Congratulations. If you’re reading this, then we assume you’ve decided to hire a personal trainer. Your new training guru won’t just help keep you motivated and on track, but also provide you with knowledge that you can carry with you throughout your training journey. That is, if they stick around.
The reality is that trainers want your business, but if they feel like their time is being wasted—or even disrespected—then you can expect to be dumped. We tapped NYC-based personal trainer Brad Baldwin, CSCS, MS, and owner of Brad Baldwin Fitness (bradbaldwinfitness.com) and Jeb Stuart Johnston, an NYC-based personal trainer and nutrition coach specializing in body recomposition and lifestyle transformation (jebstuartjohnston.com), to find out their biggest trainee pet-peeves.
Read up, and then don’t be that guy. Happy training.
“I’m not a huge stickler for time, but clients who show up 20 or 30 minutes late and still expect me to do the full hour are terrible,” says Baldwin. “I have other clients.” Johnston also can’t stand it when clients “call out sick” after an obvious night out.
“We are all adults. Just tell the truth,” he says. “Remember, I probably follow you on Instagram so unless you magically got a virus from the mechanical bull you were riding at 4 a.m. I’m guessing that the tequila might be responsible for your absence.”
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You Cheat on Your Coach
“You’ve got a coach,” Johnston says. “Asking 20 people for their advice will just get you 20 answers. None of which will work out of context. Either listen to your coach or get a new one.”
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You’re Cheap
“It’s usually not that they can’t afford the sessions, but sometimes payment is just not a priority,” says Baldwin, who has his clients pay him upfront for the month via Venmo. “Or, sometimes they’ll send me part of the money.”
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You’re a Motor Mouth
“Talking is OK, but don’t talk so much where you don’t get anything done,” Baldwin says. “And then they complain when it doesn’t work.” Baldwin also says that similar rules apply to text. “Seriously, don’t text your trainer at midnight and expect a response. That has happened.”
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You Don’t Own Up To Your Mistakes
“It’s no one else’s fault that you ate an entire pizza for dinner. Acting surprised that you’ve gained weight just kicks the can down the road,” says Johnston. “The sooner we can deal with the elephant in the room the sooner you can start to see results. We both know that it’s not the salt that upped your weight, it’s the margarita glass and the chips the salt was on.”
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You Don’t Do The Work
“It sounds obvious, but signing up to train and then bailing is too common,” says Baldwin. “You can give me a million dollars, but I still can’t give you the body you want. If you can follow the diet, then you can see results with two days of weights and a day of cardio.”
