I love not being fat. I’m not alone in that, either. Most people I know prefer to not be fat.
The problem is, I have no idea how to go about getting skinny and staying skinny. I have a job, I have house payments, car payments, friends to see… like you, I’m just too busy. The fitness industry came about because of just that: The average person is too busy to be concerned with what goes into being healthy.
And there is no sin in that. It isn’t like we eat the wrong foods on purpose, there just isn’t anything to easily find at lunchtime.
It isn’t that we don’t want to go exercise – but who has that kind of time!?!
Enter the certified personal trainer. These are not just men and women who stand over you while you bench press, yelling out, “Hit it! Hit it! You’re large! You’re large!” These are professionals who know all of the things about nutrition and exercise that, frankly, neither you nor I know much about or need to know much about. Their job isn’t just to motivate you to exercise – it is more to teach you what you need to know to make the exercise work.
Personally, until I looked into it, I had no idea that there were certification and training programs for these individuals. Most people assume these are simply young people who happen to be in shape, and therefore got a job at a gym.
The truth is that most gyms require that their trainers have very specific certification credentials before hiring them. These can cover a variety of specialties – musculature, nutrition, sports medicine, performance enhancement… all to make sure they’re not only helping people to get in better shape, but so they can also share why those methods are working, and what a person needs to do to keep it going when the trainer is done with them.
Most of these health clubs and gyms also require (or at least suggest strongly) that their trainers receive continuing education, so their skill sets don’t become stale. After all, the information they learn will still work, but they won’t be up on what works better unless they keep learning. You will usually find these people are in fact very well versed in corrective exercise, or human movement science, training for weight management, etc. Some of the certified personal trainers themselves become continuing education providers to other personal trainers.
The certifications that major health clubs look for will be the ones accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCAA). If you’re interested in seeing if the person at the gym is qualified to train you, ask them for their credentials. See what they’ve studied, where they’ve studied, and how many different certifications they have.
After all, just because someone else is skinny, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be very good at getting you skinny.
Richard Starkey is a blogger and journalist from Tempe, Arizona.
