We love our Personal Trainers!  They are not only a motivating force to help us reach our fitness goals, but they often become one of our closest confidants and friends.  It’s this close bond however,  that I believe allows us to cut our trainers a little too much slack when it comes to their performance and our expectations of them.  As a former personal trainer, and now as someone who interacts everyday with both personal trainers and their customers, I think we could benefit from a friendly reminder to our trainers that we’re paying for a service.  It’s time for some Personal Trainer Etiquette review!

1. Personal Trainers should not be rep counters!  We pay these guys and girls for their expertise in the fitness industry or for their knowledge of a specific sport or training method.  We’re not paying them to count to 12.

2. Good personal trainers will try to keep us engaged with friendly banter and such, which definitely does help us stay motivated. However we’re paying our personal trainers to dedicate their time to us.  They can (and should) conduct their business on their own time.

3. While some of these personal trainers do look like Greek Gods, we know they’re human and have a social life as well as we do.  Just as you wouldn’t walk into the office wearing the same clothes you wore to a birthday party the night before, our personal trainers should present themselves with the same professionalism.  This is a paramount of personal trainer etiquette!

4. Personally, I like having a personal trainer that LOOKS like I want to look.  However I don’t want to spend an hour watching you flex in the mirror every chance you get.  You’re pretty. I get it.

5. Having a personal connection with your trainer is awesome.  Sharing life stories is not only therapeutic, it’s also a great stress relief and often helps you focus at the task at hand. It should be an opportunity for YOU to vent.  Not your trainer.

6. This isn’t happy hour.  Even though our trainers may be friends with other clients and gym employees, the hour we pay them to work us out is our time, not their time to get caught up on the latest gossip.

7. Our trainers should make us feel like a priority.  If you show up late to work.  it’s likely you’ll get reprimanded if it becomes a habit.  Yet we seem to look the other way if our trainers are late or show up unprepared.

8. Never wear spandex. Male and Female Trainers take note:  Your baby maker is in our direct line of vision.  We don’t need to be staring at your roll of lifesavers or cameltoe for the better part of an hour.

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