For most of us, our Personal Trainers can seem like superhumans.
They’re fit, healthy, inspiring, motivating and never let us down.
However it’s important to remember that they are people too and although they may love sharing their workout wisdom and helping people reach their goals, there are a few things that can annoy them.
While often it can just be some clients’ personalities that may rub a trainer the wrong way, there are some common client no-no’s that are more than just personality quirks.
Here are the six biggest faux pas that could be driving your personal trainer crazy and could also very well be hampering your fitness progress.
Withholding Health Information
If you’re taking medications, no matter what kind, your trainer needs to know these important health facts to keep you safe. Medications can affect your heart rate, doing certain moves when you have osteoporosis can make your condition worse and prior injuries or surgeries can also affect your workout prescription. Fear not though, just like health care providers, trainers must abide by codes of conduct and keep your health status confidential.
Complaining
For personal trainers, complaining just doesn’t make sense. If you are paying someone to work you out and push you then you have to expect to be worked out pretty hard. Plus, complaining takes up precious time that a trainer can use for explaining proper form for an exercise or for general dietary advice.
Making excuses
Many people are busy and have trouble fitting in exercise. Being honest about why you missed a workout of what drove you to overeat won’t annoy your trainer, it’ll simple encourage a supportive, honest relationship. Excuses are what keep us from reaching our full potential.
Setting Unrealistic Goals
Clients who set unrealistic goals are also a headache for personal trainers. Training to lose weight is different to training to put on lean muscle and different again to training for sports performance. Everyone is different; we all have different genetics, hormones and lifestyles. Trust your trainer because he/she will DEFINITELY have a better idea of how high you can reach in what time frame.
Skipping recovery days
Pushing your body to its limits means that you also need to factor in some time to rest so that your muscles can recover and repair. Over-working can cause more harm than good. Personal Trainers have a lot of respect for clients who take the time to stretch and recovery properly.
Giving Up
It is very common for people to give up quickly if they don’t see immediate results. Keep your motivation up and remember that results only come with hard work. Don’t give up as soon as you start to sweat! PTs wish all their clients realised that long lasting results take time.
