5 Signs that your Personal Trainer May be a Dud

Hiring a personal trainer can be one of the best decisions you ever make in your life. Depending on WHO you choose, it could also be one of the worst mistakes you ever make as well.

Personal trainers provide valuable services. Their vast knowledge on the world of health and fitness can cut your learning curve in half and help you speed up the process of getting results. They can also act as your personal cheerleader in helping to keep you motivated throughout the process. Finally, a personal trainer will protect you as you work out to make sure you perform exercises correctly so as not to cause you pain or injury. That is, unless your personal trainer is more interested in themselves than you.

Below is a short list that will help you decide if your personal trainer is a personal waste of time. Here are the 5 signs that your Personal trainer may be a dud:

1. Showing up later or rescheduling appointments-Ok, to be fair, everyone has thing that come up from time to time, but your personal trainer shouldn’t. You have hired your personal trainer as a professional; this is not your workout buddy. If it feels like your trainer has skipped out one too many times, then they have and that is all there is to it. Tell them to hit the road and to make sure the dumbbells don’t hit them in the butt on the way out.

2. Socializing during your workouts-We are social creatures, sure, but your time with your trainer should be about working out, not talking about last night’s rerun of King of Queen. In addition, while it is certainly acceptable for your trainer to wave hello to those he/she may recognize at the gym, it is NOT ok for them to walk over, strike up a conversation OR help someone else workout. This is 100% unacceptable. That this is YOUR time. You paid for it and you need to make that clear. I have seen so many examples of this it makes we want to break a 45lb plate over their head!

3. You are entering your 2nd year of training with your trainer, and still look exactly the same as when you started-Seriously, ditch the excuses. If your trainer can’t get results, fire them, now. I have been going to the same gym for 3 years now. I have seen the same people working out with the same trainers since the day I joined. They are in no better shape than when I first saw them struggle to do a pull-up 3 years ago. Their trainers are a joke, bottom line. As far as I am concerned, they are stealing money.

4. It is clear that your personal trainer knows less about working out than you do-If you are working out with a trainer, and they are telling you to do something that you know is wrong, speak up. Ask them where they got this info. The behind the neck pull down is a BIGGIE in this category. If I hear a personal trainer instruct a client to do this risky move, I step in and explain to them just a bit about the physiology of that part of the body and that if performed incorrectly, even just SLIGHTLY incorrectly, they could seriously injure their client and possibly face a lawsuit. I then remind them about pulling the bar to the chest, a less risky and more effective exercise. If they proceed to challenge me, I simply jump up to the pull-up bar and crank out 30 reps. The trainer will usually shut up at that point.

5. They are more interested in selling you some new product than getting you in shape-Finally, if your trainer ever begins talking about a new product they have discovered that you just HAVE to try, tell them sure. As long as they are paying for it. If they continue their pitch, it will be obvious as to where their intentions lie. Leave them in the gym drowning in the pile of pills they are trying to get rid of.

I certainly don’t want to make the point that all personal trainers are bad. I personally feel like most folks will greatly benefit from hiring a qualified one, but the bad ones that are lurking out there need to be identified and fired. Your job is to know the difference between a good personal trainer, and a dud. I hope this list has helped.