Can Your Trainer Also Be Your Friend?

Recently, I have been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have access to the Ohio State recreation centers and occasionally will train there with friends when I am not at The Spot. It is always interesting to watch the rounded back deadlifts and extreme bro curls that go on in a collegiate student gym, but these are usually kids who have no guidance and are, for the most part, starting from scratch. The most disturbing part of people-watching in a place like this is not the misinformed kids but rather the "certified" trainers that are being employed through the university. Granted, these trainers must take a class and pass an exam to get their certification, but after watching and experiencing how they interact with their clients, it is hard for me to imagine that there is much substance to these certification courses. Whether it is talking on the phone while a client is performing a movement or just being ignorant of exercise techniques and sequencing, these trainers fall drastically short of providing their clients with a worthwhile fitness experience for their money.

One exception that I have noticed has been the excessively "buddy-buddy" trainers that are more concerned with discussing this past weekends parties and escapades than how to properly perform an exercise. This approach can make the clients more willing to open up to the trainers and stimulate some good cooler-talk, but this is not a valid way to utilize a client's time. Once the session is over and the client goes home, do your think he/she will be more concerned with the conversation they had with their trainer or the lack of results due to the trainer's incompetence? There is a fine line between being a client's friend and pushing them to achieve their goals. If you do too much of either, you could fracture your trainer/client relationship. It is imperative that a good trainer find a good mix of being friendly and relatable and coaching the client so that they can get the most out of the service they are paying for.

In general, to the untrained eye, it is very difficult to differentiate a great coach like J.L. Holdsworth from a kid that passed a weekend certification class. Both are capable of giving a client a hard workout and being friendly, but I guarantee that J.L.'s client will be miles ahead in 12 weeks. Why? Because when you have been a coach for as long as he has, you understand the dynamic that exists between that trainer and client in respects to being your client's friend while also understanding that your job is to make them better and that is priority number one.

Coach Bryce