When to break up with your trainer
Morning friends!
As much fun as we had in Philly, it feels so good to be home 🙂
Miss Bell almost shook her tail off her body last night.
This morning she’s back to pouting, though. I’m hoping she gets used to the new place soon :/
It was also nice to have a kitchen to make some bfast in, even though I haven’t been to the grocery store yet.
The answer: protein muffin! 🙂
I almost always have the ingredients on hand and it was amazing per usual.
Of course, anything with an almond butter and maple syrup river running through it is usually a good way to go 😉
Changes I made: brown rice flour, oats instead of pumpkin (I usually use applesauce but didn’t have any), + blueberries and cinnamon
Lovely 😀
So today I thought it might be fun to talk about the potentially awkward side of a trainer-client relationship: the break-up.
Sometimes, it’s something that has to happen, whether it’s over training/personality differences or just the time to move onto someone new. Usually if the trainer is cool, and you have a valid reason, it shouldn’t be a big deal. Here are some good reasons to break up with your trainer:
1) Personality differences. Sometimes your personalities won’t mesh. Usually a savvy trainer will be able to adjust their training style to suit your personality (we can usually tell if you want to be pushed without any side chatter, or just want someone to talk to while you work out), but isn’t always the case. A fellow trainer at my Valdosta gym would literally scream at all of her clients and I couldn’t help thinking to myself that I’d be embarrassed to work out with her, because she’d be calling attention to me all the time, but obviously, her clients loved it. Different strokes for different folks, so you have to find a trainer whose style meshes with yours.
2) Eating recommendations. If you’re a vegan, vegetarian, quasitarian, gluten-free, whatever, you need to find a trainer who is willing to work with your preferred eating style. If you have Joe Body Builder who tries to convince you to eat 9 chicken breasts per day and you don’t want to, break up with him. You’ll find a trainer that will be accommodating to what you prefer. [However, if you’re on the vegan peanut butter and bread diet, you can expect a new, more balanced suggested approach within your eating preferences] Also, make sure your trainer encourages a healthy amount of fuel for your activity level. It’s sad, but there are a lot of unqualified jokers out there, including my first trainer who tried to get me to eat 1000 calories per day. Ridiculous. Speaking of unqualified…
3) Make sure that they have a certification. If you’re paying them, they need to be certified by a reputable association. [You can read more deets about certification *here* as well as what to look for in a personal trainer] If you find out that they learned how to train people from their older brother and aren’t certified, definitely good grounds for break up.
4) Moving on. Sometimes you’ll get to the point where you feel like there’s nothing new you can learn from your trainer, or want to try working out with someone else, and that’s ok. Trainers usually don’t take it personally and eventually come to expect that their client may be ready for the next step. My goal with all of my clients [even though I’m not training right now, just teaching group] is to flood them with as much information while we work out together, so that they can eventually go at it alone. Of course, you make friendships with your clients and want to train them forever, but ideally, it’s great to set them up to eventually train themselves and know how to set up their own workout plan in the future.
Have you ever had to break up with a trainer? Any reasons that I missed?
I’m off to ninja-kick the to-do list! First weights… and then unpacking. Bleh.
See ya later with a Fashion post!
xoxo
Gina
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I used to have a trainer and we got along really well…maybe too well. I was already in good shape, but wanted to take it to the next level, and he pushed me hard!! But then he started focusing on sculpting my booty a little too much. And he talked about what he’d like to do to every woman in the gym — definitely a character — but then he started coming on to me. Hard core. It was uncomfortable!!
That being said, I do prefer training with a dude. It’s mainly because the female trainers at every gym I’ve been to have not been the best trainers available.
Hey Gina- thank you for the link- I’m glad you’re still loving muffins- wasn’t sure if being pregnant would change your taste for them– I ALMOST bought some brown rice flour at Clark’s the other day but it would take me a year to get through it with all of the other flours I have. 🙂 Glad it works so well and also great to know that oats work too- sometimes when I’m traveling it’s a pain to try to get ahold of pumpkin or applesauce.
That is the most hilarious photos ‘no it’s you- it’s totally you’ nearly died laughing!
cooked quinoa works GREAT instead of applesauce, too!
still love the protein muffin- that’s the first one i’ve had in quite a while, too
Pumpkin? Oh heavens I must have not been paying attention. I have been using organic sweet potato puree and I must confess….. its to die for!!!! Even my man who Hates healthy food loves it!!
I started working with a trainer for the first time this year, and I really enjoy it. The nutrition stuff is all on me (and I know that I go through periods of time when I’m more motivated to eat well than others), but it’s great having someone at the gym challenging me. I can lift just fine on my own — I enjoy using Oxygen magazine for ideas — but I don’t usually push myself very hard. My trainer and I chat occasionally during our sessions, but he definitely pushes me to get the most out of my 50 minutes. It’s never the same routine, and right now I’m happy with the way we work together. Since I’ve started working with him again, one day has been supersets and the second day a challenging circuit workout. I’m a runner, and two days of “gym” workouts is plenty for me. I think my trainer enjoys working with me, because I am able to do the more challenging and “fun” (haha) workouts he creates because I’m in decent shape already.
My trainer also loves his job, and I can see the passion he has for training people.
However, a close friend (friend #1) worked with two different trainers at the same gym (she had a personality issue with the first), and the second eventually didn’t work out either. Our other (very fit and muscular) friend (friend #2) worked out at the same time, and friend #1’s trainer would stand there and either ignore her and talk to friend #2 or compare the two of them later, talking about how friend #2 was so fit, etc. Not cool. A trainer needs to be dedicated to his/her client during the session.
I’ve already commented on my gym/trainer breakup in another post but wanted to add that as a newbie I was actually scared of asking the trainer for his certifications. On the day we met this trainer took one look at me and said that if I wanted to see results I’d have to stick to a diet plan for the first month, this plan consisted of ONLY the following: 1 cup of pineapples for breakfast, a bowl of soup stock only, couldn’t have the veggies etc for lunch and for dinner 2 slices of ham (even though I told him I don’t eat ham). Should have know it wasn’t going to work out because when I laughed thinking it was a joke he got dead serious and asked me if I was actually serious about loosing weight.
What a doozy. I would have laughed at him too.
I had a trainer who was really nice and pushed me hard but all of a sudden he started talking about how I was a princess and deserved a King and he could give me the world. It then moved on to him commenting on my body parts, one day he found me on Facebook and sent me this long email about how he wanted to pursue a relationship and take things to the next level. It was so awkward and I ended up having to cancel my membership at the gym. I’ve been scared to look for another personal trainer since!!
ack!!!
As a trainer, all these stories scare me and also somewhat irritate me….because it’s bad trainers like this that ruin the reputation of good trainers. I studied a lot and am constantly furthering my knowledge and education so I can be the best trainer I can be. It’s sad that some people don’t take it as serious!!