Does it matter if a Personal Trainer is fat?
Posted: 09/01/2010 at 01:34pm by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness
Having worked and trained in quite a few different gyms, I've seen and worked with my fair share of fellow trainers.
The majority practise what they preach and love nothing more than a good gym-session, but there are a few who you never see hitting the treadmill, or have only ever been seen in the free weights areas when training clients.
As a weight loss blog, I want to pose the following questions to you:
Does it really matter if a Personal Trainer is overweight? Would you pay a trainer to train you that didn't look the part? And PTs, do you think it is important that you are in good shape?
As somebody who is an ardent exerciser but will definitely not be competing for the title of Mr Olympia any time soon, I personally think it is important that we're seen to lead healthy lifestyles, but would love to hear your thoughts.
Former model and Australian fitness trainer Paul James recently put on weight to understand his clients better, before losing it
Let us know in the comments section below!
Comments
That's a bit of a tough one Rich, I mean what if they were an ardent practicer, super fit trainer for the majority of their life but then through injuries and/or natural age they decide to just take things a bit easier and consequently put on the pounds? My point being, is that they could in all fairness be excellent coaches, with a life time of experience in fitness training but still be overweight. (doesn't a similar thing happen quiet often with gymnastic coaches or am I just stereotyping) Is the image put forward by trainer of greater worth than the actual ability to train others successfully?
Posted by: Jamie, 09/01/2010 at 02:00pmReally good points Jamie - it's one of those things I've regularly thought about. Think you're right about the gymnastic coach stereotype, as it's something I've heard before - I guess some people after a lifetime of perhaps intense activity like to kick back a bit, but I worry that then, they're still advocating extremes as opposed to the healthy lifestyle ideal. Still, nice topic for debate I thought!
Posted by: Rich Leigh, 09/01/2010 at 03:37pmIf a personal trainer were fat, I'd ask to see pictures of them showing that they had been in very good shape at some point in their life, and I'd want to know why they're fat now. Maybe they have a medical condition that means they've gained weight, maybe they've been injured and it's temporary weight gain. I'm talking about "could lose a few pounds" type weight here, though - not massive obesity. The same goes the other way around too. I'm rail thin, and because of that I don't expect bodybuilders to listen to any advice I give. I'm strong enough (pound for pound) that I can advise people on powerlifting, but I'd never expect a bodybuilder to listen to me about building muscle mass and getting ripped...
Posted by: Etali, 09/01/2010 at 04:01pmI don't think I'd entertain the thought of training with an out-of-shape PT. It would be like me, as a designer, showing a portfolio with all my worst work in. (I will ignore any witty comments about that!).
Posted by: Jason Tawn, 09/01/2010 at 07:23pmAdd a Comment
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Fat Free Fitness Weight Loss
Launched in 2009, fatfreefitness.co.uk is the UK's only weight loss specific personal training agency. Fat Free Fitness helps you stop dieting and counting calories, by teaching you how to improve your nutrition, increase your activity and exercise levels and lose weight. Fatfreefitness.co.uk is a great way to lose weight and save money. fatfreefitness provides you with expert diet, fitness, exercise, gym and personal training advice and support, similar to ivillage.co.uk, weightlossforall.com, thecolumn.org, weightlossforgood.co.uk, tescodiets.co.uk and weightlossresources.co.uk. Win diet, exercise and fitness products by entering fatfreefitness.co.uk competitions. Fatfreefitness.co.uk is not a weight loss support group like Weight Watchers weightwatchers.co.uk or Slimming World slimmingworld.com. Fat Free Fitness is updated regularly with new information. Fatfreefitness.co.uk and weight loss expert, personal trainer and fatfreefitness.co.uk founder Rich Leigh disagree with and discourage fat loss tablets, diet tablets and weight loss aid tablets, fad dieting and crash diets such as the Atkins diet, the Cambridge diet, the cabbage soup diet, the Beverley Hills diet, the baby food diet and all other carbohydrate and calorie restricting diets.
