Why most personal trainers are a waste of time…and money

Personal trainers

Over the past five years, the Personal Trainers industry has grown by 1.0% to reach revenue of $9bn in 2019.

The booming personal trainers industry has hit an all-time high and is expected to reach $9 billion this year. When the idea of personal training wasn’t a fad like it is now, only the best of the best were trainers, most of them for bodybuilding competition prep, and the results were astounding.

Now though, it seems as though every gym and fitness facility employs personal trainers as an additional source of revenue and many of these personal trainers have never truly walked the walk – but they sure can talk a good game.

Let’s look at why most personal trainers are wasting your time AND your money. Oh, and before the backlash happens and all the personal trainers get triggered, remember, we’re telling the truth and sometimes the truth hurts. There are EXCELLENT trainers out there and if you’re one of them, this doesn’t apply to you. ALSO yes, at the end of this, we will absolutely show you a better alternative that we provide. Is this a ploy to get you to buy our product, no. It’s just the eye-opening truth of the personal training industry and an option for a better alternative, should you want it. Now – read on for the mind-blowing truth.

It takes only two full weeks to get your certification

For anyone wanting to be a personal trainer, they have the choice of becoming certified at various organizations. One of the more popular ones, ACE, states clearly on their website that it takes approximately 80-100 hours of preparation for the exam. That’s the same as two full weeks of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week of preparation.

While, yes, that does take a decent amount of time and preparation, there are still others such as Expert Rating that allow you to get your certification for as little as $69 and you’re allowed to take as much time as you need on the multiple choice exams. You can print them out, ask friends or other people for help and the certifying agency doesn’t care.

Here’s what really bothers us. There isn’t a governing body on personal trainer certifications in the U.S.  Yes, there is the National Commission for Certifying Agencies, but these agencies aren’t required to be accredited by the NCCA to issue certificates.

So basically, ANYONE who passes an exam from any of these places can get a job as a personal trainer. In the money hungry world we live in today, companies are scooping up certified trainers left and right simply to fill their books with an additional source of revenue.

Personal trainers don’t always look the part

 

Personal Trainer Cost

On the surface this sounds pretty arrogant and even outlandish that we would event mention this but give us a moment to explain. We’re not wrong, by any means here, that a noticeable majority of the personal trainers you see at large, franchised or corporate gyms have never competed in a physique contest, bodybuilding contest, and/or simply don’t look like they ever have. As superficial as that may sound, you have to ask yourself this question,

“Do I really want to take advice from someone who doesn’t look like they can achieve the results they’re promising me?”

If your personal trainer doesn’t “walk the walk” or appear to walk the walk, that should raise some serious red flags as you’re pulling out your credit or debit card to swipe for your $65 personal training session.

Here’s what you should do:

Ask for their success rate

Ask your personal trainer what percentage of their clients have successfully reached their goals AND (more importantly) how long did it take them to get there?

Ask what their history is

Ask them what their history in the fitness industry is. It’s important to know if they’ve even competed in a physique or bodybuilding competition and have a full understanding of what it takes physically and mentally to get to a specific physique goal.

Personal trainers can’t legally write nutrition plans

Keto diet, everything you need to know

One of the most important aspects of any training program is nutrition. It’s no secret that you can spend hours and hours in the gym working your butt off BUT if you’re nutrition isn’t customized for your body and your specific physique goals, you won’t make any real progress. Sure, you might lose a small amount of body fat or gain a small amount of muscle mass. However, this is to be expected any time you add a new weight training routine or cardio routine to your regimen. It’s fleeting though as the body adapts very quickly and the results are minor, given there’s no customized nutrition.

The American Fitness Professionals Association (AFPA) clearly states on their website that:

When faced with the question of whether personal trainers can provide these types of meal plans, the short answer is that it’s not advisable. Providing general opinions like “eat more vegetables” is one thing, but creating meal plans is another matter entirely, and it veers well into the domain of a nutrition professional rather than that of a personal trainer.

They go on to say that in some states, a personal trainer creating meal plans may even be against the law.

The ability to legally create a meal plan for a client falls under the purview of an MD, a Registered Dietitian, or a Licensed Sports Nutritionist. If your personal trainer doesn’t have one of these three licenses, they CAN’T be writing meal plans, especially to treat obesity.

This is where we “bro-science” and pseudo-science invades the personal training industry. Many personal trainers are quick to give nutritional advice but have no actual scientific background on the subject matter except for what they’ve read on the internet.

Is your personal trainer personally invested?

Personal training and how to save money

Most trainers at large gyms or corporate fitness centers are judged by their employer on their performance. It’s not on their clients’ success rate however. Rather, it’s on the ability to fill their books and keep the revenue flowing for the corporation they work for.

Trainers that keep full books bring consistent revenue for a gym or fitness center and they are typically given bonuses based on how many sessions they perform each month.

If your trainer was personally invested in you, they’d be doing everything possible to get you to your fitness goals as quickly as possible, rather than having you pay $50-$300 per session for as many repeat sessions as possible (yes, some high-end trainers charge hundreds of dollars per session).

You should ask yourself, “Is my trainer personally invested in me?” and, “Are they doing everything they can to educate me so I can continue on my own once I’ve met my goal?”

What’s the solution?

The solution is to have tried and true physique transformation programs, designed by pro-competitors and Licensed Sports Nutritionists with custom nutrition.

Sounds like a mouthful but it’s actually pretty simple, and here’s why.

Here at Body Spartan, our co-founder Priscilla Tuft is a Licensed Sports Nutritionist, pro fitness competitor, and has been featured in Muscle Mag, Oxygen, Max Sports and fitness, and many other publications. She has designed the nutrition for each one of our programs and we have custom formulas that will calculate your nutrition based on your specific goals and body.

Moreover, each one of our programs was designed by a pro athlete – someone who’s walked the walk, not just talked the talk. From the Founder and WWE Superstar, Gabe Tuft; INBA/PNBA Natural Pro-Bodybuilder David Larson; IFBB Pro Bikini Competitor, Christina Williams, to the reigning Impact World Champion Brian Cage; each workout program has been designed, tried and tested by a professional athlete that not only looks the part, but has years of experience in the gym and with nutrition and knows what it takes to achieve results. On top of that, every one of them has a unique, and heart felt, story of weight loss or weight gain. Trust us when we say, they’ve been there.

Save hundreds or even thousands by ditching your personal trainer

At the time this article was written in 2019, and according to 24 Hour Fitness’ website for our hometown area in California, The average price for one of their personal training sessions was around $67. It was only for 50 minutes a session and you had to purchase a minimum of four sessions in the package. That works out to be $348/month if you did ONE session per week with one of their trainers.

Here’s a quick snapshot of their pricing so you can see for yourself:

With Body Spartan’s All Access Pass, you get:

  • 14-Day no-risk free trial 
  • Full, unrestricted access to ALL of our online shredding and bulking programs that come with
    • Customized nutrition for every program.
    • Instructional videos for every exercise – it’s like having one of our team members be your personal trainer. With us though, you get insider tips and secrets from years of competition prep and experience.
    • Daily workouts.
    • 28-day, 10-week, and 12- week programs.
  • Full, unrestricted access to our Spartan Army weekly content section where you get:
    • Weekly fitness tip video from one of our competitors, pro-athletes, or founders.
    • Weekly motivational video from our team.
    • Weekly stand-alone workout from one of our competitors, pro-athletes, or founders.
    • Monthly cooking show/ recipe video where we show you how to meal prep for your macros.
    • Access to the entire archive of all these items from years before.
  • Access to our private Facebook Group with thousands of members that are ready to offer support, encouragement, and motivation. This group is moderated daily by the founders of Body Spartan so you can expect to receive help directly from the creators of the programs.
  • Unlimited email and direct message support. Our team typically responds same day to all questions regarding the programs you’re using.

The best part about this, is that after the free trial is over, the cost of the All Access Pass is typically less than what you’re paying for your gym membership. Just $19.99/month. If you were to stay on for an entire year, experience every program we offer and the four new programs we develop each year, it would save you a MINIMUM of $120/year compared to the rates for training listed above.

The crazy part is that with our programs, you get DAILY help, not weekly, like you would with a personal trainer. If you had a personal trainer help you 6-days a week for 50-minutes a day, the way some our programs work, that would be $4,680 a year! The All Access Pass would save you $4,452 per year if that were the case. You’d be getting some of the best instruction and information available for 95% less than

Body Spartan All Access

Access to EVERY Body Spartan Program! 14-DAY FREE TRIAL
  • Get full access to our all of our amazing programs
  • Full, custom calculated nutrition
  • 10 & 12 week programs
  • Instructional videos
  • Full workouts
  • Triphase, polymorphic, and contest prep style training
  • Body composition tracker
$19.00 / month with a 14-day free trial

 

Money back guarantee

When was the last time your personal trainer gave you your money back when you didn’t get the results you wanted? We offer a full, 90-day money back guarantee. Not only can you try our All Access Pass for 14-day FREE, but if you don’t get the results you want in 90-days, we’ll refund your money. The only question we will ask you is, “How could we have done better?”

We’re here to bring you the absolute best opportunity to change your physique…and ultimately your life.

Every epic story begins with one, single step. What will your story be?

Body Spartan All Access

 

 

 

All access pass

Body Spartan All Access

Access to EVERY Body Spartan Program! 14-DAY FREE TRIAL
  • Get full access to our all of our amazing programs
  • Full, custom calculated nutrition
  • 10 & 12 week programs
  • Instructional videos
  • Full workouts
  • Triphase, polymorphic, and contest prep style training
  • Body composition tracker
$19.00 / month with a 14-day free trial