NOTE: I have to keep this one brief today because I’m about 20 minutes away from heading into a CPR/AED course that I’m as excited about as passing a kidney stone.
Today’s more of an “opinion” piece, but something I feel is relavent to many who read this site on a daily basis.
Many of our clients here at Cressey Performance train at other gyms throughout the week. For most, they’ll train at their local commercial gym 2-3x per week, and then travel out to Hudson, MA to train with us, and to presumably increase the general level of badassery.
I also like to think that some make the trip out solely to hang out with me, talk about Star Wars, and to partake in Techno/Trance/Tiesto Tuesdays – but that’s probably not the case.
Whatevs.
Anyways, I was talking with one of our clients not too long ago – who’s a trainer herself – and she mentioned to me how, while working out at her other gym, she overheard a discussion another trainer had with his client to the effect where the trainer admitted that he doesn’t workout himself anymore. Or, at least he rarely does because he never has the time.
She (my client) also added that this particular trainer doesn’t remotely look fit, which I guess isn’t surprising given he never has “time” to be physically active.
And that’s not the point. I don’t necessarily feel that trainers or coaches HAVE to look a certain way. I know plenty of very smart, competent, and very successful coaches who don’t fall into some societal “norm” of what a fitness professional should look like.
If clients are getting results and if athletes dominate on the field does it really matter whether or not their coach can cut diamonds with his pecs?
Sure, looking the part is never a bad thing, but just because someone has six pack abzzzzz, or has biceps the size of Arkansas, or looks as if they belong on the cover of a fitness magazine doesn’t mean they know their ass from their acetabulum.
As as aside, this is a topic that my friend, Jon Goodman, wrote about last year, and I highly encourage you to check out this post he wrote: Should All Personal Trainers Have 6-Pack Abs?
My main beef was the notion that this particular trainer didn’t workout. Like, at all. Even worse, he mentioned this to his client of all people.
This is analogous to your lawyer admitting that he never took the bar exam, or that your financial planner just filed for bankruptcy, or that Mark Zuckerberg uses MySpace.
In either scenario you’d think it was blasphemous, no?
I don’t even care that the dude doesn’t workout. Maybe he has a legitimate excuse. But I find it pretty hypocritical that he’d admit to a PAYING client, who’s looking to him for expertise and advice, that he doesn’t workout himself.
What’s that say to the client? F*** all if you ask me.
Maybe it’s just me, but no matter how busy I am writing programs, articles, assessing clients, running a gym, running an online business, rescuing kittens from trees, you name it….I find time to train.
Always.
As much as we may or may not realize it, as fitness professionals, we ARE walking advertisements. Everything from how we appear (and this doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with abs), and to a larger degree, what we do and say, matters.
Have a clue, will ya!?!?!
What is everyone else’s thoughts on this? I’d definitely be curious if my thought process is on par with what everyone else thinks.
