Agree or Disagree?

Totally agree. Anybody out of shape can’t even demonstrate most of our advanced exercises. You truly have to live it to even be able to show it, auditory instruction will only work for 1/3 the population.

No, it’s NOT OK to be a fat trainer… Someone overweight likely does not know how to eat (nutrition) or what exercise program is appropriate for weight loss and/or general fitness. Being overweight/fat shows a lack of knowledge, self respect, and enthusiasm for fitness. The trainer that are fat and have tons of clients are sales people, not trainers at heart.

Does body fat dictate your ability to coach/motivate/train a client? Being in shape is a plus, however, it is not a requirement. You may be in shape but that does not mean your a good trainer…

I think that a trainer should be in shape, but if we are talking leading by example, then if one isn’t the perfect specimen as one poster pointed out then you shouldn’t be in the business, I myself workout at least 5 days a week, just recently started doing crossfit workouts, which are grueling in and of themselves, and I feel far more superior to the bodybuilding style workouts I was doing just before switching, and I also participate in kickboxing, boxing and Muay Thai for my workouts as well, all things that if one was out of shape you certainly could not do. I am by no means perfect, I have some bodyfat, and by most standards at 215 would be considered overweight, but I don’t feel that. I come from a background where 1RM was the all important thing, and weighing more meant lifting more, but since realizing I want more out of life I have shed 190lbs and kept it off, its been a slow process but I am getting there. I have goals and intend to meet them, I call that leading through example, by showing someone I can do it then so can you.

Trainers need to practice what they preach. Are you really going to buy a workout advice from a person who looks like the only they workout they get is walking to the fridge and back to the couch?

I think that if you are implying that there is a link between health and bodyfat, then you are doing all of your clients a disservice.

Obviously if I were obese, being a trainer would not be an option… HOWEVER, being healthy is necessary for me. That doesn’t look like eating egg whites and fish all day long to achieve some unreasonable bodyfat percentage.

What I find amusing is the IDEA conferences/whatnot that I attend… I walk around looking at all the “lean” trainers that are clearly not healthy. They no doubt have clients that look up to them, wanting to “look like their trainer”. I think that’s shameful… training your clients to be sick is not at all what I am in this for.

It is to help people be healthier, happier members of society.

How they look is nowhere near as important as how they feel.

When I was in school I noticed the most ridicuolous pattern. A lot of the soon to be Personal Trainer graduates were gaining weight. I was laughing to myself for 2 reasons. 1) I no one wants to train with an overweight trainer!! Practice what you preach has been said over and over, but it is the most truest statement there. 2) I realized that I would probably do better in the biz world as a trainer because I am a fit trainer, and there are so many other out there who are not and people would like to go see a fit trainer more than a fat one.

If you want to be a duck, you have to look like a duck…

Hey bedros, great convo starter! I’m sure you know the answer yourself but I’m going to have to agree with what you that dude said!

Keep rocking!

David

I think trainers need to practice what they preach. Take a look at Tony Horton as an example of being a product of what you sell. Yeah, he’s got a marketing machine behind him with Beachbody, but nonetheless, you think people would buy P90X if he was a fat guy on TV? Doubt it.

I’m going to play devils advocate and disagree.
I have worked at gyms where the highest selling trainer was overweight and where the lady who had the most students in her class was overweight.
After seeing this, I have to think there is something wrong with the idea that only perfect bodies are successful in the training industry because, well, they’re not.

Why do overweight people still make it in the fitness industry? I see it happen all the time before my very eyes. A famous study was done where a gorgeous fitness instructor wearing a crop top and tight shorts taught a class and told the students that her workout will make them more beautiful and lose weight.
Then, they had her put some clothes on and teach a class that told the students that her workout will make them more healthy.
The study showed that the people who took the second class had more self confidence and were happier. You have to understand that overweight people are very intimidated by beautiful, perfectly sculpted bodies and we need to work hard to not intimidate them or make them feel insecure. They want to feel supported, not looked down upon. People who are obese feel more comfortable working out with someone who is overweight because that person understands where they are coming from and they don’t make them feel insecure because they are one of the people in the magazines that make them feel like losers.

The over weight lady who had the most packed kick boxing class I had ever seen just had a baby and taught a class full of women who just had babies. Eventually, she took the weight off but was never perfectly athletic looking. Still, her students could relate to her.

When I first started training people, I hoped to get a ton of top notch athletes, but seeing how my first job was at a commercial gym and not an elite athletic team, my clients were just people who wanted to get healthier. They wanted to stop having aches and pains. They just wanted to fit in their old jeans. They wanted to work with someone who understood them as people and didn’t just judge them for their looks.

I think I am with some of the others here - how you look is not as important as how healthy you are.

I do not care how you look, how you perform is more important.

I cannot tell you how many “chubby ladies” have passed me during a marathon. I wouldn’t have guessed them fit, but they are. The size of their waist is no indication of their health or performance.

I think that this entire industry is a little too caught up in looks. It’s not about how you look my friends. Not at all.

I agree NOW… When I first started a year and a half ago I was about 25 lbs heavier and honestly just as successful. I knew how to program design , motivate , retain, get referrals and connect with my clients. Above all I believe you should be a good role model.. Many of your clients look up and some want to be like you ..My clients successes
motivated me to be the best Cara possible. So
25 lbs ago I ran a 6 figure business and still do
25 lbs smaller… I do not believe it determines success IF you have the other key elements but I do feel you should set a good example . Personally I wouldn’t train with someone who wasn’t fit so I thank my clients who stuck with me and believed in me

The question is : why are fat trainers out-earning you? It’s sad that those that don’t look the part are out-earning many that do. Although it may be important, appatently it is not the most important thing to most clients. I think the “super-ripped” rely on it a bit too much, and fail to really learn how to run a business. Every trainer should be in a great shape, but successful fat trainers means we should make sure we are doing everything that they are doing, in addition to being a walking billboard for our own exercise methods.

I totally agree.
You should at the very least look the part.

I’m a sprint coach for my Track Club “Tachyon TC”. I sprint and train with my kids. At times I will also correct their form while we are sprinting. I’m talking to them (giving instructions) as we are sprinting 100m, 200, 300m, etc… The kids are totally amazed at the fact that I can talk and sprint with them and not be that out of breath. Because, they are. Also, when one of the other kids point out that I’m 52 it totally freaks them out!!! The additional benefit is I get more out of them because they so jazzed that I can still kick most of the High School kids butt. Their ambition is to be faster them me during practice which is my objective as a coach. Win, win.

FYI:
I also compete for USA Masters Track and Field. Now I don’t expect everyone to be able to do what I do. However, trainer/coaches should at least be able to demonstrate the drills or exercises and be able to do them correctly.

I agree, at the very least a trainer should have a physique and a certification. A trainer should not be made out of the same stuff as the client.

Personally speaking I want to work with a trainer who has a body I admire. I think you need to look the part of whatever your product/brand stands for. I also agree that being healthy and being fit is just as important as looking good and one without the other isn’t total fitness.

the trainer does not have to be in great shape but should not be totally out of shape. you don’t have to be in shape to have knowledge of how to train. some of the worst trainers i have worked with looked the part. the only thing a good body shows is that they know how to train themself not that they can train anyone else.

Bedros,
The sad recurring theme that i’ve seen in this discussion the past 2 days is all these trainers ASSUME that potential clients all want to be ripped. Truth be told, more often than not the people I come into contact with could care less about physically super fit. Sure, most want to lose some weight. But many of these people are happily married, succesful at their job, and have simply let themselves go a bit and don’t FEEL as energetic as they would like. They are at a point in their life/career where they are beginning to value their quality of life over the quantity in the bank account. Some people simply want to be put on a decent fitness program, that gets them moving, doesn’t leave them completely sore or overly tired afterwards and many want to get things like cholesterol and high blood pressure under control. All of those are things that you don’t have to be ripped to do.

I think Keira Newton said it best in her Facebook comment above:

“If you want to train people to be fit, you should look (and be) fit. If you want to train people how to get lean you should be lean. If you want to train people to be strong, you should be strong. Period.”

Excellent! While I agree that we definitely need to be practicing what we preach, it depends on who our clientele is. I have lost over 100 lbs but do I have a perfect body? Nope! You carry around 100+ extra pounds for a number of years and have six pack abs! What I do have is a reasonable and safe approach to training, from someone who has been there. I also am motivating, understanding, and I PARTICIPATE in a client’s transformation. I don’t stand on the side holding a clipboard, barking orders.

I train people to run marathons, 5ks, halves, and ultra marathons. I live that by running an average of 50 races a year. I train for triathlons, and have competed myself and participate yearly. I weight train and do it myself. I teach bootcamps, and do them myself. I take classes beyond what I teach. So despite not having a perfect body, what I have is a lifestyle that shows that you can lose, and keep off, over 100 pounds for (almost) 10 years, and that despite not being a “born athlete” (short, squatty legs, clumsy) you can train to do almost anything.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not overweight, but I have excess skin and I will never look like a fitness model. My clients don’t want that. They want someone who helps them get results, not someone who is more interested in their own body than that of their clients during a training session.

Oh and as for the person who replied “How do we tell them it’s easy to get____” I never tell a client that because it’s not easy. Obtaining strength and fitness is work. There is no “easy” way to get fit. There are enjoyable, non-painful, fun, and motivating ways but no easy ways.

You can’t share what you don’t have.

If you are going to be the part you have to look the part.

how about those guys who are in perfect shape and they have no idea how to train other people, or even themselves, the once who are not honestly building their bodies and project faulse idea of how easy is to get naturally in shape!!!

Who cares if you’re a “skinny” trainer, a “fat” trainer, a trainer with a six pack, etc…

Does your “message” match your target market?

Is your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing, in whatever form that takes, embody what your best clients want to become?

Isn”t who or what you are…or in other words… what YOU have become a “message” for others to follow?

Like always attracts like…

The better you understand what you are and what you want to become, the better you understand a piece of your “message.”

Now just figure out how to best communicate that message to those who will best follow it.

Well said my friend. You took the words out of my mouth. To further illustrate your point if I may, a power lifter doesn’t train like a marathon runner and a marathon runner doesn’t train like a powerlifter,nor do they eat the same. They look very different, the powerlifter can be perceived as fat when in truth he is in exactly the kind of shape he needs to be in to excel in his chosen activity. In addition, It doesn’t matter what any of us thinks , it is what the client thinks that matters. and if they’re a powerlifter their not gonna hire someone who specializes in training runners.

I say live and let live. Who cares what a trainer looks like? If there was a totally ripped trainer with no testimonials or a beer belly couch potato with hundreds of video, audio and text testimonials and social proof, I’d go with the beer belly… It’s not about what the trainer looks like or says, it’s about what others - specifically their clients - say ABOUT them. It all comes down to RESULTS… and all YOU have to worry about is getting YOUR client results, not worrying about what other trainers LOOK like. You don’t know their story, you don’t know them at all. We don’t have a right to judge… so long as they get their clients results, I don’t care if they’re a sumo wrestler!

The bottom line is people are more likely to invest in training from someone who looks like they practice what they preach. Sure….anyone can get some clients. But floods of clients beating down your door is not likely to happen if you can’t even be your own walking billboard. Aside from knowledge of exercise and nutrition, people want to be motivated and inspired. This isn’t likely to be the majority feeling from the masses when encountering the overweight trainer.

I understand the majority perspective, but I do not feel like it is completely black and white. Two points that come to mind are:

1. My husband uses a great example when he says that sometimes the greatest coaches were never necessarily great players. (Bill Belichick, Phil Jackson etc…)
2. Some of the most beautiful and physically fit trainers that I know are terribly inept, careless and uneducated to the point of dangerous when training others. A great physique does not represent talent, ability or knowledge…sometimes it’s just pure genetics.

I don’t think that trainers should live a sedentary life eating a diet of ‘whatever they feel like’ while guiding clients and other people to live active lifestyles and eat a clean well balanced diet. However, the goal of being at an exceptional % body fat is not always as simple as eating clean 5 time a day and working out 6 days a week. If it were that simple, I would have a lot less clients. And if having a beautiful, fit looking body meant that you knew what you were doing…then some eating disorders would be popularized as an acceptable diet to achieve certain results.

As I said in the beginning, it is not black and white. If a client wants to find an amazingly talented and educated trainer and/or verify that their current trainer is qualified to help them achieve the specific results they are looking for then please look well beyond the trainer’s appearance. For example…my nephew is 7% body fat…eats once a day (whatever he wants – sometimes just a whole bag of Doritos) has an 8 pack, delts and pecs of a UFC fighter, smokes like a chimney and is confident that him and his friends are super talented and educated with regard to anatomy, physiology and supplementation.

You cannot judge a book by it’s cover when it comes to an excellent trainer . Open the book, study and quiz the heck out of the person before you start dropping big money per hour.

2 great points Sadie. Your first argument is one I thought of as well. Some of the greatest coaches were never as good as the players they train.

I personally knew other trainers who had crappy certs. new how to train themselves but not individualize the program to anyone else, but they looked great (on steroids) and people trained with them because of a misguided perception.

As a PT you are being hired because of your knowledge and experience and ability to motivate your client and I think you have to look the part. Would you take financial advice from someone destitue?

I. Am a personal trainer and I would not hire one who didn’t walk the walk..I participate I’m many aspects of fitness in the gym and community.I am 53 years old and I am loving life and keep my workouts fun fresh and exciting…for myself as well as my clients…i will not allieyself to go too far beyond an ideal weight

A name that hits this right on the Barrel Vince Delmonte . He’s a Perfect example of a reliable trainer that gives the best information with a body to back it up!

I used to think that way but afte reading these comments, you all are funny to me. So does this mean you’d only seek marriage counseling from a marriage counselor who’s been married for a good amount of time and no divorce?

Or what about your primary physician does their waste circumference have to be within 35 inches (for female) or under 40 (for male).

Don’t get me wrong, hiring a sloppy out of control personal trainer well I just don’t think I could do so, but also don’t think it matters.

You need to be able separate what you DO from WHO you are.

I agree with Rob Van!! Looking good is one thing, but being a seasoned, and effective trainer that can push other in to new heights is another.

In the last 11 years I have seen 100′s of trainers come and go that looked good, but couldn’t train worth a damn. I am not saying it’s not important to look the part, but your brain better the most in shape organ in your body if you want to last in this business.

The reason they’re fat is because gyms no longer hire health professionals! They hire the cheapest possible hire, who has no knowledge in health and has virtually no skill in life, but the hire IS willing to work almost for free. That’s the only requirement in hiring- cheap labor. The gym then trains that hire to become a corporate slave who can work 60+ hours without paying overtime, and who can memorize and rattle off sales gimmick scripts in order to get more sales, more people, more money for their gym (but not for the employee doing it). Real health professionals are working at banks or as baristas because they can’t get a decent paying job in the health field due to greedy, corrupt gym business plans who put money first and people (employees and clients included) last.

Hey great post man,

Fascinating to see the different points of view and opinions.

I think it ultimately comes down to the trainers own personal beliefs and values as how they present themselves to their clients, I myself totally agree that you have you have to live the life to be able to tell people how to get the results they want because you have personally experienced it.

I dont buy in to the bullshit that if you are ripped you will scare people off !!!! If you are great with people and make them feel as ease ……then that is the most important thing, making them feel comfortable and motovated, you can do that within 5 mins off meeting them, if you are good trainer.

But ultimately you are setting an example to people and inspiring them by being in the best physical shape you can be.

Much love Bedros keep up the great work dude ! Uk Ben

Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment Ben!

B