Photos that give Personal Trainers a bad rap

A LITTLE RANT

by AJ

Nice squat form, trainer.

Why does it seem like nearly every article about fitness includes a photo of a “personal trainer,” usually a guy, trying to stop a skinny, pony-tailed brunette in cropped yoga pants from injuring herself with tiny weights?

Have you noticed this phenomenon? I don’t see it on the CrossFit-related pages or in any material related to any other functional fitness program – RKC, Gym Jones, etc. – but the mainstream media’s perception of personal training baffles me. Perhaps these journalists have never been in an actual training facility, or spend all their “workout” time slurping Gatorade on the elliptical at a large commercial gym, trying not to break a sweat. In any case, I sincerely hope that these ridiculously non-representative images are not driving people to dismiss personal training as a waste of resources.

To demonstrate my point, I searched on images for “personal trainer” and found numerous examples – sadly, far more examples of tiny weight assists than of real trainers in action. Many of these photos border on sexual harassment. When was the last time a trainer spotted your press? There’s a reason that we stay out of the way: teach an athlete to use proper form, and the weight will move or it won’t. Pushing your elbows won’t help either of us.

Without further ado, I present the Cheese Trainer Montage. Try not to hurl. (I particularly like the guy who is helping his client keep her knees out over her toes, so that she can’t do a good squat because he’s in the way.)

(note:  Watermarks intentionally left in place for credit to the photo sites where I found them. Images are presented for entertainment purposes only.)

Guess what? Female trainers apparently do it too.

How can you help break the misperceptions of personal training that may or may not actually prevail in today’s society? Simple: tell people about DNA. If a friend is thinking about trying personal training but isn’t sure that he/she can handle the rigors of curling a 5 lb neoprene-wrapped dumbbell while a burly college student* in a fitted tee or sleeveless top supports his/her elbow, you can reassure that person that real personal training is much different. Tell them about how we teach proper movement, and work with our students to build their strength with real weights, at an appropriate pace that balances safety and challenge. Promise them that nobody will judge when they decide to wear shorts instead of cropped yoga pants. They will thank you, and so will we!

Our personal training looks more like this, and click here for more photos:

Real strength. Yeah!

*Nothing against college students – I’m sure that there are some very competent, experienced personal trainers out there who happen to be college students. I just haven’t met them.