This question is in the mind of many gym members around the world. I actually was in the same position. Being younger, I’ve perceived Personal trainers as being “Doctors of Muscles”. Going to the gym was intimidating, looking at all the strong and healthy personal trainers. My brother and I were getting more and more involved in building muscles (especially after viewing the movie Pumping Iron, with, of course, the famous Ahhhhhnold!).
Once we’ve seen that movie a couple of hundred times, we decided to embark in a new journey. Suffering from obesity, it was difficult for me to go the gym, since it was, as I mentioned, too intimidating. So my brother and I decided to purchase weight lifting equipment and installed a little gym in the basement of our house. Every morning, before school, we used to wake up at 6:00am and “pump Da waits”. While my brother was getting his chest pumped everyday (we didn’t know the concepts of resting periods), I was exercising my biceps and triceps.
Since we didn’t have much choice in the training routine, we were improvising our workouts to get our bodies to respond quicker. Being too young, our muscles weren’t matured to grow the way we expected. It took time, and in high school, you have plenty of time. I was starting to see drastic change in my body, and self-esteem. My brother was getting his chest the size of the “Austrian Oak”, and I was getting myself in great shape. The body tends to respond quicker to severe workouts. The love for feeling iron in our hands was becoming scary. We were getting obsessed with weights. It was becoming a routine in our lives. One day without it was making us feel like crap. We needed it.
Once I felt ready to move on to a gym facility, it opened new horizons. More potential for growth. I was in awe for new opportunities that arise. I felt like at home. In the beginning, I slowly approached the personal trainers for help, not knowing exactly what to ask, and scared to be laughed at if I asked stupid questions. Since personal trainers have a tremendous amount of knowledge in the field, stupid questions can annoy them. Once the fear of asking question diminished, I was able to converse with them and see how much of a great resource they can be. I have had a lot of help from them. From this day forward, I knew that being a personal trainer was going to be one of my many hobbies.
Personal training enhances social contacts with other individuals. Many gym members, especially for those who’ve never visited a gym before, have no knowledge whatsoever in the field. They need to ask for information to avoid possible injuries. Personal trainers are there for that. They are there to help as much as possible. Go ahead, take any trainers out there and ask them questions. They will be happy to answer.
Everything mentioned above is great, but personal trainers are being judged by their appearances. Unfortunately for some gym that I visited throughout the writing of this article, personal trainers don’t look as healthy as they should be. Some male personal trainer look like they are in their last trimester, others don’t take the time to groom themselves and look all dirty. Gym members expect to see or hire personal trainers mostly based in their appearances. Knowledge comes later. I am not talking about someone looking like models from GQ, but looking appropriate. Personal trainer represents the gym they work for. They need to look at their best all the time. Working out and looking good is one part of their lives they need to enhance. I am not saying that personal trainers need to look like the Arnold Schwarzennegers, but you need to look like you are healthy yourself. Since you are soon to take care of someone else’s life, you have to show them that you can take care of yours first.
As for the clients, make sure you come in the gym with a realistic approach to working out. Personal trainers will do their best to make a change in your life. Taking you through an exercise regimen should help you reach your goals. Being patient is required to avoid any disappointment. You are looking for the beach body, well, don’t present yourself at the gym in May to expect miracle by June. It is not going to happen. Need to be realistic. Work on giving yourself easy to reach goals so to avoid depression. It takes great motivation to start an exercise regimen, but it takes an even bigger dedication to keep it up. Work on getting yourself involved in the routine and do not hesitate to ask your personal trainer to increase weight or repetitions. You will need pain to see results. Ask for the pain and they will definitely give it to you with pleasure. With more pain, results will show much faster.
Life is not easy, and you probably all know that. Adding looking unhealthy to the equation doesn’t help either.
Personal trainers live their life undercover. Once at the gym with our clients, we are professional, dedicated to our job, good listeners and sociable. Once off the floor, we can be very goofy and immature individuals. This what makes personal trainers very special. We can adapt different personal-e-tease in the blink of the eye. Some dialogue between trainers can be hard to understand, because we speak a different language. The gym language. We tease each others, especially those who can’t get to everyone’s level (muscle size). Lifting heavy is a must to obtain the title of the “king of the gym”. Measuring the biceps is common to all gym between trainers. This is what it’s all about. Having fun in what we love doing. Taking care of people is the number “Uno” priority of all personal trainers walking this planet earth.
Dan Amzallag
Gloateus Maximus: Inside lives of personal trainers
Call for more details: 301-325-1550
Sarcastic book with a sense of realism.
