Be in the truth business

As a personal trainer there’s a certain amount of pressure to give the client what they think they want. People expect that training at extreme intensities gets them results. They think that the aim of each training session is to leave jelly-legged, and soaked in sweat, and breathing like an asthmatic. And for some trainers, they give in to this pressure and turn their PT sessions into torture sessions.

What personal trainers should do is to explain to clients what they are doing and why this relates to their goal. If their goal in muscle building, some high intensity interval training might actually be stopping them achieving their goal. 

Let’s be in the truth business.

Let’s be in the truth business. Training hard doesn’t necessarily deliver results. Stop thinking if I could only get myself to train harder, I would get better results. It’s not always true. What is more likely is if your training was more aligned to your goals, and if your diet was controlled, you would get better results. 

Here’s some other personal training myths that need putting to bed. 

Tape measurements. 

The tool of the con artists (personal opinion). “You haven’t lost any weight over the last six weeks but you’ve lost 4 inches overall from your right leg, hip, breast and head.” Alright mate, don’t pour water in my pocket and tell me it’s raining. The tape measure can be manipulated. Squeezing a quarter inch here, a quarter inch there can add up to a fair few inches of bullshit.

The building muscle balance myth

The scales are saying you’re not losing weight, and your PT says it’s because you're building muscle and it’s cancelling out the fat you’re losing. Solution? Get the tape measure out! It’s horse crap. If you’re overweight, there is no way you can build muscle faster than losing fat. No way. If you’re training well and not losing weight, then you’re more than likely eating too much. Let’s be real. The only cases where this is even remotely possible, is when you have very little weight to lose and you’re down to that last couple of stubborn inches. 

Last up, and possibly my favourite lie in personal training:

The before and after pic

Unless this is some type of monumental glow up, unless this is some picture of someone standing in one leg of their old pants pulling out the other empty leg, then it’s bullshit. The amount of before and afters I see where I’m squinting at my phone trying to see the difference is unbelievable. Most of them are posed different, taken in different clothes, different lighting, or photoshopped. I don’t take before and afters myself. It’s just not me. I have no interest in asking clients to pose in their undies for my social media. If you want to take pictures of yourself then do it. But I’ll stick with training goals and the scales thank you. 

My personal philosophy is to be real with people. If they do well, tell them. If they slip up, tell them that too. Ultimately the end goal is everything.