Personal Trainers

Personal Trainers

This is just my personal take on personal Trainers in Singapore.

Today in Singapore, alot of commercial gyms hire random people off the streets, give them some simple certification, and POOF!! They become personal trainers! Thats the reason why most commercial gyms you go to, you see ordinary average people or even fat people teaching other people how to get in shape. "I'm not muscular or fit because I don't want to be" they would say. Let me tell you the real reason, these people are only trained in exercise science. Honestly, their certification does not actually qualify them to be a personal trainer, it only makes them an exercise specialist.

Whats the difference between an Exercise Specialist and a Personal Trainer (PT)?
An exercise specialist is one who is trained in the many aspects of exercise, doing them correctly, proper techniques etc. A PT is an Exercise Specialist who also has substantial knowledge in nutrition, physiotherapy and other aspects depending on their specialization. A PT will be able to help an obese person who has hormonal problems loose weight, a footballer who has a serious leg injury rehabilitate, a diabetic or a coronary heart patient to get better with their knowledge of nutrition, physiotherapy and other sciences. A PT is the one who can make changes to a persons physique, using his knowledge on nutrition to give specific diet plans to specific individuals.

The problem we face today is, most commercial gyms and many other such small enterprises hire over-glorified exercise specialists rather than personal trainers. Why do that? A really qualified PT won't settle for the low wages and long hours required by these gyms. No one who has attained such a level of expertise would! Therefore, they hire someone who doesn't know anything and give him some form of certification, and these guys will be willing to stay a while longer. Clients will hire these guys as they wear a PT tag, assuming that they are properly qualified. By selling training packages for the gym, they generate revenue for them. They are no different from lowly paid foreign workers stealing jobs in developed countries today. These guys go around calling themselves PTs, but don't actually know anything about nutrition. An obese guy, a diabetic or a guy looking to rehabilitate from an injury is not going to benefit from such a PT but in fact, might get worse!

Why is appearance important?
Just my personal opinion. Alot of people might think the appearance of a PT is not important, as long as the training is beneficial. Let me tell you, the training you undergo might feel tiring and you might think it is hardcore training, but it doesn't necessarily mean it was beneficial! Anyone will feel tired out after working out doing random exercises for an hour! In fact it was probably a waste of energy!

To me, a PT should look the part. Lets use this analogy. Would you learn driving from a person who drives a car, or from someone who read it off a book but never drove it before? Same thing, would you learn from a PT who actually works out and applies his nutrition knowledge on himself or someone who read it off a book? A PT who applies this knowledge to himself will be the one you can trust. Such a PT will know about the gray areas about exercise, dieting and preparing food. A book can't really cover all those gray areas, but a Human Being who practices it can!

Those "PT"s going around claiming they look like shit because they are not interested to look muscular or fit are lying! If their appearance was never their interest, why are they working in a gym? They must be there for the wrong reasons, like to make money out of you! In most cases, "PT"s don't look in shape because like I mentioned earlier, they have no knowledge on nutrition. Without it, one can't really achieve a decent looking physique no matter how much they train. How can such an individual make a difference to another persons physique when they don't know how to do it themselves?

Why a bodybuilder
To me, I'd say if you want to hire a PT, your best bet would be a bodybuilder! Im not saying this because I'm one, but look at the big picture. Bodybuilding is a sport that focuses specifically on physical appearance, unlike most other sports. A bodybuilder follows special diets all year around, he knows what kind of diet makes what kind of changes in your body, he knows the calculations, and as a bonus, he knows how to prepare the food. Since a bodybuilder goes through a "Mass gaining" phase and a "Cutting" phase for competitions, he is particularly specialized in developing muscles and fat loss. He can help the average people develop a bit of muscles, the skinny people to gain more muscle and the obese people to slim down! The best part of all this, the bodybuilder is working in the gym because it is his passion! What more can you ask?

Will I get too big if a Bodybuilder trains me?If you have read the other posts of this blog, you should know by now that muscle growth is not something you achieve easily, let alone un-intentionally. All the training in the world will not make you grow too big. One would need to adjust his diet specifically for muscle growth and stick to it for years to see significant gains! In fact, one would have to go to extremes in terms of dieting to grow! Since a bodybuilder does the extremes, he will definitely be familiar with the gray areas in between, he will know what you need to do to gain your desired physique, because he has gone through it himself! Need I say more?? :D

Singapore National Bodybuilding Championships 2013
Welter weight (below75kg) and Classic (above 170cm Tall category) Champion