By: Emily Ing and Igor Klibanov
If you have depression, you know that exercise can help your mental health. You’ve heard all the great things it can do for you. For instance, exercise stimulates:
- Better mood
- Higher energy levels
- Improved sleep
- Greater physical well being
…and so many more.
But there are a few problems: first of all, you don’t know what to do when you exercise which can make it seem overwhelming. And second, even if you did know, the motivation just isn’t there for you to do it by yourself. So what can you do? Well, a great option would be to hire a personal trainer for depression.
Today we’ll be going over two quick topics to help you choose the right personal trainer for depression. Here’s what we’ll be covering today:
- Mistakes personal trainers make with depression
- Mistakes consumers make when choosing a personal trainer for depression
Before we dive in, you may be thinking to yourself “Why should I trust anything this guy is going to tell me?” To put your mind at ease here are some reasons why you can trust what I have to say:
- I’m the author of The Mental Health Prescription
- I have prior experience working with people who had depression
- I’ve done a bunch of presentations for corporations on this topic
Mistakes Personal Trainers Make with Clients Who Have Depression
So you want to get a personal trainer for depression, but you don’t know where to start or what to look for. Don’t worry, we’re here to help. Here are 3 common mistakes that personal trainers and other fitness professionals make when working with someone who has depression.
Mistake 1: Not Assessing the Client’s Depression
The first mistake tends to be not assessing the client’s depression. It’s no secret that depression looks, acts and affects different people in different ways. So in order to have an understanding of a client’s depression and the effects of it, we use questionnaires. There are two types of questionnaires that can be used: extensive (the most standard one is the Profile of Mood States or POMS) and quick and simple.
When a new client first starts with a trainer, ideally, they’ll ask you to do an extensive one for them, to try and create the best workout routine for you. But throughout your personal training sessions you will be asked to complete much shorter ones, just to ensure that the workouts are working for the depression. This is simply because nobody has the time to do an extensive 30-minute questionnaire before and after their workouts.
If you want to try out a questionnaire for yourself to see if your routine is working for you, the one we use with our clients is in chapter 5 of my book The Mental Health Prescription. Give it a try and see how it goes!
Mistake 2: Not Personalizing Exercise Routines
The second mistake personal trainers make with clients who have clinical depression is not personalizing the exercise routines to the client. Like anybody else starting a workout routine, those with depression are no different when it comes to goal setting. Different people have different goals and in order to achieve those goals, exercise routines need to be personalized.
The exercise routine of somebody looking to really bulk up and wanting to look like a bodybuilder will look nothing like somebody who’s just looking to be a little more fit and toned. You need the right place and the right order to achieve the results you want.
In addition to having personalized workout routines, a good personal trainer for depression also needs to be open to experimenting and changing the exercise program as time goes on. This is because we really don’t know what works and what doesn’t until we try, get your feedback, and make adjustments.
Mistake 3: Not Communicating with Other Health Professionals the Client is Working With
The third mistake personal trainers make with depression is not communicating with other health professionals the client is working with. This could include doctors, social workers, practitioners, therapists, etc.
In 90% of cases, exercise can be helpful and beneficial to the client’s mental health. But in some cases, exercise isn’t recommended.
This could be for a bunch of different reasons but normally the biggest factor is medication. Medication can affect exercise, and exercise can affect medication. These effects can be positive, negative, or neutral, but we’ll never know unless there’s communication between health professionals.
Talking with the other health professionals in a client’s life helps eliminate accidental problems that may occur or be otherwise avoided.
Mistakes Consumers make when Choosing a Personal Trainer for Depression
As a consumer, you also have a part to play. Not all factors come from the personal trainer’s side. Here are 4 common mistakes that consumers make when choosing a personal trainer for depression.
Mistake 1: Not Hiring a Personal Trainer
That’s right, as silly as it may sound this is the most common mistake. Everybody struggles with finding time, motivation and a routine. Which is why you should hire a personal trainer. But there are many times that people find that they think they can muster up the time, motivation and create a routine that works for them on top of their daily responsibilities. So they don’t end up hiring a personal trainer.
The reality is that that isn’t realistic for most people. So take the first step and hire a personal trainer. It’s almost an automatic fix for struggling with time, motivation and routine. Since now you’ll be paying somebody, you’ll be motivated to show up because otherwise you’ll be losing money if you don’t.
In addition, you may think it’s too expensive. Let’s think about it this way, cost isn’t just money, it’s also time and health. Yeah you might be saving money but your health will take a toll. So then the price you’re paying isn’t money (which in most cases can be replenished), it’s health (which is much harder to replenish).
You may think you can just do it yourself to save a few bucks. Well, then you might be wasting time trying to create a routine that is beneficial to your situation that a personal trainer can create in half the time, if not less. Not only that, a personal trainer has the background to create an effective routine. You probably don’t.
Mistake 2: Looking for the Cheapest Personal Trainer
The second mistake that people tend to make is looking for the cheapest personal trainer on the market. The problem with this is that personal trainers are almost never cheap and good. They’re normally either cheap or good. You just can’t get both.
If you want to read more into why a more expensive personal trainer is usually better check out my article.
Without the proper knowledge, education and experience a personal trainer may assign things that are damaging. Think of it this way: you would never buy cough syrup when you need a pain killer just because it’s cheaper. Exercise is like medication, it’s good when it’s done right.
Mistake 3: Confusing Likeability and Competence
The third mistake seems to be a common one, but it’s understandable. A lot of personal trainers are fun, enthusiastic, outgoing people. However, that’s not to be confused with them actually knowing what they’re doing. Just because they sound enthusiastic and confident doesn’t mean they have a background in physiology, anatomy, program design, and most importantly as it pertains to you: program design for people with clinical depression.
If you make the mistake of taking a liking to them just because they’re fun to be around, it’s then costing you time and money and possibly even health.
Mistake 4: Hiring Someone Without Experience Working with Depression
Finally, the fourth mistake that’s commonly made is hiring somebody without experience working with depression. And not only that but also even if they have experience working with depression that doesn’t necessarily mean that they were able to help.
You need the right tools for the job. If somebody hasn’t worked with depression in the past, or hasn’t been successful with it, then they aren’t going to know how to handle experimentation with routines and personalizing routines well. They most likely won’t be able to help achieve your goals either as well as a personal trainer with experience or at all.
Remember, if the only tool you have is a hammer, then you think everything is a nail. If a personal trainer thinks that one method works for all clients, they’ll be wrong a majority of the time.
Conclusion
In the end, the takeaway is do your research and understand that if you aren’t willing to take the first step of getting a personal trainer for whatever reason, it’ll cost you more than just money.
Personal trainers are just like any other health professional – they’re just trying to help. Of course, not every personal trainer is the same. There are definitely some that meet these criteria and don’t make these mistakes. But there are also tons out there that won’t do the best job. So just take a little bit more time and I’m sure you’ll find the right one for you.
And as a final reminder, if you want to try and take the short questionnaire to see if your current routine is helping you, it can be found in chapter 5 of my book The Mental Health Prescription.
