If you wish you had a Personal Trainer or went to the gym, what stops you?

[Watchkeys]

I'm curious about this, as a PT myself. I'm sure there's billions of people out there who are too shy or not financially able or... well, I wonder what else stops people. I train beginners and my aim is to get non-starters started, and build confidence.

What would help you get started?

Cost is biggest one by far. I live in SE and going rate is upwards of £1/minute whether booking 30/45/60 min sessions. I would absolutely love to train with someone for just half hour couple of times each week but I cant even justify the cost for once each week.

Time commitment is second issue. Like many others, I work all hours children in childcare so need to find time when I am not caring for them. I did try one around year back, had planned to pre-purchase block of sessions and take it from there but one child contracted covid then both children had chicken pox so couldn't commit to a time with them home and I got the impression they were getting annoyed because I wanted to take it a week at a time so I decided not to bother. Also weighing into that decision was the introductory session which I paid for 30mins involved more than 15 mins of discussion around current fitness, weighing me etc and very little workout. I didn't ask for a body transformation - I wanted to get fit. I would have expected the discussion to be an online form filled out in advance and then questions asked during exercise as I paid for half hour of training, not talking

Wow? Defensive much?

I know loads of PTs because I used to work in the fitness food Industry and owned my own business supplying companies such as my protein, protein works etc. I was a body building competitor and a competitive kick boxer. Is that enough experience?

What qualifications do I need to answer?

You are right, they can’t be experts in everything. So they should turn down clients that they think have conditions they don’t know enough about. And if PTs are asking why people don’t want to use a PT and then get defensive over the answers, that’s not great.

Large amounts of women have hormonal issues. It’s thought 10% of women have PCOS alone. Which is metabolic disease. Every woman goes through menopause. That’s a huge amount of people to just not learn about, especially if you want to build your client base.

There are some great PTs out there’s. But the market has been flooded with people who think it’s an exciting glam job they can do in the gym. Many people get put off of the first one or two or three have been rubbish. Getting a PT isn’t cheap and above most peoples financial reach. They won’t keep looking if they only come across poor ones.

I think if you are going to pretend that’s not an issue in the fitness industry, then you need to learn more.

My gym PTs are £45 an hour.
I just don’t think it’s worth the money.

@ProfessorXtra

Curious, not defensive. Thanks for your detailed response and advice.

I had a PT but had to stop due to the cost. I don't need someone to motivate me actually in person in the gym or even on a weekly/monthly basis but I DO need someone to provide weights routines for me, updated/changed every month as I get bored easily!

Someone who also gave me a menu for the week would be great but I would expect to pay extra for that.

The apparent variability of the training and qualifications. There are (seemingly) a lot of ‘Personal Trainers’ out there advocating iffy techniques and more concerned with their Instagram feed than their face to face clients. Or they are one-trick ponies, who can’t adapt their skills and knowledge to the client’s need, ability and goals. It feels like anyone in Lycra can call themselves a PT nowadays.

Unfortunately, I think the murky reputation of the PT industry makes it difficult for anyone trying to operate ethically within it.

I’m hyper-mobile and my experience of (luxury chain) gym-based PT are not good. No adaptations, no discussion around to protect my joints, basically a programme was printed off for me to follow. I suspect it was a generic programme from the database. The receptionist/cleaners/bloke in the coffee shop could’ve been my PT for all the expert advice I was given.

Conversely, I do Pilates twice a week with a registered physiotherapist. Her expert knowledge around biomechanics and musculoskeletal systems enables her to devise a programme of exercise that protects my joints from injury whilst building strength and maintaining flexibility. I’m sure a good quality PT can deliver this too but as a potential client, it’s much harder to identify them in the first place.

Money and mostly the humiliation of being a slightly overweight over 60 woman who was referred to as a “heifer” by the young women who were talking to the male gym instructor who was touting for business with a colleague at a display stand in a shopping centre.

The instructor thought it was hilarious, oh how he laughed!
His female colleague who had been about to sign me up didn’t seem quite so amused but it means I won’t risk enquiring again.

Came on here to say the same as @AndrexPuppy.

Even to an absolute novice, it was clear to see in my old gym that a lot of PTs weren’t particularly knowledgable or experienced and generally cared more about aesthetics than the enormous mental side of health and fitness.

I’m not bashing PTs by the way, I use an online coach and they’re fantastic - so knowledgeable and I trust their advice implicitly. The industry just has such low barriers to entry that it’s difficult to know which PTs are genuinely decent, especially if you’re brand new to health/fitness and have no choice but to put your trust in someone.

I think asking people

’How many PTs do you know, that you have such breadth of knowledge about their failings?’

comes across as defensive.

One other thing. Menopause hits all women, maybe not at the time you are training them. But perimenopause can start in your 30s. It’s really is something you should know about. Women of any age can go through menopause. But also, peri menopause, menopause and post menopause is a large proportion of women’s lives. By not learning about it, you are cutting off a huge amount of women. Plus the 10% who have PCOS, plus other hormonal issues.

I also think PT have a moral, if not legal, obligation to understand eating disorders. Given the rise of orthorexia and how people use it, to hide their eating disorder. I think eating disorders should be a big part of PT training. A PT could, inadvertently, be actively encouraging an eating disorder. That should be a concern to the whole industry.

If a PT chooses to be a specialist in one are or condition, that’s fine, but it does cut down the clients available to them. If they are honest and tell people up front they can’t train them if they have other conditions.

I go to the gym. Apart from cost, there are a couple of things that stop me from getting a personal trainer that are probably ridiculous.
The main one is that I’d have to see the pt all the time thereafter at the gym, so I’d feel I should be following their regime, and I think it could put me off on the days where im stressed/ exhausted and I feel it’s an achievement to get through the door, run for 20mins, and get a sauna.
secondly I don’t want to be part of the gym ‘community’ which is what the clients of pt’s in my gym become. A group of women that compare notes in the sauna, take classes together, comment on each other’s progress meet outside of the gym. This is great for a lot of people, but I go to the gym to escape people, because I’m under a lot of personal stress, it’s time in my day where I don’t want to interact.
I often consider i should do a few pt sessions in another gym, and do their recommended regime at mine 🤔it would feel less pressured somehow.
oh also a third. I’m terrified of progress photos and so many pts seem to use this kind of thing for their personal social media accounts!

@ProfessorXtra

Thanks again for your opinions.

@Ilovedthe70s OMG. I’m so sorry this happened to you. And they wonder why people are put off going to the gym.

Agree about the menopause thing. I don’t have a PT but I do have a physiotherapist, and I picked her because she’s a specialist in women’s issues, which is what I (and most 40-50 women) need help with. We will pay more and travel further to get specialist help.

Cost is the biggest!

Also as a lone parent I can’t go the gym unless I have a babysitter, a gym with a creche would be great but those are few and far between

I will point out here that I am a perimenopausal woman myself, and fully aware of the issues, effects of hormones etc.

That’s excellent, because you can market yourself on the basis that you know what it’s like.

I have a PT. I go once a week to him at his private gym and do all my "heavy" weights that I wouldn't dare do in the gym as all the men are hanging about that area doing their insta poses 😂

If I could afford it I'd just go to him 2/3 times a week but the gym on the other days is better than nothing.

Mine is great. We tweak what I do depending on what races I'm training for etc. He helps me with nutrition too.

Mainly money but on the 2 occasions I have saved up enough the personal trainers were awful!

One used to wander off and talk to his mates, i found out after seeing him for 2 months that I'd been doing squats wrong that whole time! The other guy was all enthusiastic until I didn't by his 'premium' package that was ten times what we had discussed on the phone, but still trained me for a bit.

He then said I lived too far away so I started going to him, then he that I had to be trained in a group as I hadn't paid enough for one on one. I'd been having one on one for for 3 months by that point and that was what we agreed when I bought the package! Then just started being really rude to me each time and ignored me when I had an injury during a session. I did not buy another package!

People have had such poor experiences! Makes me realise that I’m luck with my PT. But he’s also a professional coach for a sport (training at national and international level) and does PT on the side. I wonder if that makes a difference? Also he’s constantly correcting my ‘form’. Which in itself makes me laugh as I’m really not a gym goer.

The reality is find the gym so intimidating unless I had someone there I would not go! But like someone said up thread wish I could afford him twice a week.

I don’t need or want a personal trainer. I know what I’m doing. All the PTs I’ve seen just flirt with their clients or stand there gossiping with them.

Can I ask a question? I started a few month ago and do 40 mins on the cross trainee every other day in a bid to lose weight. I do it at resistance 3.

Am I better increasing resistance or length of time, say to 45/50 mins v level 10?

Thank you.

What puts me off a PT is the cost btw

Money, time, childcare. I work FT w/3 kids. Recently saw this strongmumsni lady who sends you diet plans and does video workouts and am considering that

I would love to go to the gym/PT again, but it's too loud. The music is always unbearably loud and it's too much for me (ND).
The gym I used most recently was great at the start then lots of young people joined and the old members slowly left because of them- young men acting like knobs, shouting and taking photos of other people along with 100 selfies for every rep and then younger women sniggering at anyone who didn't look like a love island clone. All while the music volume got louder and louder.

PT outside Im too self conscious to do and generally timings just don't fit my life.

Mine knows I dont do burpees. 😀

For me it was time commitments. Work. travel for work. Kids. Elderly mum. The a local PT started a 6am weights/HiIIT class. I've been going for 5 weeks. It fits into the rest of my day beautifully.