i have an all-club membership at 24 hr sh1tness and use 5 different clubs in my area. i’ve noticed that most of the “fitness trainers” (should be “fatness trainers”) are fat and out of shape!
wtf? would you invest with a banker who’s declared personal bankruptcy? would you use a dentist with no teeth? why use a “fitness trainer” that clearly is unfit?
fortunately most of the tri coaches and trainers in my area are elite-level triathletes that can back it up!
Gil Reyes, Agassi’s longtime trainer, is a great trainer who also happens to be a rather, um, robust individual. And then there are issues that you can never really know about. One of our highschool soccer coaches had played for the Hungarian national team; but he destroyed his knees and walked with a cane. Doesn’t mean he wasn’t an amazing coach. A trainers job is to train you, so do you really care what they look like as long as they do that well?
What do you mean by a fitness trainer? As in personal trainers that have individual clients, or fitness instructors that lead exercise classes like spinning or pilates?
Of course this thread will lead to the classic Slowtwitch argument over what is “fat” and what is not.
But I know what you mean. I just completed a course with over 20 fitness center staff (military fitness centers at that) and at least 1/3rd of them were overweight **and **smoked.
Oh well. Guess that just makes non-overweight abnormal types like us look a little better.
“Do as I say not as I do” I believe this would apply here
.
It’s the smoking that gets me. There’s a trainer at my gym that leaves every 15 minutes for a smoke. He’s also put on quite a bit of weight over the past year, but I would trust an overweight trainer before one that smokes. But that’s just me.
Jodi
Do you judge a book by its cover?
My high school track/cross country coach had a tummy on him, but he also qualified for the 1976 Olympics for the Marathon with a time of 2:18. He had later had knee surgery which prevented him from doing any kind of running later on in life. He was also one a hell of a coach. Just because someone has 6 pack abs and perfect physique it doesn’t mean that he/she is a great trainer. Just my two cents.
Thats why its the do as I say thing. If I had a trainer that weighed 4 bills and could be in the best shape of my life I could care less how he took care of himself.
How in shape were their brains. Order of preference
I couldn’t care less if a trainer is out of shape or not, I’d rather look at his clients, since that’d be the service I’d be paying for: if the clients are achieving the results I’d want to achieve myself, the trainer themself could be 1,000lb for all I care…
My drums teacher way back was ‘just’ an ok drummer himself, however he taught some of the best jazz drummers in my corner of the world and a lot of people mourned him when he passed: being an outstanding performer and an outstanding teacher are two completely different skillsets in my opinion.
"I couldn’t care less if a trainer is out of shape or not, I’d rather look at his clients, since that’d be the service I’d be paying for: if the clients are achieving the results I’d want to achieve myself, the trainer themself could be 1,000lb for all I care… "
Good point.
that’s a good point. but, it just seems morbidly incongruous to me. sorta like “practice what you preach.” if a fat trainer is so good at training others to become fit, why can’t he follow his own advice?
On the flip-side, I’ve seen trainers that are in great shape themselves but are totally arrogant and self-centered. At our college health fair, these two trainers (yes, in excellent shape), where there to represent their gym, talk to potential customers and PR. However, the two went in a corner and started their own work-out together, not talking to any of the health fair participants. Totally made themselves unavailable and un-approachable. But boy, they looked good working out together, wow! (sarcasm off).
So, good point on checking references and clients for reviews.
Chris
If Chris Carmichael developed some medical condition that caused him to put on 50 pounds would he no longer be able to coach because of his weight? Or is there a seperation between the two? I think there can be a separation between knowledge and fitness.
that’s a good point. but, it just seems morbidly incongruous to me. sorta like “practice what you preach.” if a fat trainer is so good at training others to become fit, why can’t he follow his own advice?
maybe because they don’t have as much time to take care of themselves since they spend it on their clients? Or maybe they know exactly what needs to be done and yet they can’t resist donuts?
When you’re hiring a trainer are you paying for their knowledge or their fitness? Why should you care about your coach’s lifestyle choices as long as they give you what you are paying them for?
The proof of a good coach is in their clients’ results, not in what the coach looks like.
I think that’s being a little harsh considering you’re looking at it as a triathlete, not a 200+lb schmo who hasn’t got off the couch in years.
Case in point: One of the best trainers I ever hired was a guy that weighed maybe 200lbs, definitely not lean or cut up, but the dude used to weigh 400. He knew how to motivate people to lose large amounts of weight.
No, I wouldn’t have sent a prospective triathlete to him, but it’s important to remember, different courses for different horses.
Incidentally, I’m a certified trainer (CSCS) and I am 165-170 (5-8% BF) so we’re not all fat.
Alan
Same reason I would never trust a skinny chef, right? Come on dude, judge the knowledge base, not how someone looks. I have met TONS of personal trainers who look flat-out diesel but who don’t know jack or are very arrogant with newcomers. Same thing with some triathletes. When I started out at my club in 2004 some so called “Iron-Vets” didn’t know jack about the right way to train, eat, think, etc. I judge each person on what they know, not necessarily on how they look.
It’s like saying Lance’s former advisor, Steve Hed, is not a great source of knowledge because he never one the TDF.
“Back it up”? How, by the fact they can go sub 10 means they will better show you how to go sub 10? Or it makes you personally feel better by having someone who looks to be in great shape as your trainer?
Peace out!
If Chris Carmichael developed some medical condition that caused him to put on 50 pounds would he no longer be able to coach because of his weight? Or is there a seperation between the two? I think there can be a separation between knowledge and fitness.
He couldn’t coach even before he gained all that weight.
Two things: First, as a trainer and coach, I’m in the worst shape I’ve been in for several years. I spend so much time setting up plans for my clients that my own personal workout time has dropped from close to 30 hrs/wk to about 12… However, I still keep myself in better shape than almost anyone in my AG (55-59).
Second, and I consider this pretty important - I want the person who trains me to be able to demonstrate his or her abilities. If he or she is in great shape, then it’s a given that he or she knows how to train. Just as important, do the people who train with him or her appear to be getting in better shape as a result.
Now it’s tough to quantify any of these things, because some folks want a trainer who looks like Arnold, and some folks would prefer someone who looks more like Dave Scott. At the same time, the fact that a trainer is out of shape doesn’t necessarily mean he or she doesn’t know how to get YOU in shape… but it does make you wonder. Possibilities include injuries, illnesses and the challenges of time management.
Everyone has to define their own criteria when selecting a trainer. For me, I can’t get excited about working out hard if my coach (a) isn’t in awesome shape or (b) hasn’t got a trophy room that indicates he used to be. I trained for years with Tim Sheeper, he’s got both. I found it incredibly inspirational to watch my coach ascend the podium at races I did. In high school, I trained with Gus DeGara who had two golds from the '56 Olympics and could outswim any of the guys who swam for him despite being “over the hill (over 30).” I also ran cross country for a coach who had some very impressive bona fides but was way old.
I’ve heard that there are some great coaches out there who were never athletes, but I can’t see how you can get excited about training people to do something you’ve never done. I’ve also had the opportunity to watch trainers at several differnet health clubs, and I was pretty amazed to find that most of them didn’t really know what they were doing.
why use a “fitness trainer” that clearly is unfit?
A smart person will realize that it’s how well the trainer does the job, not what the trainer looks like. e.g. imagine a college basketball player telling Bobby Knight “I’m sorry - I can’t play for you, because you can’t dunk and you have a gut.”
Do you remember all those big, old Russian gymnastics coaches 20 years ago? Do you think they could do summersaults, flips, etc? Do you think it even mattered?
A coach (or trainer) should be judged by how well they do their job, not what they look like.
I was always intimidated by those uber-fit club trainers. Kind of like the cosmetic ladies at Neiman Marcus. Neither seemed quite real and neither were what I would call “approachable”.