A client of mine asked me last night when I was going to put my list of qualifications back on my website. To be honest I had quite forgotten that there was a ‘dead’ link, and nobody had asked before.
I got to thinking; what do my qualifications actually mean to you as a current or potential client? When you go to visit most professionals, such as your doctor, dentist or solicitor, do you ask them of you can see their list of qualifications before you use their services? I strongly suspect the answer is no.
We all know there is good and bad practitioners in all professions, and most have some form of a regulatory body to verify competence and oversee practice. Until recently, that wasn’t the case in the personal training industry, and literally anyone could (as they would say in America) hang out a shingle and start work.
Now I don’t know about you, but the thought of trusting my life to somebody with no qualifications and no experience is a pretty scary idea, yet this is what still happens in the fitness business every day.
A regulatory body called REPS (Register of Exercise Professionals) was established 10 years ago and, although membership is purely voluntary, it has become a nationally recognised sign that at least minimum theoretical and practical standards have been achieved. Its credibility is growing, but people who have been in the fitness industry for many years dislike the bureaucracy, and particularly having to go back and jump through hoops to list at one of their four levels of registration depending on their particular skill sets.
It was an issue I faced myself when I returned from many years living in the USA, to discover that I had to almost start again when building UK-recognised qualifications which were REPS recognised. On a positive note, REPS has a searchable list of all registered trainers, and any member of the public can go to their website and check the certification level of their trainer, assuming they have made the choice to register.
Many gyms will only employ people who are on the REPS register, but independent trainers do not always see the value. For me to was very much about fitting in with what was considered ideal for my profession. It is much easier for a potential client or employer to check on a trainer’s status on the register than it is to ask them to show a big stack of certificates.
To remain on the register, fitness professionals are required to undertake several hours of continuing education every year, but to be honest any good trainer is doing this anyway. Every year I go to at least one national and one international fitness conference, probably take two certification courses to update or expand my skills, and spend on average ten hours per week researching and reading journals, online information and books.
Does any of this make me a great trainer? I would love to tell you that it does, but of course there is more to it than that. I might be talking myself out of a job here, but nothing can make up for experience, and ‘time in the trenches’ with a wide variety of clients. My qualifications are just like artists colours on a palette, and I still need to know how to combine those colours to get a pleasing and successful result.
I used to be a member of a very well-known gym chain, and had to cringe when I saw new members getting their ‘induction’. There were exceptions, but most often it was just a basic programme, all machine based (see a future blog for my views on a lot of machine exercises) with no modification for the needs, goals or ability of the client….almost anyone can sit on a leg press machine and do 15 reps with less than their body weight, otherwise they probably didn’t walk into the gym without assistance!
Worse still, there is no concept of progression. What should that client do when they have done that programme for 4-6 weeks? I see plenty of people in gyms that have evidently been doing the same routine for months, if not years, with no noticeable results. They look almost as bored as I feel when watching them. If you are not excited by the thought of your workout routine, then there is something very wrong.
I understand that it can be hard to justify any paid extras, such as specialist classes, personal or small-group training, on top of basic gym membership costs. However, I strongly believe that if you want to get the fastest results, then it is worth the investment. If you are taking the time to integrate the gym into your busy lifestyle, then you might as well be spending that time wisely. At several points in my life even I have employed the services of a fellow personal trainer, particularly when it came to improving quickly in an area where I had less experience.
Most trainers have different offerings depending upon your budget and need for guidance or specific expertise. If one-on-one training is out of your price range, then semi-private training with two or three friends can represent great value. Larger group training also works, but only if it is results driven, and not just taking your money for a cookie-cutter programme which is essentially the same every week. You deserve better!
Wherever you live, my best piece of advice is to steer away from any big name commercial gyms and find a family run facility where they really care about you getting results. It is a real treat to seek out these smaller facilities when I travel, as I find they have the most passionate and dedicated trainers, and unsurprisingly the happiest clients! They have to be good at what they do, as there is not a continuous stream of prospects coming through the door, tempted by glossy ad campaigns and joining bonuses.
Nobody should ever be ‘just a number’ in a gym. If the staff don’t know you by name, you don’t feel like your progress is important to them, or if you didn’t walk in the door for six months nobody would call to find out why (whilst of course they keep taking your money), then you don’t have a ‘relationship’ with your gym. You are simply allowing yourself to be taken advantage of, and in the past I have let it happen to me. I was sold false promises, impressed by the tour of the posh changing rooms and array of equipment, persuaded to sign a long-term contract and then pretty much neglected!
Why do I tell you all this? Well, I like to think that this kind of attitude is not what I am about as a trainer, and neither are any of the facilities which I freelance in. I am about start holding some new ‘Merlin’s Metabolic Magic’ classes next month at what I believe to be the friendliest and by far the best value gym in Plymouth, Morgan’s Wellbeing Centre. I have partnered with them to run my own group classes because we have a similar approach in wanting to give our clients quality instruction and a motivating environment in which to train.
My paper qualifications allow me to be confident in my expertise and knowledge, but at the end of the day it is my desire to bring my best to my clients which defines the sort of trainer I am. I honestly believe that if you make the time to attend one of my classes, then I owe it to you to over-deliver with what I give in return.
I am giving my 100% to build a ’tribe’ of class members who know and trust that not only am I qualified to teach them, but I am going out of my way to give them a unique experience, great value and a safe environment in which to progress towards their goals – you shouldn’t have to accept any less. Commit to my 28-day ‘Metabolic Makeover’ programme, and I am even going to guarantee you will get results or your money back – just ask a major gym chain to do that!
Having read all of that, if you really do want to see a list of my qualifications, then it is here. Better still, if you live in the Plymouth area check out my website, or best of all come along to one of my classes and see for yourself what the buzz is all about.
Your Merlin Fitness Friend,
Beth
