Does Personal Training education give us skills to be ‘personal’ enough?

This is a topic I hear so often as a training provider in the fitness industry from PT’s and I want to explore it with you now.

Firstly lets look at an example of the things clients ask of PT’s to understand what we is <i>expected</i> of us:

•Lose weight

•Tone up

•Get fitter

•Run faster

•Gain muscle

•Reduce body fat

•Achieve a specific health or fitness goal

•Motivation &amp; answerability

•Learn why they hurt when they move and how to move better

PT education does of course give you the ability to help clients achieve almost all of the above. Yet you see how I underlined the last line on the list, well this is the part that I think is one of the biggest challenges for any PT.

This point wouldn’t necessarily be an issue for PT’s if we were trained to understand how to assess and therefore PREPARE our clients bodies to move with BESPOKE exercise prescription designed for THEIR intrinsic set up. What I mean by this is that if we were trained to do simple neuro-musculoskeletal assessments simply for FUNCTION &amp; MOVEMENT capacity (which are the 3 sub systems of our clients INTEGRATED SYSTEM that our exercise prescription directly influences) we would have more confidence in which clients are actually our remit or which need to be referred to a clinician.

OR

If they were set up with perfect intrinsic biomechanics when they came to us the chances are that this would never be an issue because we can simply apply all of our ‘extrinsic biomechanics’ correction techniques we are taught like “knees in line”, “back upright” or “head in line” for example.

However exactly how many of our clients DO NOT have some kind of dysfunction, previous injury, poor posture, problem areas, stiff or aching joints that we, as PT’s, are more often than not told we probably shouldn’t be dealing with?

But we do take them on because if we didn’t we wouldn’t have any clients!

<b><i>*Note: Just to be perfectly clear on this point, I am not suggesting for a minute you work with clients outside of your remit or that you are not insured to work with. </i></b>

Having read a few articles after googling <i>‘Top reasons for employing a PT’ </i>this point below stuck out for me in relation to the above;

<b><i>6.</i></b><i> </i><b><i>Put the “personal” in your training </i></b>

<i>A skilled trainer will assess your specific needs, injuries, health conditions or training goals (that 10km race you’re dreaming about, for example). The trainer will then develop a personalised plan with clear timelines and short-term achievement goals that will safely and effectively enable you to succeed.</i>

Assess?

So what kind of assessment?

We are <i>trained </i>to go through verbal questioning and writing the answers on a ParQ - which, might I add, if the client did in fact tell us all of their aches, injuries or health conditions we are generally advised to refer them.

How many clients have none of these?

Honestly?

It’s usually the previously injured, overweight, inactive people with biomechanical issues that ask for our help!!!

And do you know what I find crazy?  ….we as PT’s are the ones <i>perfectly placed</i> to help these people should we possess the right skill set to have the confidence to do this, since we are the professionals they often see more than once a week, the one’s who are around the gym offering support even outside of sessions, also very often delivering their classes too since many of us are hybrids these days and surely <i>injury prevention</i> is better than cure - don’t you agree??

So What?

(My favourite question) I was one of those fitness professionals who tried to ‘make’ clients keep their spine ‘neutral’ when squatting or keep their knees in line with their toes as i had been trained and I got frustrated when they did not do what I was teaching them, wondering how on earth they couldn’t do something as simple as keep there knees in line?… for gods sake!!

They also kept asking me

<i>“what is the best exercise to help my back stop aching?”</i>

Errrrr… go and see a therapist, I have no idea!?

The question I keep asking myself is;

Should we as PT’s even be able to get any insurance for working one to one considering the rarity of those clients ‘technically’ within our remit or should PT education be more advanced?

Tricky considering most PT’s are demanding lower priced courses and more online learning, with less face to face education due to their low income and their need to be working as much as possible. In my experience no great knowledgeable PT is just a PT as they often realise the need for more information/skill’s to be able to truly PERSONALLY train someone confidently around all the issues they come to us with.

But this is just my opinion, whats yours?

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/news-features/TMG11096954/Fitness-Truths-how-to-find-a-good-personal-trainer.html

http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/benefits-of-a-personal-trainer

http://www.freshvancouver.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=140:top-ten-reasons-to-hire-a-personal-fitness-trainer-&amp;catid=49:health&amp;Itemid=108

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