Is Your Personal Trainer Putting Your Health at Risk?
As the Personal Training industry grows, closer scrutiny upon the qualifications and attainment of those qualifications will need to be put in place. 2 in 3 adults incur some sort of biomechanical related injury caused by incorrect daily practices. Through poor posture and movement (especially movement while lifting or under load) micro injuries occur over time resulting in eventual debilitating injury.
Exercise as an instigator of injury from incorrect movement is extremely common. Most people that sign up for gym memberships or start a training program on their own accord have no real idea about the injury risks involved with incorrect exercise practices.
Under normal conditions incorrect posture and movement can lead to injury over time. Even more so, as the muscles and neural systems of the body become fatigued from exercise, while the body is under excess load (from weights) and furthermore put through unstable movement patterns or a combination of the two, the risk of injury increases dramatically.
So if we appointed a Personal Trainer, being that he or she is a qualified fitness professional, we would probably expect that they would be aware of these risks and ensure that as our fitness levels increase while our risk of becoming injured does not. Unfortunately, this is more often than not the case, and rather the exception to the rule.
Let me ask you this – how many trainers have you come across, seen, or heard of that explain and ensure that their clients understand how to exercise in a way that engages their core and stabilizing muscles so as to not develop injuries over time? How many trainers so much as even conduct a postural assessment on their clients prior to commencing a program?
Most clients appoint a trainer as to motivate them so that they stick to a training routine, get drilled hard and achieve quick results. And trainers sell themselves on this point – get quick results! To motivate and assist clients in gaining results is definitely one role of a personal trainer. But this should not be the only role. Teaching safe exercise practices should be the most essential role of a personal trainer. But this is usually not the fault of the personal trainer. The problem with that is that most personal trainers do not have that expertise themselves, and so don’t realize that they are increasing their clients’ risk of injury in every delivered training session.
I have seen it time and time again; trainers that put their clients through grueling workouts wherein clients that have lost most control of their neural activation and have not the muscular activation ability to protect their joints and spine throughout most of their prescribed exercise routine. Sure they might break a good sweat and raise their heart rates through the roof. And they will become more fit – but their health will suffer in the long run. Again, many trainers believe that their primary role as a trainer is to push their clients harder and further than they can put themselves. They seem to play the part of a drill sergeant rather than fitness professional.
The fault wherein exercise professionals lack of knowledge to put their clients safety first lays with the Department responsible for the level of education in the Fitness Industry. Lack of exercise safety awareness amongst trainers suddenly becomes unsurprising when you realize just how easy it is to become certified as a Personal Trainer. For a large number of the personal training schools, it really is almost like getting your qualifications out a cereal box. They sell themselves on points such as “you can become a Personal Trainer and be running your own PT Business in just 4 weeks from now! Enroll today!”
However, when you realize the seriousness to the role of a personal trainer, and then look at the training that goes into becoming one, it is almost equivalent to allowing pilots to fly commercial planes after 6 weeks of simulated flights (which is the time in which you can become a certified trainer with many schools, and some even less).
Think about this for a moment. As a personal trainer, your job is to prescribe people complex biomechanical movements under heavier load than normally undertaken, all during which their bodies are highly fatigued and often dehydrated (as most trainers do not teach their clients’ proper pre-exercise hydration practices). So considering this, should the fitness industry not place higher standards on its professionals?
In almost every industry now, workplace health and safety practices don’t allow their employees to perform single isolated biomechanical activities, such as moving a desk or lifting heavy boxes. Workplaces have certain standards they must adhere to – ergonomic workstations, sufficient lighting and so on. Jobs that do involve practices considered to be strenuous or outside the norm (such as baggage handlers or removalists) require extensive training.
The main reason that health and safety practices were put into place was because people were frequently getting injured through practices now understood to be unsafe. Companies were losing big on compensatory payouts. So it really brings the question to mind – if so many people were becoming injured from poor practices under normal circumstances, how many people are becoming injured during unsafe exercise practices during which their bodies are undergoing tremendous stress?
I believe that the level of biomechanical understanding amongst Personal Trainers is highly destitute, and need to be reevaluated. This will probably not happen until lawsuits start occuring left right and centre, and cases are being won through evident negligent Personal Training instruction. But with the industry growing to become one of the largest industries in the world, it can only be a matter of time. Until then, I recommend becoming self-educated on safe postural, movement and training practices.
Please refer to my post on Symmetrical Muscle Development of more information on safe training practice.
With love gratitude presence and certainty
Karl
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