Personal Trainers at Commercial Gyms

Personal Trainers at Commercial Gyms

By: Will HitzelbergerPlease Get Help.

I obviously love fitness, nutrition and just improving overall health and performance. I try not to knock other areas within this awesome industry. I have definitely looked back at things I was doing ten years ago and cringe that I ever had someone do that. Gray Cook is on a mission for a Standardized Operating System for fitness and I could not agree more with that idea.

I was recently visiting family in Dallas and went with my dad to a commercial gym to get a couple of workouts in. Over the years I have been to very few of these because I have always worked out at the local high school or college weight room or even just the fitness center of a hotel.

I am always totally floored with the idea of personal trainers and their operation at these gyms.

I am not one caught up in how many certifications you can get to follow your name, but more so your educational background, intern and work experience. These personal trainers are getting certified overnight, and are then considered qualified to train someone, anyone.

Would you trust someone to file your taxes who became a CPA over the weekend? A CPA that did not major in accounting, that did not get a masters degree, and then worked for another company under other professionals for 10 years? NO.Would you pay someone to represent you in a legal case that hadn’t gone to Law School and hadn’t taken the Bar Exam? NO.

It doesn’t happen anywhere.

Obviously, I am not talking about all personal trainers. There are extremely well qualified people out there. Please take from this how important it is to do your homework. These people are not cheap.

At SSP we have a very unique set up, but we set it up with the client in mind. We wanted a formula that could yield the best results because we knew results would drive more traffic.

All training at SSP is under the supervision of one of our performance coaches. Basically, it’s not an open gym. Everything is appointment based and when you come in you will work with someone on your program. Also, once you become a SSP client, you can come in as many times in a week as possible. We never wanted anyone to think of a per session cost or not come in because they didn’t want to pay for a session.

We want results!

Training is designed around assessments and goals. If a client has an injury or pain, our staff is equipped to handle that.

Another piece of information to be aware of: just because someone was a former athlete, or interned or worked for a collegiate or professional organization does not qualify them to work with you.

So what does? The million dollar question that there is not an answer to.

My advice: Do a free session, but don’t let them kill you. So many people like to prove themselves on that free session. They should be able to give you feedback on things they would like to work with you on, as well as hear your goals and develop a plan to work on them.

If you like it, sign up for a small package. Don’t commit long term until you have experienced it for at least a couple of months.

I hope this was helpful and I am not saying that SSP or myself are almighty. I just wanted to provide an example of a different model.

As always, all comments are welcomed.