, should be present in every sense of the word. If you suspect that yours is not, I encourage you to look elsewhere. You can start be evaluating whether your trainer or coach in fact coaches every rep―i.e. provides some form of feedback at all times, whether in the form of form of corrections, praise or simple encouragement.
The Placement of Quantity, Difficulty (How Grueling It Was) Or Speed Of Work Over Quality
By now, it should be apparent that I don’t believe in “suffering for the sake of suffering” and that the use of gruelingness as a metric for program design is just plain idiotic (as I’ve experienced firsthand). If you haven’t read my previous post where I linked Matthew Perryman’s article on the no-pain-no-gain philosophy of training, you should go back and read it now (here’s a taste: grinding yourself into the ground all the time isn’t the best approach to training―not in any measurable sense―unless you’re the sort of person that’s convinced that the sweat from your last, ass-kicking work will cure cancer or heal premature babies). You probably know that I abhor the attitude “If a little is good, a lot must be better” (yeah, try taking that attitude the next time you get a headache, pop some acetaminophen, then see what happens). You definitely know, by now, that I value proper technique, and that I think that sacrificing technique for speed earns you all the injury and subsequent suffering you deserve. But there’s an assumption by A LOT of trainers and coaches (I’m honestly shocked, although I shouldn’t be, by how many of them actually subscribe to this) that training someone to fatigue, and beyond, on a highly technical movement (think the clean or snatch) is an acceptable method for correcting form errors, one to which I am vehemently opposed. This comes up a lot when trainers talk about teaching the clean to beginners. A common error in the clean is pulling with the arms (if you’re not familiar with the movement or any of its variants, take my word for it that pulling with the arms is a Bad Thing). The reasoning goes that making the trainee do numerous cleans in rapid succession will fatigue his or her arms, so that the trainee must rely on the legs/hips to get the barbell moving. Actually, sometimes this works. The problem is that, while one error is being “fixed,” others tend to emerge. As the trainee grows tired, the back loses its arch, foot placement changes, and a failure to maintain proper tempo occurs. We’ve now traded one form error for three (or more?). And let’s say the trainee does one-hundred reps like this; that’s one-hundred times that the movement has been performed incorrectly. Imperfect practice yields imperfect results. Quantity alone is never the BEST solution to a form problem, and more is not always better. Quality of performance—which can be ensured through proper coaching—should be the priority.
Trainers Who Work Out With Their Trainees
There are few things that cause me to desire to punch a hole through a wall than this. Sometimes trainers “sneak in” workouts alongside their trainees. Don’t tolerate this. Do not. If you’re trainer is working out with you, he or she isn’t focused entirely on you. It’s unprofessional, and you should have more respect for yourself than to tolerate such bull**it.
Trainers Who Make Outlandish Claims
By the time someone arrives at the point where they’re willing to ask for help with getting in shape, they have probably fallen shy of doing so themselves a number of times. They may feel extremely self-conscious and vulnerable. Trainers know this, and the worst among them may exploit this fact by making outlandish claims about the kind of progress you can expect with them. Some may even attempt to sell you pricey supplements in order to further exploit your state of mind. There is a saying among skeptics that the more extraordinary the claim, the more extraordinary the proof has to be. Any extraordinary claim made on behalf of a training program or supplement should be met with a heavy dose of skepticism. As well, the more surrounded by hype a program or supplement is, the more skeptical you should be. Any trainer or coach worth a damn will preach hard work, dedication and goal-setting as the keys to progress, not supplements and workout gear, or “magic” programs, exercises or exercise combinations. And while you’re on the lookout for trainers who traffic in hype and overpriced supplements, beware of trainers who use buzz words or buzz phrases to characterize their training methods. Any talk about “the core,” “upping your testosterone levels,” “lowering your cortisol levels,” or “sculpting long, shapely muscles” is likely an attempt to capitalize on current fitness trends or to exploit your emotional vulnerability.
-Stacey
