80% of all prospects that come to me want to “tone up” and gain muscle.
In the prospect’s mind during the contemplation stage, the only thing that they are considering hiring a personal trainer for is his or her body aesthetics and motivation. A good personal trainer knows better and will dive much deeper into how we can REALLY help them.
“I want to lose my belly and bat wings, but no weights, the doctor told me it’s bad to deadlift and I don’t want to get bulky”
How many times have you heard that one?
Almost everyone has chronic pain in some way or another if they are not perfectly aligned in the skeleton or muscle symmetry relation.
They don’t come to us for that because of a few major detrimental reasons personal trainers are highly undervalued. They listen to their doctors that only treat the pain itself through medication and warnings of what not to do. Or they go to a chiropractor that will also treat the pain (the good ones find the ROOT of the problem and address that over time).
Some personal trainers (here come the 80:20 rule) don’t know corrective exercise and that it is the FIRST thing that should be accompanied by mobility and stability training before any strength application (even though it in itself IS strength gaining).
AND
If you are going after pure hypertrophy, you are limiting your strength ceiling if you are not properly aligned.
So, if you want to lose weight, work on your posture.
If you want to gain strength, work on your posture.
If you are in pain… WORK ON YOUR POSTURE!
Postural deformities are the leading reason for common chronic pain. You could have back pain due to tight antagonistic muscles, or even tight protagonist muscles. Your imbalance from your left to your right shoulders could be causing a shift in the discs of your spine, pinching a nerve, or a piece of tissue in between. Your neck could be hurting because your hips could be misaligned from a foot thing. IT ALL CONNECTS.
After you are whole, then, and only then, do we build you. A good personal trainer programs and reacts like this. If you’re in pain, stop. If you develop pain because of a workout, stop. Work on the REASON you are in pain.
