Overweight personal trainers

To be 100% honest and tell the the truth - even when it's an ugly truth - I'm going to say what I DO and not what I should do.

To me, if I'm going PAY you to coach me in how I workout and eat, I want to see that YOU are also able to do it. I think as a trainer you're also sort of selling yourself, you know? I feel like if even you can't do it, a certified trainer - than how the heck can I?

Fair? Maybe not. I realize that they may also be out of shape and still have the knowledge I need - but again, I'm being honest about what I actually do, not what I should do.

But I'm all about results based fitness.

I agree with this. I feel the same way about anybody who tries to sell me healthy living products too.

I am a PT. I am in good shape now but have been up to 30kgs overweight. I couldn't PT when I was overweight because my standard is to never ask my clients to do something I can't and when I was overweight I wasn't able to do all the things I like my clients to do.

I think as PT"s we are selling a message of health and fitness and while overweight people can be fit, if it is excess fat around your organs it is never healthy, regardless of what people say. If muscle is giving an overweight measurement this is different.

Health is not just about cholesterol readings and blood pressure. If you are carrying too much body fat it is not good for you.
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Just my two cents.

Donna.

So what if you are an elite athlete? Can you only train with an athlete more elite than you? In other words, if you are the world's best athlete, nobody can train you?

Or here is a thought experiment. What if the world's most successful trainer, whose clients regularly earn Olympic gold medals, is in a car accident and paralyzed for life. Should they just give up?


this attitude of seeking authority figures to think for you is very destructive. But doing that based on appearance is beyond silly. If you come up with a really stupid and dangerous training program, and put a thousand people through it, a few will come out ripped, lean, and uninjured. Would they be able to convince you their program was a good idea?


Choosing a trainer based on appearance is the reason the profession is dominated by charlatans

Ian McCarthy is not in any 'special' shape by any means, but I'd listen to him over anyone on earth about nutrition and training.

He isn't overweight either.

There's a bit of a false dichotomy going on here. Doesn't look like a fat slob vs 4% body fat.

Basically, if you don't look like a fat slob, you're in the realm of credible teaching based on appearance.

Do you look like you have any experience doing anything you're telling people to do? Yes? Ok. No? Better hope you have a great resume to back you up.

I would want a personal trainer that has actually helped people reach fitness goals. The football coaches at my high school weren't in that great of shape, but the team consistently won regional and state championships. A good coach is a good coach. How they look is secondary.

I don't care about how they look , I want to see how their client looks. I use to go to a gym and they had two different trainers , one of them looked like he came out of fitness magazine and the other was average and looked soft.

The one who looked super fit was the worse trainer ever , he was always giving the worse advice and his clients were always ill or injured. I still haven't met a client who has stuck with him .

The pudgy one had a long list of loyal clients with great results and he was always recommended.

Unfortunately I chose the fit looking trainer, I have never gone back to that gym.

I also made the mistake of judging a female trainer because I use to have the impression that for someone to be fit , they had to have great abs and a super flat stomach and this female trainer had a tiny pouch . Now that I look back it was probably excess skin and I was being stupid because she gave me great advice and was really attentive. Back them I was really ignorant .

I am a PT. I am in good shape now but have been up to 30kgs overweight. I couldn't PT when I was overweight because my standard is to never ask my clients to do something I can't and when I was overweight I wasn't able to do all the things I like my clients to do.

I think as PT"s we are selling a message of health and fitness and while overweight people can be fit, if it is excess fat around your organs it is never healthy, regardless of what people say. If muscle is giving an overweight measurement this is different.

Health is not just about cholesterol readings and blood pressure. If you are carrying too much body fat it is not good for you.
,

Just my two cents.

Donna.

So what if you are an elite athlete? Can you only train with an athlete more elite than you? In other words, if you are the world's best athlete, nobody can train you?

Or here is a thought experiment. What if the world's most successful trainer, whose clients regularly earn Olympic gold medals, is in a car accident and paralyzed for life. Should they just give up?


this attitude of seeking authority figures to think for you is very destructive. But doing that based on appearance is beyond silly. If you come up with a really stupid and dangerous training program, and put a thousand people through it, a few will come out ripped, lean, and uninjured. Would they be able to convince you their program was a good idea?


Choosing a trainer based on appearance is the reason the profession is dominated by charlatans

Wow PC, for having your head in the dancey clouds today...you sure are managing to make a LOT of sense. This is my general idea and the reason I met with and interviewed trainers when choosing one. I could have easily picked the most "ripped" or "jacked" person in the gym but what would that have told me about their ability, training, or knowledge to work with my specific hangups physical and mental (as a result of the physical).

Was your waist over 33"? Over that and you were unhealthy. Under that and you were a healthy weight, unless you were too thin.

Are you serious?

Bump

I don't have a personal trainers but all the ones I have seen on websites/gym advertisments always look really fit and in shape, so this made me wonder if there are any PTs out there that aren't fit and well proportioned. And would any of you use a PT that was obviously overweight/obese? And if not why not?

Then I had another thought, there seem to be a number of professional coaches who are overweight/obese, at least the ones that I have seen on tv - however that is quite a small number and prob mainly rugby orientated (I live in NZ) as I don't watch sport on tv so only catch it on the news occasionally.

If it is acceptable for coaches to be overweight is it ok for PTs to be overweight?

Food for thought....

Just because someone is overweight, it doesn't mean they aren't healthy or fit. Looks can be deceiving. Another thing, just because a personal trainer looks to be in shape, it doesn't mean they aren't overweight.

I disagree. Overweight people are not healthy or fit. Our perception of healthy has changed in the last generation.

When I was in high school, I played basketball for a small school. It was small enough, in fact, that I played on both the JV and Varsity teams, for nearly the entirety of both games (in other words, 4 hours of basketball on game nights, and 2-3 on practice nights). I also lived on a steep hill, and for part of the time, lived on the upper floor of our giant house, so I had to walk up the hill and the stairs to get home from anywhere, everyday. I could ride my bike for nearly 20 miles in the middle of the Allegheny mountains (possibly more, but my parents were a bit draconian about times and places I could go, and I was often alone, so I was quite bored). Without specific training, I could max out my school's leg press machine (something like 400lbs) without breaking a sweat. We were poor, so more food came out of cans than I liked (namely, canned veggies), but we didn't eat out very often (my parents would go to Burger King on shopping day, once a week, but I rarely went with them, so the times I ate out were even less).

Does that constitute "fit and healthy"?

Now, what if I told you that I was (at least according to the BMI) about 20lbs over the threshold between "healthy" and "overweight"? The only time I had anything resembling a flat tummy was laying flat on my back. Did your answer suddenly change, solely on finding out that I was overweight?

Has anyone mentioned Mark Rippetoe yet?

If not, then "Mark Rippetoe."

Just because. Oh, and to use one of my favorite quotes from him: "You can't make people smarter. You can expose them to information, but your responsibility stops there. "