A couple of months ago, I wrote an article on the five biggest fitness mistakes that personal trainers make.
It was a big hit, especially among personal trainers, so consider this a “part 2” to that article. Here, I will outline more fitness mistakes that the professionals make.
You might be wondering “how many mistakes can professionals in a field make?” I’ll answer that with a quote from Einstein: “there are two things that are infinite: the universe, and human stupidity. And I’m not so sure about the former.” Smart man.
At the risk of sounding arrogant, what qualifies me to comment on the mistakes of my colleagues and prospective students? A couple of things:
- I’ve been hired to speak, multiple times at personal training conferences, where my audience consists of other personal trainers. One of which is one of the world’s largest personal training conferences, the Can-Fit-Pro conference.
- I hire other personal trainers to work for my company, so over the last 4-5 years, I’ve probably done a good 200 interviews. And they’re not easy interviews (for the candidates). I’ve written about my hiring process in extensive detail, in this article: A Behind-The-Scenes, All-Access Look At My Hiring Process.
So I’d like to think I have a fairly solid grasp of how other personal trainers are training their clients.
So without further ado, let’s outline more mistakes that personal trainers make with their clients.
Plyometrics
Whenever I see a trainer tell an overweight, possibly arthritis, middle aged client to do jumping exercises, I want to facepalm.
Original source: here.
Plyometrics are an advanced training modality, intended to improve power. Plyometrics are by nature high-impact exercises. Very high impact.
When used properly, they have fantastic effects on a person’s power, vertical jump, speed, etc. But unfortunately, most times, plyometrics are not used properly. Most times, the client is only in there to lose weight, get toned, and improve their energy levels. And s/he likely doesn’t see him/herself as an athlete. Couldn’t care less about vertical jump, speed, power, etc.
But the trainer, wanting to impress the client with their knowledge of “advanced” training methods, and fancy terminology starts using inappropriate training methods for a beginning exerciser.
Why are jumping exercises inappropriate for a first-time, overweight exerciser? Because the risk of injury is way too high. Tendons and ligaments take much longer to gain strength, compared to muscles. They aren’t ready for the high impact yet. It can take over a year to be ready for that level of impact, and it may not even be necessary in the first place.
Furthermore, for a person who is overweight, as if the impact of jumping wasn’t enough, on top of that, there is the extra body fat that this person is carrying around.
So plyometrics are the highway to injury for the untrained, overweight client.
The founder of plyometrics himself, Dr. Yuri Verkhoshansky said that to be ready for plyometrics, a person should be able to deadlift double their body weight, and squat 1.5 times their bodyweight for at least 1 repetition. That is, if you’re 180 pounds, you should be able to deadlift 360, and squat 270 before doing plyometrics. And that kind of strength takes over a year to develop, usually.
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Sport-Specific Training
Another aspect that makes me want to facepalm is when trainers use “sport-specific training” with clients who don’t participate in a sport.
Most people who buy personal training are over 40 professionals or retirees, just looking for weight loss, toning, or more energy. Not enhanced athletic performance (though that is a minority out there).
So to use “sport specific” training with this population doesn’t make sense.
What makes even less sense is when you ask these trainers what sport their client participates in, they say their clients don’t participate in a sport. So… correct me if I’m wrong, but shouldn’t “sport specific” training be um… specific to a particular sport? If you’re a golfer, what is specific to golf, will do nothing for your basketball. If you’re a tennis player, what is specific to tennis is not specific to soccer.
Slamming a hammer into a giant tire, pushing a weighted sled, or using battling ropes may look fancy and “advanced”, but to call these things “sport specific”, and say that it applies to every sport is just wrong. It might be impressive to the general public, and Instagram and Snapchat followers, but to someone who knows what they’re talking about, this person just looks and sounds like a clown.
Balance Exercises
Lots of personal trainers buy into the myth that doing exercises on unstable surfaces (like a BOSU or stability ball) “works your core.”
The theory goes that by standing on an unstable surface, you “activate” your core, and use your stabilizer muscles.
All that is true. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that it will make you stronger, leaner, and more athletic. It won’t.
But it will give plenty of entertainment to people who think that you’re training for the circus, and your personal trainer specializes in training circus performers.
I go into much greater detail on balance exercises in my articles, Balance Exercises: Common Misconceptions and How to Improve Your Balance.
OK, that whole article felt like a really long rant. I feel much better now.
