The typical PT client

Physical training can change how you look, feel and perform. However, many people have warped ideas about all this, imagining that only huge amounts of work will make any change at all, or else that huge changes can happen in a short time, sixpack abs by Christmas and all that. 

Most people have poor looks, health and performance. It doesn't take huge changes to push all three to "okay", and one to "good". Let's imagine the sort of person who might become a PT client.

• Jenny, 35yo, professional, boyfriend but no kids
• a bit pudgy but not obese, say 30-35% bodyfat
• some knee pain "I twisted it once", and some knee valgus (knees turning inwards) can be observed, lower back pain probably due to desk job, nothing diagnosed medically; gets colds and flu a lot, and says she is always tired
• was physically active in netball up till 25yo, since then has done occasional bouts of running
• struggles to do 3 knee pushups, plank attempt shows lower back caving in and one hip dropping, meaning abdominal muscle weakness and left-right imbalance, squat attempt shows knee valgus
• eats out a lot, and the PT suspects she has upwards of 12 standard drinks a week
• when she uses a step counter, it turns out she does under 2,000 steps a day, that is she is walking to the toilet and for a coffee and that's it, everything else is seated. 
• goal of "get fit, lose weight, tone up"
• signing up for 2x30' PT sessions a week "for about six weeks, then I'll see how I go." 

It's reasonable to get this woman doing,

• 2x 45' workouts once a week, where she does 15 minutes of intervals and then 30' of strength-based workout with her PT
• more fresh fruit and vegetables, not more than 6 standard drinks a week, no junk food 
• over 6 weeks, work up to 10,000 steps a day
• Before PT session - 15' of cardio doing 1'00" easy and 1'00" hard alternating, like 6.0km/hr on the treadmill at 2% incline and then 8% incline, or on the bike doing 90rpm then 120rpm.

Her first workout is going to be pretty simple, something like,

• PT session begins with - Squat-stretch holding onto rack for support, move bum in figure 8, push knees out, chest up, hold for 10 count, do this 3 times
• Goblet squat, unloaded, 10
• Dumbbell overhead press, 5kg x5
• Seated cable row, 10kg x10
• Cable hip hinge, 10kg x10
• plank 10"
• do this sequence 3 times
• Then stretch glutes, ITB, hamstrings and lower back, and put her on the foam roller for her upper back. 
• With exercise coaching that's 30 minutes

She progresses from there, we build squat reps up to 20 then add a dumbbell, we increase the press to 10 reps then go to the 6kg dumbbell, the plank adds 5" a week, and so on. When she can press a 10kg dumbbell she's ready for a barbell bench press, when she can goblet squat 10kg dumbbell for sets of 20 she's ready for a barbell squat, etc. 

Initially it will be difficult working with her, as she'll expect more exercise variety. This is because many people sign up for PT "for a bit of fun" and because she's been told that good results come from going so hard she throws up in every session, and different exercises every time. However, assuming the trainer knows what they're doing and can explain it, she'll trust them long enough to realise that the most entertaining thing possible is... results. 

In 3 months of this, or 6 months allowing for holidays, injuries or being slack, she could reasonably hit 25% bodyfat, be doing several full pushups, squatting for reps 60kg and deadlifting 80kg, and be able to run 5km without stopping, though slowly. Wait, 3 or 6 months? Didn't she say she'd reassess whether she did PT after 6 weeks? She probably forgot because she was too busy enjoying getting stronger and fitter. 

She'll have better posture, her hair and skin will look better (from the better food and circulation), she won't get colds so often, her back won't hurt anymore, and she'll have a lot more energy. She decides to go back to netball, not only enjoying the sport but also the people there. Her greater health, energy and self-esteem will also mean she has sex with her boyfriend a lot more often, which is also going to help her mood - I never ask this, but plenty of clients tell me anyway. 

Without strong goals she'll usually last 3-6 months before losing interest and quitting PT. But that's okay, she now has the knowledge and confidence to train on her own, and there are always more like this for the PT. 

In those 3-6 months she'll have improved how she looks, feels and performs dramatically - from "poor" to "okay". Depending on her native talents, one of her looks, health or performance may actually improve to "good" in this time. If she was pretty at 21 she'll be beautiful now, if she did shotput in school she might be deadlifting 100kg now, or maybe she just feels great. 

Since the day-to-day changes are not great, and since few people look their best during a sweaty workout in crappy gym clothes at 6am, hair is unwashed and so on, a casual gym-goer might not actually have noticed any change in her over the 3-6 months, by the way. But to her these changes are AMAZING, and the chances are she'll stay with the PT after those 3-6 months, quite happy to just maintain what she's got now, maybe push one or two little areas like "I'd like a smaller bum," or "it'd be awesome to do a chinup," etc. 

And that's a pretty typical PT client. It's exactly as my sidebar says - a sports coach gets the last 5% of someone's ability, a PT gets the first 50%. But that first 50% makes a huge difference to someone's quality of life and happiness. Huge. 

Should I pay for a workout routine?

In discussions with US PTs, I often see them resentfully describing gym members asking for a programme. "You have to pay for my genius!" These questions always puzzle me. In Australia, there are gym instructors and personal trainers. 

People join a gym, pay their joining and membership fee. They have the option of an initial appointment where we ask about injury and illness history, previous physical activity and current goals, maybe we measure some stuff, then we write up a routine and show them through it in a second separate session. A month or two later they have a review and perhaps we change the workout. Doing all this is the role of the gym instructor, and their wages are paid through the joining and membership fee. 

Obviously the routine is somewhat generic, and is not adjusted from one workout to the next. As well, almost nobody progresses the resistance on weights exercises, or the speed, incline or whatever on cardio. If people want someone watching every rep and adjusting the routine from one workout to the next, and to ensure they progress the difficulty, then they hire a personal trainer. This costs extra, obviously. 

Now, the routines we give to gym members, of course most don't follow them. They omit the most difficult exercise, they fail to progress the difficulty, the boys flee to the bench press and curls, the girls flee to the elliptical and Zumba class. It doesn't matter - it's our job to offer the information, it's up to them whether they follow it. Guess what? Your PT clients won't follow all your advice, either. 

The two roles don't clash with each-other, they complement. Giving routines to people does not mean I have no PT clients. Many PT clients I have are people I've given routines to. They liked it so much they wanted more, they recognised that a routine written on paper was only a small fraction of what I had to offer. Even if that person doesn't want PT, it's still worth helping them. If someone is thinking about doing PT, they look around the gym and see several trainers, they could approach and ask anyone. Who will they walk up to? The one who gives a lot of time and advice to people with a smile, or the one who does the bare minimum with obvious resentment? Potential clients see you training someone, they see that you're approachable and helpful. 

Whenever I give a routine out, I often say something like, "Now, the idea of this is to build the movement skills, so you can go from this machine and dumbbell, over to that barbell - if you want to. You're physically capable of doing it now, but I think several weeks of doing this will make you confident enough for it, too. If we were doing personal training, I'd have you under the barbell today. But doing it on your own is harder, so let's give you a month or two of this stuff and then we'll see." I've dropped the bait, it's up to them to bite. 

Keeping your routines to yourself like they're some brand name cola drink recipe, it's absurd. In a mainstream gym you get and keep clients by demonstrating competence, establishing trust and rapport. People asking you for programmes is your chance to demonstrate competence, establish trust and rapport. Do it. If you're at the gym between clients, don't fuck around on facebook or gossipping with the other trainers about how drunk they got on the weekend - get your arse out on the gym floor and talk to people. Yes, even give them programmes. 

This approach works. I give out stacks of programmes - in fact, I only do 8-12 hours of gym shifts a week, and I give out more programmes between PT clients than I do in the gym shifts. Overall, around half of clients are found by the trainer, and half come from someone making a general enquiry and the team leader assigning them to a trainer. Currently I have no clients from general enquiries, I found them all myself. A bit under half the people I've ever trained stayed with me for 6 months or more, and 3/4 of current clients (I've got better at picking stayers). This approach works.

From the member's side, no, you should not pay for a workout routine, especially not from someone online who's never met you - yes, I know he has a pretty website with pictures of underweight women with sixpack abs, but he's still clueless. Routines are everywhere for free, and if you are a newbie to physical training, unfortunately you are not so unique and special that you need one particularly customised to you. You just need to train the basic movements of squat, push, pull and hip hinge, do a bit of cardio and progress the resistance and effort over time. Those with particularly ambitious goals or big obstacles to ordinary goals will benefit from PT. 

Things may be different in PT studios and the like. But this is how it is in mainstream commercial and community gyms.

Muscle activation

People like to speak of "muscle activation". Physiotherapists make entire careers from diagnosing people with particular "sleepy" muscles and coming up with exercises to wake them up. Personal trainers with aspirations to internet fame will sometimes pick a particularly neglected muscle and attach themselves to it. Go to most physiotherapists or some pretentious PT and you'll be diagnosed with a lack of activation of vastus medialis, rhomboids, transverse abdominus, gluteus maximus or piriformis, if you're lucky all five. 

Generally speaking, muscle activation is bollocks. There is some value in that it teaches people to be aware of what their bodies are doing. Anyone who's ever tried to coach someone else to squat or the like will know that most people have poor bodily awareness, at the start they can't consciously contract their lower back muscles, etc. Anything that can help with this is good. 

But you don't really need it. You just need to be coached properly in your movements in the gym. Train movements, and the muscles will follow. The best way to activate your muscles is to use heavy weights over a full range of motion in the basic movements of squat, push, pull, hip hinge and loaded carry. 

If you're squatting, don't worry about squeezing your glutes, just squat deep with your knees out and chest up, and then stand up, your glutes will be used whether you want them to be used or not. Squat deep. This means below parallel, having the crease of your hips between your leg and pelvis drop below your kneecap. On every rep, yes even the heavy ones. Don't overthink it, your body knows what to do, you just have to let it. 

If you do this, you will use your glutes during the lift, just as doing bicep curls all the way from your elbow being straight out while keeping your trunk steady will ensure you use your biceps. Whether you "feel" it or not is irrelevant. When your hips are flexed, you simply have to use your hip extensor muscles to extend your hip, ie your glutes and hamstrings.

If you go deep in a squat it is physically impossible to rise from the bottom of the squat without using your glutes and hamstrings. You may not feel it to begin with, but it will happen. Squat deep, and your glutes will be activated. Of course, watching someone squat properly is not as exciting for a straight male trainer as having a bunch of models in his condo thrusting their hips in the air. (I've searched across the internet, but have yet to find a female trainer giving barbell hip thrusts to her clients, or anyone giving them to ugly old guys, it's all young male trainers giving them to attractive young women, funny that.) 

But it's all about what the trainer is trying to achieve, effective training for their clients and athletes, or internet fame. For effective training, train movements and the muscles will follow.

Edit 2013-04-07:  The guy with models thrusting their hips in his condo writes against squats and deadlifts for the purpose of glute activation, "If you train a lot of people, you realize that they’re not all squatting and deadlifting the way they should be."

If the people you're training aren't lifting properly, whose fault is that? As trainers, our job is to teach correct movement. It's up to us to learn how to do this properly, and no amount of electrodes on people's muscles, naming neglected muscles or electrodes on people's bums excuse us from that.

Edit 2013.06.08: the same guy mentioned above had previously said he'd measured people squatting with very low muscle activation, now from his client's form check videos posted I can see why; if you squat shallow and let your knees cave in, you'll minimise the use of glutes in the squat. You could (a) get them to squat properly, or (2) get them to bridge and thrust their hips in the air. The second option will get you more pageviews, I suppose. 

Unpaid hours of PTs

A new trainer recently wrote me asking if he should do unpaid hours on the gym floor getting to know people so he could get clients. I said "yes and no", but that's the subject for another article. This is about the unpaid hours a trainer does even when they've got a lot of clients. The fact is that your clients are work for you outside their session times, too. 

This is something newbie trainers don't always appreciate, one client is pretty much the same amount of work for you whether you do 1 session a week with them or 5. 

I spend at least 30' each week on each individual client 

• scheduling and rescheduling sessions, 
• researching their injury/illness issues and consulting with medical types, etc. 
• planning the workouts 
• adjusting for injury or illness or 
• sudden few weeks without work/family dramas (chance for some good progress), 
• keeping in touch with them, "how did you pull up after our last session?" answering their questions, keeping them on an even keel when their ship may capsize due to their erratic steering, etc.

And this is of course unpaid. Thus for example 10 clients means at least 5hr a week unpaid.

So if you have the choice between 5 people doing 2x30' each and 10 people doing 1x30' each, the first one is much less work for the same 10 total training session hours and thus money, it's 15hr total vs 20. 

As well, the 1/week clients can be more work than the others because you don't control all their workouts, or even if they do them at all. If I see John on Tuesday and he does SQ60kg 5x5, then I know that on Thursday he'll be able to do SQ62.5kg 5x5. But if I don't see him till next Tuesday, whether he can progress depends on what he did that week, he might have done 2 good workouts and can progress, 4 too tough workouts and be too fatigued to progress, or maybe he just sat around drinking beer in between. Or maybe he comes this Tuesday and next week postpones his session and comes the following Thursday for 1hr to make it up, after 10 days will he be stronger or weaker? With the 1/week clients I'm always having to readjust the workouts to accommodate this sort of stuff. 

The 1/week people tend to reschedule at the drop of a hat, anything else at all comes up and they're out that week. 3/week people almost never reschedule because it's too much hassle finding another time and they'll end up working out 2 or more days in a row. But that's a lot of money for most people, and if the trainer did only 3/week people they'd have to work 6 days, so a mix of 2 and 3/week people is the compromise. 

At some point the trainer will reach the stage where it gets difficult to deal with so many different people. It's then time for the trainer to tell their 1/week people that they're cutting back, they can either do 2+/week or transfer to another trainer. Hard to put it tactfully, though.

However, whether they have 1 client or 40, the trainer must allow for unpaid hours of work associated with each client.