Erin Stafford, 25, felt ripped off by her personal trainer so she now works out on her own.JENNIFER ROBERTS
Erin Stafford stood on the floor of her Toronto gym, clutching an eight-pound weight in each hand. The knee-high ledge in front of her morphed into a mountain in her mind.
Ms. Stafford's personal trainer had asked her to do step-ups on the ledge.
But the 25-year-old bank-account manager injured her knee when she was 17 and still wore a brace.
She did a few step-ups and complained that she was uncomfortable. Her trainer barked back that if she wanted to get in shape, she'd have to get used to it. By the end of her workout, Ms. Stafford was in agonizing pain, her knee was swollen and she needed physiotherapy to treat the damage.
In the unregulated personal-training industry, complaints from clients are all too common. After forking out hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars for personalized workouts, individuals are sometimes pushed too hard or not hard enough, their goals are ignored and they're left disappointed with their results.
In Ms. Stafford's case, she says she'd clearly outlined her goals from the get-go: toning her abs and inner thighs, not losing weight. But instead of focusing on core exercises, Ms. Stafford's trainer put her on a treadmill at a steep incline, or had her do laps of power walking with weights. After eight weeks (and almost $500), Ms. Stafford didn't notice any significant changes in her body.
She later learned her trainer had no education in kinesiology and no certification as a personal trainer.
"I was paying $60 an hour to somebody who had no idea how the body works," she says.
After her sessions were done, Ms. Stafford bought an exercise book and followed the instructions in it. In six weeks, she'd achieved the results she'd been waiting for during her eight weeks of personal training: a toned, bikini-ready body.
Because clients invest so much in contracts with personal trainers, breaking up can be difficult.
Even though Naomi Olsen, an advertising project manager in Toronto, was reduced to tears after her first session with her personal trainer almost six months ago, she's still stuck it out with him.
The only thing that has slimmed down since she started her sessions is her bank balance. She spent $5,000, but has only lost 1.5 pounds.
The hefty investment is all that's keeping her in the program, she says.
While Ms. Olsen first preferred to have her sessions in the mornings before work, her trainer explained that he never got out of bed before 10 and so she reluctantly switched to 8 p.m. workouts.
What was most irksome was that he always spoke about Ms. Olsen as being part of the group of all his clients.
"He would address me as a group. Like, 'You guys need to be doing this,'" she says. "It was missing the 'personal' part of personal training."
Elizabeth Gaal, a 24-year-old artist and retail employee in Toronto, had tried talking to her trainer about how she was unhappy with the prescribed workouts, but all she got in response were accusations that she wasn't pushing herself hard enough.
"I just dreaded going in and it wasn't fun. It was like being tortured," she says.
She was once ordered to jump rope for five minutes straight. If she messed up her footing, she had to start again from the top. She says she fainted after some drills. She asked for variety, but was given the same routine every session.
After a few months, Ms. Gaal told her trainer she was going to take a break. She took a "passive" approach to breaking things off: She transferred half of the 50 sessions she'd purchased to her boyfriend.
Of course, not all trainers are cut from the same cloth. Many have their own list of complaints about clients.
Toronto boot-camp instructor Dan Go says he's seen his share of terrible trainers, but says some of the blame in such horror stories must be placed on clients.
"There's not enough research that clients put into personal trainers," he says. "They're investing in their bodies so they have to know exactly what to look for."
He says clients don't have a holistic approach to their health. They slack off in between paid sessions and don't maintain healthy diets, expecting their trainer to work magic.
Steve Maxwell, who worked as a personal trainer for 38 years in Port Townsend, Wash., says clients also have to have specific, measurable and realistic goals.
Before signing a long-term contract, individuals should watch potential trainers in action and pay for only one or two trial sessions to test out the relationship, he says.
Ms. Gaal says she's learned to do better homework the next time she hires a trainer - if she ever does - but still has bitter feelings about past experiences.
"I get that exercise is a bit of torture because you have to work to get it to work but it should also be fun," she says.