Any gym owner in the world will tell you about the “difficulty of finding personal trainers”. What they really mean is “finding good personal trainers”. Recruitment is tough, and churn is expensive.

And there’s one factor above all that makes it particularly difficult to recruit quality PTs, who are equipped to help a variety of clients. The inconsistency of education in our industry.

Cookie-cutter coaching

Ask two newly hired PTs to solve a problem for the same client, and you’ll probably get two completely different responses. This is because their methods will usually be based on learned templates, not thoughtful problem-solving.

Each trainer will believe their approach is “right” and dismiss the other as wrong. Why?

Because there are endless certifications to choose from — and they’re all teaching their own, different methods. Not only does teaching trainers “our way” poorly prepare PTs for the variability in client needs, it makes it difficult for gym owners to know what they’re getting when they hire one.

PT certification courses focus on specific exercises and assessments, rather than the underlying science behind them. Sure, we get basic textbook anatomy — but then we’re asked to apply it to exercises performed in completely different positions. We’re given cookie-cutter assessments and told to make generalised assumptions about body structure, strength level and cognitive ability.

Some CPT programs prioritise stability, while others dismiss it as irrelevant. Some courses label exercises like leg extensions as dangerous, while others call them “the best exercise for the quadriceps.”

The “evidence” we’re given comes from experiments conducted on individuals that aren’t our clients, and contains enough uncontrolled variables to give a scientist of any other discipline nightmares.

No wonder the cohesion, consistency and quality of service (and recruitment) is an issue. No wonder the average new trainer leaves their team within 6 months.

To solve this problem, we need to change the way trainers are educated. Because let’s be clear: exercise is a science. There’s an art to teaching it, but the science—from mechanics to physiology to psychology—is undeniable.

Taking a truly scientific approach

Scientific university degrees have a strong emphasis on theoretical understanding and practical application. I had very little experience in the real world when I got my Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering, but I was equipped with principles and problem-solving tools.

In my first job, I was asked to calculate how to secure a 70,000kg extraction unit on the deck of a 100-metre-long vessel battling waves of up to 8m. Unsurprisingly, I’d never done that before, but my education (and some advice from senior engineers) provided the tools to solve it.

My boss could have asked a fellow graduate engineer to do it, and would have gotten a similarly competent solution, probably through a slightly different means.

This is owed to our university education. In Structural Analysis classes we weren’t taught “the way” to design a bridge. We were taught how to design all 11 types of them, and how to assess the circumstantial suitability of choosing one. But this isn’t the case in the fitness industry.

To address this, entry-level PT courses should be universally required to teach:

• a fundamental understanding of anatomy – not just in textbook terms of what functions muscles have, but how that actually applies to exercise and how individual structures vary.
• how the goal of the exercise dictates which joints should be moving and which should stay still.
• an appreciation of how the difference between a dumbbell, cable or machine is not whether they’re “functional”, but a varying direction and stability of force application.
• only a guideline to the possible considerations with potential client problems, not assumed “solutions”.

And that is all. Before we even consider raising the bar in our industry, we have to make sure it’s level first.

About Benny Price

Benny (BEng, CPT, RTSm) is RTS Global’s COO and Level 2 Educator. Benny has delivered RTS workshops to hundreds of students at market-leading facilities across the world, working with gym owners to elevate the quality of their PT offering. RTS Global is the international arm of Resistance Training Specialist®, the industry’s defining Exercise Mechanics™ course founded by Tom Purvis in 1997. RTS teaches an objective, science-based approach, emphasising critical thinking and objective decision-making in the design, delivery and application of exercise according to each individual client. With 15 years’ coaching experience, Benny works with clients across the spectrum from bodybuilding champions to high-risk rehab patients.