Marybeth Turner, a 35-year-old Lexington mother of two young children, has great legs. And arms. And abs. And strength. And balance. And endurance.
Perhaps not surprisingly, given all that, she also has a personal trainer, in her case a huge, gentle guy named John Damon, co-head trainer at the Mt. Auburn Club in Watertown.
“Squeeze. Don’t move your neck,” he coaches as Turner does abdominal crunches while balancing on her back on a big fitness ball. Moments later, he urges, “Keep going; you’re looking good!” as she steps up repeatedly onto a 20-inch-high platform.
“I thought I was in shape until I started working out with John. . . . I was a runner. I was very active,” says a smiling Turner, who looks dazzlingly fit. But she’s become even fitter since she started personal training eight months ago. “I’ve become physically stronger and I have more energy.”
Personal trainers are to fitness what San Pellegrino water is to dining out – a bit expensive, perhaps, but definitely capable of adding a certain fizz to things.
The question is, do personal trainers really know what they’re doing? The short answer is, some do, but it’s hard to tell which ones because personal training is a totally unregulated industry. Unlike physical therapists or dieticians – or even hairdressers and manicurists – personal trainers are not licensed by states. That means anyone with visible biceps, a business card and a clipboard can call himself a personal trainer, and charge anywhere from $35 to $125 an hour or more to watch you work out.
To be sure, some trainers are, or claim to be, certified, but the certification process ranges from rigorous to bogus. Some trainers have not only been to college but have doctorates in exercise physiology. Others have barely made it out of high school, have trained at a weeklong workshop and would be hard pressed to tell a fast-twitch muscle from a slow one, much less advise a heart attack survivor about how to walk her way back to health.
What’s more, the risk of getting a know-nothing trainer may increase as the health club industry booms, outstripping the supply of qualified trainers. The number of Americans who belong to clubs grew from 24 million in 1995 to 31 million in 1999, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association, a Boston-based trade group for the country’s 17,000 health clubs.
To keep up with the demand, more than 300 organizations are churning out personal trainers and there are 65,000 of them in the country, according to IDEA, a San Diego-based organization for fitness professionals. The Aerobics and Fitness Association of America alone certifies about 8,000 new trainers a year.
So, with all those folks out there just waiting to buff you up, what should you ask for? For starters, all this:
Certification. Obviously, it’s no guarantee, but if the trainer is not certified at all, keep looking. If he says he is, ask by whom. The consensus among trainers is that the toughest standards are those of the American College of Sports Medicine, followed, in roughly this order, by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, the American Council on Exercise, the Aerobic and Fitness Association of America and the Cooper Institute.
Education. Ask what academic degrees and courses your trainer has taken. An advanced degree may not be essential, but some study of health or physiology is important.
A trainer should ask you for a detailed medical history. If he doesn’t, “that’s a red flag,” said Walt Thompson, professor of kinesiology and health at Georgia State University and chairman of the certification and education committee for the American College of Sports Medicine. If you have or have had serious health problems, you should also get clearance from your doctor for the type of exercise you’re planning to do. Ask if the trainer is certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and first aid. If he or she is not, go elsewhere, said Damon of the Mt. Auburn Club.
A good trainer shouldn’t let you work out on the first visit. Instead, he should ask about your goals (and make sure they’re realistic) and assess your condition – testing your strength, taking your blood pressure, measuring body composition (fat versus lean tissue), joint flexibility, and perhaps putting you on a treadmill, stationary bike or rowing machine to gauge cardiovascular fitness.
If a trainer tries to make you progress too fast, be wary. A general rule of thumb is never to increase workouts by more than 10 percent from one week to the next. For instance, if you did 20 minutes on the exercise bike each session last week, do two minutes more each time this week. The same goes for increasing weights in strength training. A good trainer should change your routine (so you continue to progress) every eight weeks.
If you’re very sore after the training sessions, or if you get injured, that’s another red flag. Mild soreness after strength training (weight lifting) is good: It means the muscle is rebuilding itself. But extreme soreness – if you can’t comb your hair after upper body workouts or walk upstairs after leg lifts – it means your muscles are seriously inflamed.
If your trainer leaves you alone on any of the equipment, either during an assessment or a real workout, fire him. A personal trainer should be just that – not dividing his attention between you and other clients or wandering away to chat with his chums. He should also offer a truly personalized program, not a canned list of exercises you could get from a book.
If your trainer offers nutritional advice, guarantees you’ll lose weight, or worse, tries to sell you supplements, dump him.
“The biggest problem is personal trainers giving advice about dietary things,” said Bill Evans, director of the nutrition, metabolism and exercise lab at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “They have no training in that. Their information can be just wrong and sometimes dangerous,” including telling older people who may be undernourished to cut food intake.
The same goes for medical advice. Though some trainers do have some health training, many don’t, which means they’d better not give medical advice, said Wayne Wescott, fitness research director at the South Shore YMCA in Quincy. “If someone comes in and says, `I’m taking these medications. What does that mean for exercise?’ I say, `Let’s talk to your physician together.’ “
Before you sign up, ask your trainer for names of other people he or she worked with, and call them, said Roger Fielding, associate professor of health sciences and exercise physiology at Sargent College at Boston University. Be specific: If you’re an older person, ask for names of other older people he’s worked with; the same goes if you’re recovering from a heart attack or have an underlying illness such as diabetes.
Ask if the trainer carries liability insurance. He or she should for your protection and that of the trainer.
When a trainer writes up your exercise program, he or she should make clear what the fee is, along with hours and rules about whether you have to pay if you miss a session. Many offer one session free. It’s a warning sign if a trainer tries to sign you up for a very long-term commitment or asks you to pay cash under the table.
Finally, pay attention to the social and emotional signals the trainer is sending. A big part of the trainer’s job is to encourage and motivate you. If the trainer does all the talking, doesn’t listen to your concerns, or seems mostly interested in wearing revealing clothes and strutting his or her stuff, find someone less narcissistic.
Judy Foreman is a Lecturer on Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her column appears every other week. Past columns are available on www.myhealthsense.com.
SIDEBAR 1: Walking Toward Fitness
A personal trainer may be just what you need, but you can get many of the health benefits of exercise by plain old walking.
In March, for instance, Harvard researchers published results in the Journal of the American Medical Association of a study of nearly 40,000 women showing that even light-to-moderate exercise lowers the risk of heart disease.
“The evidence continues to mount that even moderate intensity exercise like brisk walking for 30 minutes a day – can lower the risk of heart disease, Type II diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis, colon cancer, breast cancer and premature death,” said Dr. JoAnn E. Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
In her new book, “The 30-Minute Fitness Solution,” Manson and her co-author, Patricia Amend, take the guesswork out of figuring out a moderate exercise program. They also highlight nutritional tips, strength-training exercises and specific fitness goals you should set for working out on exercise equipment.
SIDEBAR 2: Information Available On The Internet
There’s no shortage of information on personal trainers available from health clubs and on the Internet. Here’s a sampling:
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Aerobics and Fitness Association of America: www.afaa.com
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American College of Sports Medicine: www.acsm.org
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American Council on Exercise: www.acefitness.org
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Cooper Institute: www.cooperinst.org
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IDEA, a membership organization for fitness professionals: www.IDEAfit.com
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National Strength and Conditioning Association: www.nsca-lift.org