Most of you who know me will know that I am a very positive person and do not like to criticise others, moan or generally be negative. This is certainly not what this blog post is about. It is in fact more of a call to arms for my fellow fitness industry friends and colleagues to see if we can do things better. These issues have been bouncing around my head for some time and I've been actively trying to get changes made to some of them in the various roles I've held over the past few years.
Many people may disagree on some or all of these and that of course is fine. I shall explain why I think it's needed and what I think we should do instead. Please do share your views below, I'm sure you'll have opinions on some or all of these and maybe even your own views on where we can get better and ultimately help more people lead fitter, healthier, happier lives.
Last week I went to Leisure Industry Week. I've been going for years and the thing that has always frustrated me about the event is the use of the 'body beautiful' image to promote what we do. Bulging biceps, ripped six pack ab's, minimal clothing and idealistic images of lean, toned men and women are used to promote equipment, as posters attracting gym members.
Please don't misunderstand me, I have nothing against this look or the individuals who train very hard and follow a rigorous diet to look how they wish. That is their right, their goals and they should be respected. What we have to realise as an industry is that it isn't the goal of the vast majority of people, in fact quite the opposite. This image scares some people off, they don't want to come to the gym because they'll feel inadequate, unworthy, a lesser mortal than the gods and goddesses that frequent the place. The truth of course is different, but if they never walk through the doors they'll never know.
The other point I want to make is to differentiate between self-confidence and self-worship. Being comfortable and happy with your body is a brilliant thing and one that I aim to achieve for all of my clients. It is often more important to change the way someone thinks about how they look than how they look, the former being the only truth that they know. My biggest gripe is with the recent growth in use of meme's and 'motivational phrases' that belittle people for not being able to have the commitment level of the highest level bodybuilders. There is nothing wrong with eating a piece of cake, having the odd drink, having a takeaway and people should not be made to feel guilty for it. Taking a picture of myself with my top off and telling anyone who doesn't look like that they are somehow beneath me, pushing the notion of 'clean eating' as if the alternative is somehow 'dirty' or mocking someone else's attempts to do exercise albeit with less than perfect technique are all things we should look to distance ourselves from. We need to make people feel like we're not aliens from another planet who share nothing at all in common with them, rather we are supportive human beings who can and in fact want to help them to achieve whatever it is they want to achieve, not what we think they should.
Scared of the gym
All of the above serves to make large numbers of people scared of going to the gym. The amount of times I've heard someone say 'I can't join the gym yet, I'm not fit enough' is testimony to people's perceptions of what goes on inside those four walls.
Add to this the recent growth in 'functional training' equipment (of which a lot is fantastic) and the average person who walks into a gym gets the impression that it's some sort of bondage parlour! We must always remember that it doesn't matter if we know that people's views are wrong, to them their perception is the reality.
It's not just the kit that scares people off, the imagery used that we've already mentioned, the names of the classes (Ab's blast, Body Attack, Pump, Boot Camp and my recent favourite Armsageddon) and the seemingly foreign language we use. What the hell is a neutral grip? How is that different to neutral spine? And why do a lat raise and a lat pull-down work two completely different muscles???
Seven million members...what about the rest?
Figures vary dependent on where you look, but the most reliable suggest that just under seven million people in the UK are members of gyms. There are 65 million people in the UK, of which around 75-80% are adults, a total of around 50 million. What this means is that one in seven adults go to the gym, even accounting for a percentage of people who are unable for various reasons, there's still fair room for growth here and we could and should be attracting more people.
Maybe we're not offering the right activities? Could we take people outside more? Do we need to offer different classes? Should we give more support to people more frequently? Is it the price? We need to look long and hard at how we portray ourselves, advertise our services and how we behave with those that try out exercise for the first time in a long time.
Simplify to increase stickability
Once someone has made the leap to join the gym, overcoming any barriers or fears, we need to reconsider the way in which we work with them. The majority of gym programmes are too complicated, too long and too hard. How do I know? Because I've been teaching people to do it this way for years. Why you may ask? Because newly qualified PT's have to hit assessment guidelines and this normally involves a plan of eight to ten exercises. Whilst the research suggests that this is effective, the truth is that for many people it takes too long and they're so reconditioned when they start that it's just too much. Not everyone enjoys waking up the day after exercise with so many aches and pains that they can barely move. For many clients these days I begin with just three or four exercises, I can always add more once they've started to enjoy themselves and have improved their fitness levels.
There's been a big focus in recent years on new equipment and multi-planar movements. Again there's absolutely nothing wrong with this. My experience however is that people's body awareness is often quite limited and even what appears to be a simple exercise often isn't. As well as offering fewer exercises, we need to offer simpler ones. We should train instructors to start with very basic regressions and focus on compound exercises that help improve posture and everyday function. In their personal training qualifications learners are taught a range of high intensity weights and cardiovascular training methods. Whilst these are useful for the more advanced client, very few of them are advisable for the lesser fit individual. We need instead to focus on training programmes for the common goals like weight loss, looking leaner and more toned, managing health and running your first 10k or half marathon.
Special populations as standard
It is now more likely that a person will be overweight than a healthy weight. Arthritis affects around ten million people in the UK, that's three million more than actually go to the gym and diabetes, back pain, stress, depression, osteoporosis and other conditions are not far behind.
What this means is that it's fairly likely that on a daily basis personal trainers will meet and be asked to work with people with common medical conditions. The problem however is that the personal trainer qualification doesn't teach you to work with these people and as such you're not insured. To be covered you need to purchase an extra qualification, exercise referral and not that many do. The last time I saw statistics on this it was just less than ten per cent of PT's who could actually work with people with common medical conditions. This clearly needs to change, illness and poor health is far more common these days than athletic ability and so training courses need to be altered to reflect this.
Our relationship with the medical world is in most areas minimal and we don't work as effectively with them as we could and should. The government funds NVQ's for people to do PT courses where they learn to 'beast' people but does not fund the course that deals with the management of medical conditions. Based on NHS targets this seems somewhat backwards to me and in need of review.
Social skills not just technical ones
The largest majority of what is taught on a personal trainer course is technical knowledge; anatomy and physiology, exercises, advanced techniques and how to use a variety of kit. Whilst it is covered, soft skills and coaching don't form anywhere near as large a part as they should. Research on behaviour change has increased massively during the 20-year lifespan of the modern fitness industry.
It's now known that to support someone to make effective, permanent lifestyle change requires a large degree of skill and practice using various techniques. More time needs to be invested in qualifications in this area, not only assessing a person's ability to teach exercises but to spend time with clients identifying what it is they want, what might stop them achieving it, their fears and concerns and a whole host of other information that will be important in determining whether or not the client sticks to their new exercise routine or gives up.
Over the years the retention rates in the industry have been poor with various figures bandied around. One commonly cited one from previous research is that around 25% of people who join a gym stay for less than six months. Research also shows that interactions with staff significantly reduce the risk of people quitting; imagine if those interactions could be of an even higher quality, what do you think would happen to the retention rates of gyms and personal trainers then?
Speedy solutions discouraged in favour of permanent ones
People's desperation to lose weight or gain muscle often leads them to choose quick fixes that at best don't work and at worst can be highly dangerous. Restrictive diets, juice plans, supplements and even illegal drugs fall under this category. Whilst large parts of the fitness industry have distanced themselves from these 'solutions' there is still work to be done in separating ourselves further, discouraging trainers from signing up to offer quick fix plans in return for sales commission and educating our clients about the drawbacks and risks of going down this route, as well as what they might do instead that would give them sustainable changes.
Six-week qualifications
Have you ever seen the film There's Something About Mary.There's a great scene in it about '7-minute ab's' where Ben Stiller chats to a crazy hitchhiker about his revolutionary idea! If you've not seen it you can watch it here.
The same has happened in our industry. Years ago it would take a substantial length of time and numerous classroom days to become qualified. These days, much like our client's desire for fast solutions, we also want to be qualified in the shortest possible time. It was eight weeks, then seven, six and I've even seen adverts for 3 or 4 weeks! Compare this against the number of PT's who make a success of self-employment and you'll see that with these courses we're often failing in our aim to prepare people for a new career. Faster is not always better, this is a real hare and tortoise situation. To be a top quality PT relies on knowledge of anatomy, physiology, nutrition, health and safety, people skills, coaching, behaviour change, customer service, exercise choice and adaptation, programming, training principles, planning, time management, business know-how, financial forecasting and a whole host more. Can we build this in six weeks?
I would like to see longer courses, not necessarily all classroom-based but more of a staged learning process where learners effectively get signed of as 'provisionally qualified' and then go on to receive extra badges as they submit case studies of their work over time, eventually reaching fully qualified status. This would need careful consideration of course as made too expensive or too long courses would not sell and providers would go out of business. We do however need to shift our attention back to quality and not speed.
Self-employed support
The final area for improvement is that of helping personal trainers to be successful. Around eighty per cent of people who become PT's aim to go self-employed. Many have never run their own business before and training is brief if done at all. It's a steep learning curve in a competitive industry where many quickly need to turn over a profit to be able to pay their various overheads, not to mention their mortgage, bills, petrol, car running costs, shopping and other life outgoings.
We as an industry need to help new trainers as much as we possibly can to ensure they can make a living out of their newly chosen career, one they have just spent a large amount of money moving into. Failure to do so means that the industry becomes a less attractive proposition for future generations and new blood is always needed to create competition and drive innovation.
In summary we need to:
1) Make ourselves appear more approachable and relevant to those who don't exercise and have not done so for a long time.
2) Make gyms and exercise environments feel like attractive options; friendly, helpful, welcoming and not scary or intimidating.
3) Train all PT's to be able to support people with common medical conditions, build closer relationships with the medical world and encourage the government to extend funding for training to include this specialist knowledge.
4) Spend more time working with PT's to ensure they have the necessary coaching skills to support clients to make permanent lifestyle changes.
5) Distance ourselves even further from the quick-fix world of dieting, supplements and drugs and encourage long-term, sensible, healthy solutions instead by educating clients and empowering them to make better choices.
6) Slow down. If we are to be considered a reputable, high quality practitioner, we must move away from short, fast courses. You cannot become a GP or physio in six weeks and you'll never be able to. Whilst we don't necessarily need seven years before we get out there, we must find a better balance.
7) Support newly qualified PT's better as they enter the world of self-employment, often for the first time, educating them not only on the technical but also the business aspects of their new career.
As a very wise man once said...I have a dream.
