Death of the Trainer

Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play by Arthur Miller and is considered a classic of American theater. Viewed by many as a caustic attack on the American Dream of achieving wealth and success without regard for principle, Death of a Salesman made both Arthur Miller and the character Willy Loman household names. The play raises a counterexample to Aristotle's characterization of tragedy as the downfall of a great man, whether through (depending on the translator) a flaw in his character or a mistake he has squandered (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_a_Salesman, sited May 15,2008).

History repeats itself and this time it is the personal trainer. Slowly but surely the number of full time trainers is dropping. Trainers are becoming more like class instructors and consultants, engaging clients in bootcamps, discounted sessions of less than an hour capacity, and downloadable videos. It was just today I witnessed a group coach putting a bunch of uninterested, gabbing soccer moms through a session of various exercises. I noticed the women going through the motions with "paper weights" and having enough energy to yak away about how adorable their kids' bad habits are and bellow out a few loud overly dramatic laughs (I'm sure you see my slight dislike for fitness fake community). Also, I know of trainers who make decent profit just having someone get consulted by them for a few minutes once or twice a week. Of course there are the video trainers out there, too. Some of these guys are absolutely clueless. I think they just have a "stage hand" holding cue cards up for them to read as they demonstrate a few no brainer exercises. I love it when they use words like core, burn, sculpt,and target at least a few dozen times per sentence (sigh).

Now don't get me wrong. I do not blame trainers from giving up their day jobs to attack other more lucrative courses of training. In fact, I have also begun to change up the options available to clients..slightly. Some would say this is just the nature of the economy right now. People seek out cheaper options that yield okay results. I would have to disagree and blame it more on the change in the fitness industry itself. Personal training for one person per hour is less profitable than ten per hour. To get more specific with this statement, say a trainer charges $75.00 an hour. Another trainer charges $15.00 an hour, BUT herds ten clients together for the session. Also, the $75.00 an hour trainer focuses solely on that one client ensuring high quality, safety, and optimal results. The second trainer puts together an obstacle course of exercises with very little focus on anything more than making sure the clients don't run into each other. That's an even bigger bonus of not needing to provide quality in the training, I guess.

This my friends is the new route layed out by the fitness industry. Less quality, cheaper pricing, and greater profit for the class provider or consultant. I should be happy and dive right into it, BUT it simply doesn't sit right with me. I a see major fork in the road coming up soon. Either I do bootcamps and forms of consultation or I find a new day job.

-Just my thoughts