You know I felt that I needed an outlet for my frustrations in regards to what I see happening with personal training these days. I recognize that in a field where results are key and meeting the expectations of clients are important that there is a certain amount of compromise that must take place. However, why are there so many trainers concentrating on exercises that are not safe for their clients?
My problem started when I first watched the show Workout or whatever it is called highlighting a well to do gym for high level clients. They had several obese sedintary clients doing jumping jacks and plyometric activties. What on earth could be going through the minds of these people? I’ve worked as a personal trainer for several years, and ran a few fitness centers. One goal of personal training is to help clients who learn how to take care of themselves. To teach them what they can do to live longer fuller lives. To enjoy their children, family and friends for longer.
I believe that there are many different ways of training and styles and most of which all have their merit. Ask any bodybuilder and you’ll know that everyone is different. So there is no one way to do anything. However, ask any one who has any background in exercise and you will hear that your goals will be hindered by injuries. So putting someone through aggressive training like that is definately not the best approach.
If we dig a little deeper, or stare a little longer, you can notice this in your gym. You may see trainers working with individuals having them do kettleball tosses and everything else imaginable. Now before I get any blank stares or out of control defensive thoughts hear me out. I feel that using different training aids such as kettleballs, bands, etc are great tools that should be utalized. However, it becomes a problem when individuals that lack balance and proprioception are told to do complex exercises that professional athletes may perform for sports performance. If you have properly progressed an individual to this point then that is great and I say keep up the good work of applying the SAID principle. However, if you have a client who says they used to workout then stopped and you immediately start them with kettleball swings while lunging….I think it becomes a bit much. And this is where my problem is.
To express what event pushed me over the edge I’ll give a quick scenerio. I was working for an indvidual who discussed the idea of revolutionizing personal training and developing a pt program with trainers who have a solid knowledge base. He expressed the concept of working with individuals as just that, and not just simply taking clients through an arbitrary circuit course that everyone goes through. However, I became dismayed when all of this information was thrown out the window and he began becoming a cliche of functional training. Rather then developing basics and progressing and teaching clients movements and cues, he pushed for an entire workout geared simply to doing complex aggressive exercises that clients aren’t able to perform. I saw him take a client who couldn’t perform a proper squat with her body weight and have her do a complex movement with overhead bands, exercie blocks all on a balance board. Then he had her performing the squat overhead with the bands pulling down on the bar she was holding all while pushing her knees out over her toes and touching blocks that were entirely too low. So whats wrong with this? Well to start the lady didn’t have the balance to have a load over her head, she didn’t even have the balance to do a regular box squat! Secondly pushing the knees out over the toes is awful and places a exponential amount of pressure on the meniscus. And thirdly there was no progression to this exercise. Thirdly, this places the client in a completely uncomfortable position which was apparent in her facial expresions. And lastly, what sort of experience or knowledge is this person begin given that will help her later on when she ends personal training or can’t afford to do personal training any more when she is not progressed into that level of exercise.
I believe that everyone, who is physically healthy enough to, can perform a proper squat without injury. The problem comes when form is broken. So why would you put someone through this without working them through the basics. Then providing them with some less complex exercises such as a box squat while holding a broom handle or very light bar over head. This would teach the clients to sit back through their heals keeping the knees from going too far over the toes while maintaining an upright posture.
So this is where I become disheartened by training and some of the directions that things seem to be heading. The most important thing is to perform movements and provide structure with sound principles in mind. I admit there is alot of room for discussion and I’m sure that I haven’t fully expressed my views on this issue. However, if you look into what is going on and take a magnifier to this situation then I’m sure that you can combat the developing cliches that seem to riddle the fitness industry.
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