Signs Your Personal Trainer Might Be a Dumbbell – Part 3

So, you decided to shell out the bucks for a personal trainer?  This is the third part in our series of signs your personal trainer might be a dumbbell, with tips #3 and #4.  The first two parts can be found here and here.

Your Trainer is selling you nutritional products or giving you a diet to follow.

Although Certified Personal Trainers do receive training on nutrition and can provide general nutrition advice such as that found in the public domain like choosemyplate.gov and they can teach you how to find foods lower on the glycemic index or how soon before working out you should eat or what percentage of your diet should come from carbs or how to decipher a food label, they should not prescribe a diet.  They can share what they found works for themselves, but Registered Dietitians are the trained professionals who can prescribe a specific diet for you, not your trainer.

Likewise, pushing vitamins, or energy drinks, shakes and the like might be a nice money making proposition for some trainers, taking these types of things should be discussed with your Doctor.  Just because “Company X” made a study to show their product will make you thinner doesn’t make it healthy and doesn’t necessarily make that claim true.

Be your own skeptical scientist and make sure whatever study was done wasn’t carried out by the manufacturer of the product they’re trying to sell.  Let’s get some objectivity…And let’s get a trainer who stays within their scope of practice.  Ask your Physician before taking vitamins, supplements or other products to make sure they are right for you and are appropriate given any other medications or things you are currently taking etc.

Your Trainer Isn’t “There”

They answer their cell phone in the middle of your sessions.

They are looking everywhere in the room except at you and the muscles you’re working.

They are counting your reps, but they aren’t talking you through the movement or helping you focus on proper form and breathing.

They chit chat so much that you’re captivated by their amazing personality, but you don’t have time to work your muscles during your session.

They are so busy talking about themselves that they don’t really HEAR you whether it’s an emotional block you are having with your nutritional goals or your workout program or an injury you’re working around and they won’t stop when you really have had enough.

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Our final installment, Part 4, is coming soon with the last 3 tip-offs.