Personal trainers ply their trade in an ill-defined space. No one really knows what a personal trainer is supposed to do really; or knows how to prove it when they don't do it well. Personal trainers, basically, are specialists in one thing – getting you to believe that they are health experts of some kind.
Apparently, there are a lot of us who are buying that line. Because about 7 million Americans are signed up with personal trainers. Since a client once signed up can be a real cash cow, personal trainers have been sent into the frenzy of sorts these days, trying to show themselves up to be better than the competition. They will train to specialize in all kinds of things to do with exercise and try to present themselves as extra-qualified for the job.
Often though, what they call “specialized training” is nothing better than a simple weekend course that costs $500 and asks them to sift through a simple online multiple-choice quiz. This can be quite a dangerous thing. When a personal trainer holds himself up to be a specialist in exercise for diabetics, he’d better know what he's doing. Otherwise, a patient of diabetes might easily succumb to vision loss or nerve damage of the feet.
Apparently, there are a lot of us who are buying that line. Because about 7 million Americans are signed up with personal trainers. Since a client once signed up can be a real cash cow, personal trainers have been sent into the frenzy of sorts these days, trying to show themselves up to be better than the competition. They will train to specialize in all kinds of things to do with exercise and try to present themselves as extra-qualified for the job.
Often though, what they call “specialized training” is nothing better than a simple weekend course that costs $500 and asks them to sift through a simple online multiple-choice quiz. This can be quite a dangerous thing. When a personal trainer holds himself up to be a specialist in exercise for diabetics, he’d better know what he's doing. Otherwise, a patient of diabetes might easily succumb to vision loss or nerve damage of the feet.