What to expect from a Personal Trainer?

Magic_Chicken

Hi

So I have been doing a 1hr session each week with a Personal Trainer at my gym @ £40 a session. I have never worked with one before so not sure what to expect but all I get is my one session. Should I also be getting a training programme for the other days too? When I asked for one I was told I would need to sign up for more weekly sessions in order to get a programme or diet plan etc. Is this pretty standard practise when doing limited sessions with a PT? Just wondering what is reasonable/unreasonable to expect. Thanks

sijomial

A one hour session doing what?
Is whatever you do in that hour supposed to be repeatable multiple times in a week?
What discussions go on in that hour and are you getting good advice and pointers?
I would think it's entirely reasonable to walk away from your session with a pretty clear idea of what you are doing until the next session.

As for the standard practise question you will find that the standard of PTs varies enormously. Some are great, motivated and knowledgable, but some have just ended up in a profession with a low bar to entry and do no more than the minimum. There's also the question of a good fit between the client and the PT.

By the way I'd be very cautious about getting a dietary plan from a PT without checking they have appropriate qualifications. Just like I wouldn't go to a Dietician to build a training plan! The gym can be a hotbed of dietary bro-science.

Magic_Chicken

In the sessions she will explain the correct form etc and demo for the exercises. This week we did a leg based session and I was shown technique for deadlift. For the rest of the week I'm given general advice such as "make sure you train at least 3 times", "Make sure you spilt the sessions between upper and lower body" etc. But as a complete gym newbie I have no idea what an "Upper Body Session" would entail.

I would love to do more sessions but unfortunately my budget will not allow. As a complete newbie I signed up with a PT hoping to learn how to use the gym and equipment etc and some kind of programme to follow.

sijomial

Magic_Chicken wrote: »

In the sessions she will explain the correct form etc and demo for the exercises. This week we did a leg based session and I was shown technique for deadlift. For the rest of the week I'm given general advice such as "make sure you train at least 3 times", "Make sure you spilt the sessions between upper and lower body" etc. But as a complete gym newbie I have no idea what an "Upper Body Session" would entail.

I would love to do more sessions but unfortunately my budget will not allow. As a complete newbie I signed up with a PT hoping to learn how to use the gym and equipment etc and some kind of programme to follow.

If your PT can't demo the equipment / lifts and give you a basic program outline in two sessions to get you started I'd be wondering about them. At the very least you should know what to be doing between sessions.

Your quotes from the PT don't inspire confidence, that vague outline might be appropriate for you, but you might just be getting fitted into their preferences rather than getting a routine designed around your goals and capabilities - hard to tell.
Did you tell her that you didn't understand what an upper body session is?

Clarity is hugely important in any teaching role and if you are walking away unclear what she means or what you are supposed to do this relationship isn't working. It might take effort by both parties to get it on track though, you need to be a bit more demanding as you are paying the bills.

ninerbuff

I send my clients EVERY workout session we do. A PROFESSIONAL CPT should. There's no reason to hold them "hostage" as a client. The whole goal is to get rid of your client anyway because IF you did it right and they feel confident, they can do it on their own. Many CPT's I've dealt with in the past are pretty lazy when it comes to giving their clients workout programs. They only want to train them and that's it. There will be clients who DON'T need you to give them a program, they just want you do train them because they need you for accountability. I have a few clients that I've trained for 9 years. They know what to do, but won't come in unless they have a session.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

SnifterPug

That's by and large what happens at our gym, for that price, if you allow it to happen. Some trainers are way better than others. Also gyms often take a huge percentage of the money if they work on the basis that you pay the gym rather than the PT direct. So you are paying a premium price for what you are entitled to believe is a premium service, and they are getting paid peanuts. Our gym typically takes 50% - I was shocked when I discovered.

However, you can insist that your time is spent as you wish. No need to sign up for extra sessions. Just tell the trainer that you want them to spend one session going through programs with you, so that you have "homework" to do in order to maximise your time at the gym. You can bring pen and paper to jot the programs down, if necessary. Or don't even spend a whole session on paperwork. Just bring pen and paper to a regular session and write down what you just did in the rest times so you can use it as a basis for other days. If that doesn't shame them into taking a proper interest then you might want to see if there are any other trainers in the gym you can work with.

Theoldguy1

ninerbuff wrote: »

I send my clients EVERY workout session we do. A PROFESSIONAL CPT should. There's no reason to hold them "hostage" as a client. The whole goal is to get rid of your client anyway because IF you did it right and they feel confident, they can do it on their own. Many CPT's I've dealt with in the past are pretty lazy when it comes to giving their clients workout programs. They only want to train them and that's it. There will be clients who DON'T need you to give them a program, they just want you do train them because they need you for accountability. I have a few clients that I've trained for 9 years. They know what to do, but won't come in unless they have a session.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Agree, a good trainer should train the client to do the work on their own. Maybe 4-6 sessions initially until the client can do the exercises correctly, then maybe a follow up in a month or 2 to check form and make modifications to the programming as needed.

genghis54

sounds like a chancer, get rid and find somebody else!

cwolfman13

Magic_Chicken wrote: »

Hi

So I have been doing a 1hr session each week with a Personal Trainer at my gym @ £40 a session. I have never worked with one before so not sure what to expect but all I get is my one session. Should I also be getting a training programme for the other days too? When I asked for one I was told I would need to sign up for more weekly sessions in order to get a programme or diet plan etc. Is this pretty standard practise when doing limited sessions with a PT? Just wondering what is reasonable/unreasonable to expect. Thanks

Unfortunately I don't think there is really much of an industry standard or standard practice. If the PT is employed by the gym, the PT has to follow whatever is laid out by the gym they're working for. Not all PT's employed by a gym are necessarily bad, but it has been my experience that most of them are new to the industry and they themselves are still learning and being employed by a gym gets their feet in the door. I've had my best experiences with PTs that work on their own and either rent space at a gym or have their own facility. They tend to be more experienced and usually have credentials well beyond the basics of certification and they run their own show.

I would say that $50 for a session in my experience really just covers the session...that is pretty much the going rate where I am. My trainer and his wife (who I also sometimes train with) own their own gym and the $50 fee is really just for the training session itself. My wife and I get a few additional perks because they also happen to be really good friends of ours (nothing like sitting around a pool drinking tequila with your trainer), but for most clients a written program and eating plan is an additional cost. For the most part, their individual sessions are full body rather than a split...so at minimum, their clients are getting in one full body training session per week...which depending on goals may or may not be enough. That is all my wife does and she focuses on cardio the rest of the week and she looks great for it. Otherwise, their "homework" is rather generic in the sense that they don't tell clients to specifically do this or that. They are great about explaining what a given exercise movement does as well as explaining other movements that work that same group of muscles and basically just tell their clients to run something similar to what they just did once or twice more before the next session, mixing up exercises that work the same muscle groups if desired. Probably difficult for someone new, but with enough sessions, you just kind of learn what is what.

Something to also keep in mind is that a good trainer isn't just running cookie cutter sessions with their clients. Clients are individual and have varying degrees of skill, age, injury and other things that might need work arounds, goals, etc. My trainers sessions are individualized for each client...that in itself takes quite a bit of time and that is what I'm paying my $50 for. They charge additional fees for diet plans and structured programs because it is a lot of additional work, particularly when you look at it cumulatively if they were to do that with every single client. I don't think they'd ever get to sleep. As it is, they are in the gym from about 5:00 AM to 9-10 PM most days.

For a noob in general I wouldn't personally recommend a body part split nor would I want to work with a trainer who's session was a split session...IMO, that's just too much extra "homework" for a noob. I think communication is also key and a two way street. It's also something that sometimes that relationship just clicks, and sometimes it doesn't and never really takes off. I went through a few trainers before I really clicked with anyone.

kiela64

I did sessions with a student trainer through my college gym. I constantly asked questions about how to do things, and I took notes. Part of the point was to be more active and work out during the week. I practiced the motions she gave me as my routine, but I was the one writing it down (so names like ‘front bend squeeze butt’ were used lol). Then I’d explain what I was doing and she’d give some suggestions. When I was doing cardio first she suggested I do my body weight and light weight work before I got on the treadmill. If you are doing things in the session and going to that gym, you should be able to replicate it. Unless you’re forgetting? That’s why I usually stopped after my session to write things down.