John Robert Cardillo

John travelled the world to learn the best training and nutrition principles and trained alongside top pro bodybuilders at Gold's Gym California. He was a student of Arthur Jones, inventor of Nautilus and Medx Fitness machines, and the pioneer of hi-intensity training. John developed the HIT3 Training System, which transformed his physique to win countless bodybuilding competitions at just 18 years of age! He was also the first bodybuilder to utilize Faradic Electric Muscle Stimulation in his training and intermittent fasting during his competition prep. John’s SHREDDED Nutrition Diet helped him build one of the most shredded physiques of all time. His diet program incorporates fasting and nutrient timing to help athletes build lean muscle while losing body fat.

Worst Mistakes Made by Personal Trainers by John Robert Cardillo

In most gyms, personal training is just another sales process to make money for the business. The well-being of the client is hardly taken into consideration. If a gym member doesn’t opt to buy personal training sessions, he or she doesn’t get a custom-made program or receive any guidance on how to use the various equipment on the gym floor. This leads to member attrition, poor business reviews, higher rates of employee turnover and, ultimately, the business losing revenue. A frequent occurrence is using slick sales tactics to shame members into buying personal training. However, properly assessing individuals to determine what shape they’re in and what program would be most suitable for them can improve training adherence, health outcomes and personal training sales.

In addition, most commercial gyms don’t have a strict code of conduct in place for their personal training staff. Here is a list of the worst things I’ve seen various personal trainers doing with clients:

Eating and/or Drinking During a Session

Drinking coffee or eating snacks while training a client is not only unsanitary and unsafe but also inconsiderate. Think about it! How are you supposed to safely spot someone or help them grind out a few forced reps if you’re holding a coffee?

Having Their Cell Phones on Them
Taking phone calls or texting while training a client is just bad service and unfocused behavior.

Not Paying Attention to Their Clients
The trainer shouldn’t be engaging with others during the session. Again, it’s not only unprofessional but also unsafe. It’s just common sense to pay attention to the task at hand—and that’s training the client. The trainer needs to be sure that the client is going through the exercise correctly and isn’t about to injure himself or herself. A client pays for 60 minutes of training. It’s the job of a personal trainer to make every minute count.

Not Being Engaged with the Client
When the trainer isn’t engaged with the client, the trainer isn’t paying attention to every rep and therefore isn’t encouraging the client to push harder or correcting improper form or breathing.

Lacking Preparation

A great example of this is when trainers don’t have a workout logbook in their hands during a session and aren’t tracking what the client is doing. This is a sign that they don’t plan ahead for a workout and what machines and exercises will be used and performed, causing the client to have to wait for other people to finish their sets.

Not Putting the Client Through a Proper Warm-Up
It’s always good practice to start the session with a proper warm-up. This will improve overall performance and alleviate the possibility of an injury occurring.

Shortchanging the Client
This is when the trainer finishes the session before the hour is up. The client paid for the trainer’s time and deserves the full time allotted.

Failing to Give the Client Water
The client needs to be hydrated throughout the workout in between sets to maintain optimal performance. It’s well documented that losing just 2 percent of body weight in fluids can decrease performance by 25 percent!

Not Helping the Client

The trainer should be mindful enough to help while doing repetitions in order to increase and maximize the intensity of the workout.

Not Communicating with the Client
It’s always courteous and good customer service to check up on the client through a simple text the following day after a workout to see how he or she is feeling.

Getting Personal
The trainer shouldn’t be discussing his or her personal problems or engaging in personal relationships with clients. Again, this is very unprofessional. The gym isn’t a bar or singles club; it’s a place you go to in order to improve and maintain your health.

Shit-Talking
Making fun of other clients or disparaging the trainer’s employer to the client is simply classless.

Not Paying Attention to the Client During a Session

When the trainer isn’t focused on the client, he or she neglects to see possible injury-causing movements and fails to maximize the effort put forth by the client. For example, the trainer doesn’t increase the resistance during exercises; therefore, the client doesn’t get the optimal benefit of the workout.

Not Being in the Proper Attire
If the trainer isn’t in the company uniform, he or she looks inept as well as sloppy and unprofessional. It’s not a good image to be portraying, and it suggests that you’re not a team player.

Working Out During a Client’s Session
When the trainer takes advantage of the session to work out alongside the client, he or she is completely missing the point to the session. It’s not about the trainer; it’s about the client. And, again, it’s very unprofessional. How is the trainer supposed to make sure the client doesn’t get hurt and is doing the exercise with proper form if he or she is busy working out?

Not Accommodating the Client’s Schedule
The trainer schedules sessions for the client to accommodate his or her own needs rather than the client’s. This sometimes leads to training the client two days in a row and not giving the client a day to rest and recuperate between workouts.

Engaging in Illegal Activity

This is just wrong on so many levels. Giving the clients advice on where to buy illegal performance-enhancing drugs and, in some cases, selling the drugs to their clients to make extra money only leads to trouble.

Engaging in Business Dealings During a Session
There’s no need to be discussing business during a gym session. The gym session is about the client going through the planned routine and not some other business such as renewing their membership.

Giving Unqualified Advice
Personal trainers shouldn’t be giving advice they aren’t certified to give, such as, for instance, giving their clients nutritional advice that they’re not certified to dispense.

Poaching Clients

This has got to be one of the most underhanded things anybody can do, whether or not you’re a trainer. It’s just not good business practice. An example of this is leaving the employment of one gym and accepting an offer at another gym, while poaching the previous gym’s members.