Do you/Did you have a personal trainer?

1. Do you currently/did you formerly have a personal trainer?
2. What did you like or dislike about it?
3. What were things you looked out for to get the trainer you wanted?

1. Did have
2. I like being ridden.. in every sense
3. He took out Mr. NZ that year

1. Yes, when I first started going to the gym. For one sesh.
2. She already had a BF.
3. Must have just finished school. Ditzy looking face strong prerequisite. Not essential that she does any training herself but must look good strutting about in undersized lululemon.

1. Yes.
2. Felt after a while I really wasn't getting a lot out of it that I couldn't achieve myself.
3. Form check, other slight advice. Someone who actually squats, deads, benches, and not just the normal cookie cutter type uni/tafe degree working at a fitness first.

not really, neil gardener trained me for a few sessions for fun just to see how far he could push me and also a couple of others used me for the same purpose at his gym a while back, but i havent gone out purposefully looking for a trainer....

1) I've never had an ongoing trainer, however back when I did my Dip.Fitness, I spent a lot of time doing mock-sessions with my peers, both being the trainer and being trained. Back when I was at SSG, I began my membership with a coaching session with Nick.

2a) Liked: About mock sessions -- being put through workouts and protocols I wouldn't have thought of otherwise. About Nick's session -- he wasn't trying to impress me by killing me or doing strange things; instead he focused on helping me to nail my key lifts and offering programming recommendations to support progress on those lifts/reinforce technique points.

2b) Disliked: About mock sessions -- they were often over-zealous in the surprise factor/not knowing what's coming next; they didn't always hit the mark on what I was aiming for or what I needed on that day (eg one time I had done a full body strength session the day before, so, given the choice of strength or endurance, I asked to be put through an endurance workout, forgetting that my definition of endurance was "high reps" while the trainer's definition was "all the reps"). About Nick's session -- there's often a chasm between being a strength guy and providing high quality customer service; objectively the session was spot on, but subjectively the human element could be worked on. It wasn't bad, per se, just not all it could have been.

3) Mock sessions: Didn't get much of a say in the matter, and probably wouldn't have known what to look for if I did have much agency over who trained me on any given day. Nick's session: I wasn't actively looking for a trainer, but I had been looking (in general) for a place that facilitated powerlifting and weightlifting. I took a leap of faith and, when Nick recommended the coaching session while I was signing up for my membership, trusted that his background would make him a helpful coach.

If you are after some general fitness, drop some weight, build abit of muscle I think a PT is a load of wasted money - you could learn more by doing acouple of weeks of personal study over the net - (funnily enough it can only take acouple of weeks to become a PT lol)

If you are an athlete, bodybuilder and need some more detailed advice then a coach can be very important.

I have never had a PT and would NEVER pay for a PT for general fitness which 90% of them will do/can only do - If I was to have a targeted goal then I might look for a coach, mentor to guide me - but they would need to be at a fairly high level and def someone who has achieved what my goal is, and/or similar OR trained people to reach similar goals.

Neddysmith said:

not really, neil gardener trained me for a few sessions for fun just to see how far he could push me and also a couple of others used me for the same purpose at his gym a while back, but i havent gone out purposefully looking for a trainer....

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Good old Monstadwarf! I see he has set up a gym in the states?

I hired a trainer to learn from when i decided i wanted to become one. My theory was, i can learn from having a PT because there will be things they do in the industry that arent taught on the course and if he does anything i dont like i can evaluate it to become a better trainer myself, Kinda like i did with my seniors in the forces to become a better leader.

I picked a certain guy because he was very well know and by all acounts from a fairly famous family too, had a huge string of successful clients who had since gone on to be features in mens health etc for body transformations so i hired him and said i wanted to lose fat.

I learnt alot from him on how to do things and also on how NOT to do things so i would say all in all a good experience for me and i got out of it exactly what i wanted and witht he added bonus of a lower body fat %

Davepuppies said:

Good old Monstadwarf! I see he has set up a gym in the states?

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Yeah ankther one from the bolex.days...yeah he moved over.some time ago and has now setup a gym so good luck to him from all accounts he is lovin life

I had one a few years ago, it was great, he would push me and I loved. After a while, I couldn't afford the cost so I stopped it. Only thing I didn't like was his nutritional plan which seemed more like a one size fits all. As in he had a generic bulk plan and a generic cut plan. Very rarely a personal trainer looks after both training and nutrition in my opinion. Would love to have both but it would be very expensive. Currently looking into a nutritionist if the price is right for some advice.

I contemplated competing back in 2006-7.

i used Charlie Duca to get me in shape, but that was more a diet and nutrition focus than training, but we did focus on weak body parts.

i enjoyed the accountability that came with being guided by one of the countries best bodybuilders, it ensured I never substituted a meal for junk as I didn't want to disappoint

1. Do you currently/did you formerly have a personal trainer?
Yes still training with him once or twice a week rest of week I go solo and stick to his plan. He competed, judged bodybuilding shows and has been a PT for over 20 years.


2. What did you like or dislike about it?

I think its fair to say when you are a beginner the workout you will select will be suboptimal or even completely inefficient. Its nice to have someone tailor an exercise routine for you and show you proper form. Nutrition is on point from day one I did not have to mess around with it wondering if I am on right track. Yes you can learn this yourself but if you're training with a person who has done the research and tested it you can gain a lot of knowledge quickly.
I like hearing all the things hes tested out with different form or nutrition and what he learned from it. Constant form checks and spotting is nice. I can go to complete failure and get more range of motion because of spot.

Only thing I dislike is the fake build up comments. I know i am fat and my physique is crap dont need to sugar coat it. I will get fit so not being emo about it but fake comments force me to question his opinion in future.


3. What were things you looked out for to get the trainer you wanted?



I looked for a real bodybuilder. Someone that knows how to get big and not just be fit. I did not want a hippy type instructor telling me drugs are bad. Wanted to talk to someone who could give real bodybuilding advice.

My old local gym told most of all thier PT's to walk. The gym just isn't offering the service any more.
If you want to be "instructed" you have to upgrade your membership to platinum and be part of the basic Crossfit classes.
Meanwhile the gym is going under because half the equipment is out of order.

sounds like a crappy Jetts haha..