You're fat. Why Are You A Personal Trainer?

The problem with my life, is me.

I’m the root of all my issues.

I get it now.

I seem to expect to live in a world where things are different. Where intelligence isn’t a rarity and getting even harder to come by. Where stupidity is met with anger and telling a stupid person they’re stupid is perfectly acceptable.

What’s even worse is I’m no rocket scientist. However even I can see the dumbening of society. Yes dumbening.

I don’t fit in. I don’t relate. This is why I hate everything.

You’ve all read my post about everything I hate. It’s no secret that everything pisses me off.

I hate the fitness industry. I hate the supplement industry. I hate Facebook. I hate keyboard experts. I hate Instagram. I hate the latest fashion. I hate beards. I hate pop music. I hate teenie boppers. I hate emos. I hate hipsters. I hate fruity coffee!

Everyone has an opinion regardless of education or experience and it must be forced onto others.

It all just shits me.

And I now know why.

Because it’s all so unbelievably stupid. Well, maybe not the coffee. That just tastes like shit.

But I will try and keep this to something more relevant to all of us.

The fitness industry.

More specifically, personal trainers.

Before I continue let me say that the following is not about those that are good at what they do. The people who have made this their lifestyle and live it 100% 24/7 - 365. The ones that this isn't just a hobby and a way to make a quick buck because they sucked at every other job they tried. No, as always this is about the other people. The ones who give everyone else a bad name.

Once again the problem here, I realise, is me. I have this deluded idea and expectation that personal trainers are supposed to be good at their job. That they know what they’re talking about. That they live and breathe what they do.  I understand this is just plain stupid on my part and expecting someone to have integrity, and to actually know how to do their job properly is completely unrealistic.

Trainers can’t be too good and strict I suppose. How is the average person supposed to deal with that? The strict living trainer just doesn’t understand the pressures of not eating bad food. They’re some kind of freak that doesn’t give in to cravings.  If the trainer is fat, can’t follow a diet and trains like a moron, then it’s easier for the client to relate. So now we have fat useless trainers training fat useless clients. Nothing gets done. Nothing changes and everyone is happy. Yippee!

I look at the standard of trainer and it seems to get lower day by day.  Half the time you wouldn’t even know they’ve ever stepped into a gym, let alone work in one. Weak, fat, out of shape people that spend all day posting pictures of the terrible food they eat and booze they drink as if they’re immune to the effects of it. Yes you can eat it. Good for you. Would you like a medal? Newsflash – you look like shit! You look worse than your clients who are paying you to help them change because even they don’t want to look that bad!

Clients and ex clients will say many things about me. A lot of them bad. I’m an asshole. I’m too blunt. Too direct. Too serious. Too boring. I push people to hard. These are probably some of the PG rated things and the list surely goes on and on. I am certainly not the best coach out there. I definitely don’t look that good. But what no one can ever question of me, is if I practice what I preach.

There is supposed to be a gap between trainer and client. They shouldn’t be on the same level. The client is paying for the services of someone who is apparently better than them. If they’re both the same, what exactly is the client getting? What kind of message is a trainer sending out when they brag about all the stupid shit they eat and drink? How can they expect to be taken seriously?

This industry is supposed to be full of awesome looking people. Read that again - Awesome looking. Nowhere is “nice personalities” mentioned. This whole industry is about as shallow as a puddle. It is vanity driven. Anyone who says it’s all about health is delusional.

People don’t spend thousands of dollars on gym memberships, supplements, food, drugs, clothes, surgeries and training because they care about their health. It’s about looking good. The media will have you believe that’s a bad thing. I disagree. I think it’s awesome. Walk into a room full of good looking, well dressed people, and that’s a cool place to be. Walk into your local Centerlink office and you’ll get the idea of what’s at the other end of the spectrum.

We keep hearing the world is getting fatter. Australia is one of the fattest nations on EARTH.

What happened to the good looking, lean people?

Where are they?

They’re getting hard to come by because the trainers training people look like shit!

Chances are that if the person giving the advice has no clue, you’re probably not going to get the results you’re after.

Don’t get me wrong, I said earlier I’m certainly nothing to look at, but at least I’m lean. At least I have abs. If it was practical for me to wear a paper bag over my head and hide this horrible head, believe me I would.  Unfortunately I get hot too easy and a sweaty wet bag sticking to me would make training really uncomfortable.

Now is having abs and being lean the most important aspect of being a trainer or coach? Of course not, there is much more to it than that. However when 90% of the people we come in contact with want to be lean and have abs, the people giving advice on how to get there, should already be there themselves!

There are trainers out there that are straight up fat! They claim to be all about health. How the hell are you selling a service of apparent health when you’re fat? FAT ISNT HEALTHY!

These people can’t even follow a diet. They’re giving out dietary advice when they can’t go more than five meals before succumbing to their cravings and scoffing down something sweet.

They advertise 12-week challenges that they themselves would fail miserably at which involve dangerously low calorie diets and ridiculous cardio protocols. They copy every other fad out there because they have no real knowledge themselves. As a result they really have no clue on how to help transform someone. It's all guess work and it's extremely dangerous!

When I seek advice on how to do something, I look for those that are the best in their field. People who have done what I’m trying to do, and done it to the highest standards. It only makes sense to me. Why would I listen to the words of someone who isn’t any good? I’m not very good at it, so listening to someone who is no better isn’t going to help me. A perfect example is internet bodybuilding forums. Full of experts, yet not a great deal of knowledge. I always like reading posts that start with, “I’ve never done it, but this is what you should do.” Real life experience there.

I like to listen to people who actually live what they say. Sorry but I’m not taking advice on how get lean from a fat person. I’m not interested in the opinion of someone that hasn’t got any muscle in regards to the best way to build it. I don’t care how good their advice may be. I don't care how many books they've read. I don’t care how many people they’ve transformed. If they can’t or won’t do it themselves, they have no credibility with me.

This may be narrow minded and stupid. I’m sure I’ve missed out on a lot of valuable information over the years due to my stubbornness in this area. I can live with that.

I think a basic prerequisite for giving and selling advice on training and dieting is that you actually know how to train and diet. Oh, and you look the part. If you can’t follow a diet then you have absolutely no right in telling someone they need to. Claiming that IIFYM is a better way of dieting because it allows you the freedom to eat what you like is just semantics for “I’m too lazy to stick to something.” If you can’t make progress with your own training then selling your lack of knowledge on how to do so is simply lying.

People are paying for your expertise. They’re paying lots of money for it too. I’m not going to spend good money on a lawyer that only has a thin grasp of the law.  A specialist brain surgeon to do a knee reconstruction “coz its all in the body and I’m sure I can figure it out once I’m in there.” You are supposed to be something of an expert in your field, which is why people are paying you money.

I’m fairly certain I’m not alone here so why are there so many of these useless trainers still working? Why is it acceptable for a person who clearly has no experience or knowledge in training or nutrition to sell services like someone who does?

I understand that everyone has different reasons for employing the services of a personal trainer or coach. However 99% of the time it’s to assist them in doing something they couldn’t otherwise do themselves.  The client is allowed to have a completely realistic expectation that the person selling the service knows what they’re talking about. The entire industry is something of a joke due to the fact that too many of these trainers have no skill, no knowledge and no experience and to pay them anything is the ultimate rip off. When you walk into your local gym and look at the trainer profiles on the wall and read the umpteenth description that says, “I’m here to motivate you and take your fitness to the next level. I’ll super charge your metabolism with clean healthy eating blah blah blah” take a look at the person who wrote that. If they don’t look the part, they probably don’t have the skills needed to help you. So either complain to the manager about hiring unqualified trainers or go directly to the person and question why they look like shit.

Apparently publicly shaming fat people is unacceptable. Well, I’m telling you that publicly shaming someone who’s shit at their job, isn’t! Tell them I sent you.

Let’s get rid of these useless trainers and bring some credibility back to the industry.