Response to Cereal Box Personal Trainers

Okay, so it seems that (as I expected) I caused a bit of a stir
with my last past about 'not-so-personal-trainers'.

I have received a whole slough of questions from you on the subject,
and there are a lot of you who have had bad experienced with these
people.

I got one email from a lady in Seattle who paid her trainer
$175/hr, and he did little more than show her how to use the
machines at her 'boutique' gym.

This is little more than an orientation folks, and this shouldn't cost you
more than $75, and in many cases gyms offer this for free.

This wasn't the only case. One of my wonderful clients Sue told me of a very
similar story where her friend experienced nearly the identical situation, and
in this case the same gym offered a free orientation.

So you can pay for the service, or get it free, what would you choose?

I got an email from yet another woman hired a trainer to come to her house for over
$200 an hour. She wanted to lose about 20lbs before her daughters
wedding and she needed results fast. The program this idiot (to
put it lightly) put her on was almost entirely stretching and
core-stability work. She lost about two pounds over the course of
6 weeks - utterly ridiculous!

Just because core training is trendy, doesn't mean it will do a damn thing
for you!

For those of you are have just started reading my blog, you might not have received my
special report on the fallacies of core training I wrote some time ago.
If not, email me and I'll send you a free copy.

Anyway, I'm ranting...back to the subject at hand.

So how do you find a trainer who is worth the bill?

First off, education. You need to find someone that at the very
least has two years of university study under their belt - and
preferably have a four year degree in a field such as Kinesiology
or Human Physiology.

Second, ask for their certifications. Anyone certified by the NSCA
(national strength and conditioning association) is a good bet.
There are two things you should look for here, NSCA offers two different
certificates. NSCA-CPT and CSCS.

NSCA-CPT is a certified personal trainer

CSCS is a certified strength and conditioning specialist.

To make things easier for you, anyone who is a CSCS has to
have a degree in a related field to even get certified. So if you
find someone who is a CSCS, your work is done. They will have
completed at least 4 years in university studying human performance
and exercise, and they will have passed the most highly regarded
certification process in the WORLD.

If you look in any of the top reputable magazines or books on
fitness (Men's Health and Women's Health are two of the only ones
that I recommend) look at the article contributors. Nearly every one
will have the CSCS designation. There is proof positive that these
people should know what they're talking about.

Furthermore, the top names in the industry at the forefront of
exercise physiology research, and the people who work with the
elite of the elite are CSCS designated.

These are folks such as:

Dr. Donald Chu, PhD, CSCS
Dr. Mauro Di Pasquale, MD, CSCS
Dr. Tudor Bompa, Phd, CSCS
Dr. John Berardi, Phd, CSCS

These guys write the textbooks that the university students learn from
all over the world...nuff said.

There is another reputable source that I would
recommend, and that is CSEP (Canadian Society of Exercise
Physiology) but it is not found outside of Canada, and there are
far less people certified by this organization so it would be
harder to find someone with this designation.

So there you have it! Now you have the information you need to
ensure that you find the kind of personal trainer who knows what they
are talking about.

Keeping you fit and informed,

RD