So you’ve accepted the fact that you’re getting older and everyday tasks just aren’t as easy to do anymore. Or maybe, you’re trying to preserve the good health you’ve kept up all these years. Whatever the reason may be, you’re now trying to get into guided exercise so you know exactly what you need to do. Only problem… you don’t have the slightest idea where to start. So you decide to find a personal trainer for elderly people.
And that’s what we’re going to help you do – find the right trainer for you. Here’s what we’ll be going over in this article:
- The 4 biggest mistakes personal trainers make with elderly clients. So you can avoid those trainers.
- Biggest mistakes consumers make when looking for a personal trainer. So you can avoid making these mistakes.
At this point, you might be wondering to yourself “who’s this guy to be telling me what’s good and what’s not?”
Let me introduce myself to try and help put your mind at ease.
I’m Igor, a 7-time author, including 2 bestsellers: Type 2 Diabetes Reversal Secrets and High Blood Pressure Reversal Secrets.
I’m also a personal trainer that has worked with lots of older clients in the past. Some of which have success stories and case studies (which I’ll highlight later in this article). So make sure to stick around. If you want to see whether our services are for you, just fill out the application form on our home page. After you fill it out, we’ll jump on a quick, 10-15 minute phone or zoom call. No pressure, no obligation, just a chat about your goals, challenges, etc.
Now without further ado, let’s get to it.
Biggest Mistakes Personal Trainers Make with Elderly Clients
Everybody makes mistakes but in most cases when you’re looking for a trainer, it would probably be best if they didn’t make them… especially these ones. Here are 4 of the biggest mistakes that trainers make when they work with older clients. We would highly suggest avoiding these at all costs.
If you would like to read up on a bunch of other mistakes that trainers make with different client groups (not just the elderly), check out my 3 part article series on the biggest mistakes personal trainers make.
Mistake #1: Being Ageist
One of the most common mistakes personal trainers make is assuming everybody who’s over a certain age is frail and weak. This just isn’t true. Just like any age group different people have different levels of fitness and strength.
But because of that assumption, some trainers end up giving routines that are just too easy to their clients. And easy routines do absolutely nothing to benefit you as a client. You’re just wasting money at that point. A routine needs to be challenging enough to get you to make progress. It shouldn’t be difficult, but it shouldn’t be easy. It should be challenging. And what’s challenging to you depends on your abilities. An exercise routine needs to cross a certain threshold to create stronger muscles, or better endurance, or more flexibility, etc. If it doesn’t cross that threshold, you’re just making friends… not training.
Think of it this way, if they assume that everybody over the age of 70 (or whatever age you would define as “elderly”) has the exact same fitness level, they would all get the same routine. It’s almost as if they only had a hammer and they’re trying to cut a piece of wood in half with it. It just won’t work, or won’t be effective. There’s a saying that goes “If all you have is a hammer, you think everything is a nail.”
When a personal trainer is putting together a routine for you, it should keep in mind certain factors, like:
- Goals
- Current ability
- Preexisting injuries
- Medical history (whether it be heart disease, diabetes, etc.)
- Activities of daily living
…not just age.
It should be a fitness routine for you as an individual, not for your age.
Mistake #2: Not Considering Joint Pain
Almost like the opposite of the previous point, they shouldn’t be entirely ignoring age. Yes, not every elderly person has joint pain. But a lot of them do (whether it be caused by an injury, arthritis or other reasons).
So it’s important for a personal trainer to look at joint pain and take that into account. Then modify exercises as needed to account for any joints that may be painful. Ensuring to assign exercises that are easy on the joints but hard on the muscles.
If you want to dive a little deeper into some strength training that is easy on the joints but still works your muscles, check out my article on joint friendly strength training.
Mistake #3: Not Training for Chronic Conditions
Another big mistake that trainers can tend to make is not training specifically for chronic conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes. I’ve written more in depth articles on exercise for a few chronic conditions including: high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, and osteoarthritis.
But for now here’s a general overview.
Think of any exercise routine as a prescription like you would get medicine prescribed by a doctor. When you get that prescription it has a bunch of parameters like whether it should be taken with or without food, the dosage, how many times a day, etc.
Exercise routines are the same way: a bunch of parameters to ensure you have the right “medicine” for what you want to accomplish. When it comes to exercise there’s a standard set of parameters for training called “FITT” (which stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type).
Now you might be thinking, “whoa there, those are just a bunch of words that make some fancy acronym. What does that even mean?” Well let’s break it down.
Starting with type. All you have to do to figure out this part of the prescription is what kind of exercise are you doing? Cardio, resistance training, or stretching. Simple as that.
For time it’s actually a little misleading calling it time. But basically, for cardio it’s how long you do the cardio (duration). And for resistance training it’s how many sets and reps you do (that’s called “volume”).
Next let’s talk about intensity, or how hard you’re working. When we talk about intensity for cardio it’s known as percent of maximal heart rate, which is just the heart rate zone that you want to achieve with your workouts/personal training sessions. To find your maximum heart rate just subtract your age from 220. So for example, for someone who’s 70 years old, their maximum heart rate would be 220 – 70 = 150 beats per minute (bpm). And if they wanted to have an intensity of 65 – 85% of their maximum heart rate they would want to do cardio until they hit 98 – 128 bpm.
For strength training it’s a little different. When talking about intensity for strength training it’s known as percent of 1 repetition maximum (1RM). That’s just the most amount of weight you can lift for 1 single rep. If you want to improve your strength, it’s best to lift a lower number of reps (6-8) at around 60-80% of your max weight. But if you’re looking for endurance, it’s best to lift a higher number of reps (12-15) at around 50-60% of your max weight.
That’s why there’s no universally “intense workout.” Intensity is relative to each person’s own abilities. And with greater fitness, people’s abilities change.
Finally, let’s talk about frequency. This is as simple as how many times a week you will be exercising. That’s all.
But once again, if you want to read in more detail about exercising for certain chronic conditions, check out my articles on exercise on high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoporosis, and osteoarthritis.
Mistake #4: Not Asking About Their Client’s Goals
Some exercise professionals may try to impose their own fitness goals on their clients, as opposed to asking their clients what their health and fitness goals are and helping develop a routine specific to them. This often happens because a trainer only knows one training style, be it pilates, wall pilates, yoga, bodybuilding, or whatever else.
If a bodybuilder only knows how to train to become a bodybuilder, they probably aren’t going to be the best if you’re looking to improve your flexibility. You would probably be a little luckier if you went to a yoga or pilates instructor if you were looking to improve your flexibility. But it’s the same vise versa. Looking to build a lot of muscle and bulk up? Probably looking for a bodybuilding personal trainer as opposed to a pilates or yoga instructor would make sense.
Biggest Mistakes Consumers Make When Looking for a Personal Trainer
Not all mistakes are on the trainer though. As a consumer, you also have a part to play when choosing a trainer. Here are 4 common mistakes that consumers make when choosing a personal trainer.
Mistake #1: Confusing Likeability and Competence
An understandably common mistake that a lot of consumers tend to make is confusing likeability and competence. Most trainers out there are fun, enthusiastic and outgoing people. However, that doesn’t always mean they know what they’re doing. Sure, they can be fun to be around and talk to but do they have a background in physiology, anatomy, exercise program design, and most importantly for you…
Do they have experience designing programs for the senior population?
Just because you like to be around them doesn’t mean they are beneficial to you as a personal trainer. If you make this mistake, it’s not only costing you time, but also money and possibly even health.
Now this isn’t saying that you should find somebody who isn’t likable. That would just be silly, especially considering how much time you would have to spend with them. It’s just a matter of finding that happy middle ground where they know what they’re doing, while also being fun, outgoing, confident, etc.
Mistake #2: Not Hiring a Personal Trainer
This may sound kind of silly, but it’s actually one of the most common mistakes people make with personal training. As they say, “you miss every shot you don’t take.” That’s exactly what this is, if you never hire a personal trainer you’ll never get the possibly very beneficial help they could provide.
Everybody struggles with finding time, motivation, and most importantly, a routine that works for them. Which is the exact reason you should hire a personal trainer. The reason this mistake is so common is because people think “Hey, I can find the time and perfect routine all by myself. Why spend so much money with a personal trainer?”
In reality, that just doesn’t work for a lot of people. Yes, it can definitely work for some people who do manage to muster up the motivation and time all by themselves. But for most, that winds up being a really difficult task. So take that first step and hire a personal trainer. It will almost automatically fix the struggle of finding time, motivation and routine. Afterall, you would then be paying somebody, which will motivate you to show up because otherwise you would be losing money if you don’t.
Maybe the reason you have’t hired a personal trainer is because you think it’s too expensive for something “you can do on your own.” Yes it can be pretty costly money wise, but think of it like this: cost isn’t just money, it’s also time and health. If you aren’t spending money, your health may take a toll. So the price in that case isn’t money (which in most cases can be replenished) anymore, it’s health and time (which can’t be replenishedl).
You may think that you can do it yourself and save those few bucks. But in addition to taking a toll on your health, you would also be wasting time. It’s much harder and time costly to find and create a routine that is beneficial to your situation than if you were to hire a personal trainer who can create it in half the time, if not less. Not only that, they also hopefully have a background in creating effective routines. You probably don’t.
Mistake #3: Hiring Someone Without Experience Working With Elderly
Another common mistake that’s made is hiring somebody without experience working with the older clients. Or rather, has been effective when they have worked with older clients. Just because they have experience, doesn’t always mean they were able to help.
You need to have the right tools for the job. Sure, everybody starts somewhere, but if you hire a personal trainer who has only ever worked with youngsters who are trying to become bodybuilders… They probably don’t have very much knowledge on how to help those who are older simply become stronger or looking to just maintain their current health.
If somebody has never worked with those who are older, they aren’t going to know how to handle experimentation with routines and personalizing routines to fit your goals.
Mistake #4: Looking for the Cheapest Personal Trainer
Finally, one of the more common mistakes is looking for cheap personal trainers. The problem with this is that almost never are personal trainers cheap and good. They’re either one or the other, you just can’t get both.
If you want to dive deeper into why a more expensive personal trainer is usually better check out that article.
Without the proper knowledge, education and experience a personal trainer might accidentally assign things that are actually harmful. Think of it this way: you would never buy cough syrup when you need a painkiller just because it’s cheaper. Exercise is a medicine with a prescription, it’s only good when it’s done right.
Conclusion
The takeaway of all of this is to do your research and take the time to understand that if you aren’t willing to take the first step of getting a personal trainer for whatever the reason may be, it will cost you more than just money. Remember, you can almost always make more money. You can’t make more time.
Good personal trainers are like the doctors of the fitness world (bad ones are more like babysitters. And not good babysitters either) – they’re trying to help you find the right “medicine” for your particular situation. Of course, not every personal trainer is the same. There are definitely a few out there that meet these criteria and don’t make these mistakes. But there are tons out there that do make these mistakes. So just take the time to find the best one that creates the best “medicine” for you.
