Rights and Justice for the Exerciser

Written by Jerrican Tan

Will you hire an unregistered accountant to manage your company finances or hire a driving instructor without a valid instructor’s license? Most likely, you would not, even though they might be able to produce a balance sheet or teach you how to park your car.

What about when you decide to hire a certified personal trainer? Will certified personal trainers guarantee you the quickest weight loss programme or will they make you the first Malaysia Olympic gold medalist? Let’s see…

Most people list down weight management as the primary goal of their exercise regime. You will come across thousands of websites providing weight loss information when you do a Google search. Generally speaking, with such desire by people and adequate information available, we should be achieving our mission. However, the World Health Organisation has predicted a significant increase in obesity levels from the year 2005 to 2015. Do you see the irony there? Think about the rise in health care cost in line with the side effects of obesity.

The general public needs a personal trainer who is able to provide safe and effective exercise and facilitate a lifestyle change. So, apart from knowing the name of muscles and bones (a doctor can do that too!), it is imperative for a personal trainer to understand what triggers behavior change and gradually inculcate a healthier lifestyle as a habit.

On the other hand, the number of people suffering from chronic disease (e.g. heart disease) has increased like never before. It was reported that about 75,000 Americans have suffered a heart attack during or after exercise. Personal trainers must be competent to provide health and fitness assessments for their clients before they begin an exercise routine. People with medical conditions which may be worsened when beginning an exercise session should be referred to a physician first. Those with coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors (e.g. sedentary lifestyle, smoking, elevated blood glucose level, etc.) are not encouraged to perform vigorous exercise.

Simple-to-do, accurate and reliable fitness testing is essential when assessing one’s current fitness level. Most exercisers are not athletes, thus they do not require sophisticated lab fitness testing. You will be surprised to find out that most personal trainers can hardly perform a girth measurement test using a tape measure. The tailor might do a better job!

Some personal trainers even confuse body fat measurements with a `health and fitness assessment’. Body composition is only one component of physical fitness and cannot be a representation of one’s overall health and fitness status. Ask your trainer.

In addition, most personal trainers and even the general public know how to improve overall fitness levels; just do more running, lift heavier weights and stretch more. If this is the case, then the personal training profession has come to an end. Why would you need a `fitness guru’ then? In the quest of helping a new exerciser to achieve his or her fitness goals, a personal trainer will need to design a safe and effective exercise programme.

The programme should meet recommended training guidelines by established professional organisations, e.g. the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). The personal trainer must also be diligent enough to progress a new exerciser and know how to modify a programme to suit individual needs. Sound understanding of exercise science is needed in order to design a programme which is challenging yet achievable on every session so the exerciser’s progress will not plateau and the session will not be boring.

Personal training is a professional job just like a doctor or an engineer. Their actions are bound by a code of ethics. You should never see a certified personal trainer recommending nutritional supplements or diagnosing an injury of an exerciser.

The above are the minimum standard of care an exerciser should enjoy from a certified personal trainer. Although they might not guarantee you the rapid results in weight loss or get you to be able to sprint your way for an Olympic medal, they WILL be able to minimize injury risk, better understand your exercise habits and help you achieve the goals you reasonably desire.

Hence, a personal trainer with the right certification will provide you the minimum competency in designing your exercise programme. Of course, there are a handful of certifications out there. However, certifications that are accredited by an established organisation (e.g. NCCA) most often remain unknown to many exercisers. Which certification stresses on safe and effective exercise as well as adherence on exercising?

You might want to ask around, surf the web or ask your trainer.

About the Author

Jerrican Tan an American Council on Exercise (ACE) Certified Personal Trainer and ACE Certified Lifestyle & Weight Management Consultant with many years of experience in the fitness industry both as a Personal Trainer and Fitness Manager. Jerrican specializes in advanced strength training, lifestyle & weight management, programme design for healthy adults and is also a regular contributor to popular health magazines.