As personal Trainers, we love our jobs and all most things fitness.

Ok maybe not all. I’m not talking about burpees either.

Some fundamental things about the fitness industry just really get on our nerves. Like unrealistic body goals for one. As a result, I’ve teamed up with my fitness spirit animal Autumn Dickens from It’s Autumn to discuss the Ten Things that Make Personal Trainers Cringe.

Don’t forget to pin 🙂

1. Instant Experts

Autumn: People who have lost 20 pounds think they’re an expert in health and fitness. It’s great that you’ve lost the weight but that doesn’t make you an expert. It can actually get you in a lot of trouble. You’re influencing a lot of people who are desperate for information and if you’re giving people the wrong information you can end up harming them or even getting sued.

If you’re truly passionate about helping people achieve what you did, continue to learn! Gain knowledge, get a cert, go back to school. But losing 20 lbs shouldn’t be your only experience for selling weight loss plans.

As women we are constantly bombarded with workout pictures, challenges, inspirations, posts and rules about food. It gets tiring! Are you Looking for the truth when it comes to fitness? Look no further. Itsautmn.com and Flourish-ious.com are dispelling those pesky workout myths and unobtainable fitness goals you're pressured to achieve by listing the things we are so tired of seeing when it comes to fitness. Click through for our workout and meal tips. — Source: T-Nation

2. The One Size Fits All Approach

Everyone is different and the industry doesn’t cater to that. There are all these generic guides being made and religiously followed by those that may not succeed in that type of program. For example A workout for an endomorph is very different from an ectomorph workout program.

3. You’re not Fit If You Don’t have a Six-pack

Autumn: The fitness industry is notorious for this. In every gym, you go to or every social media page of a supplement or protein company you’ll see people with a six-pack. So, of course, people would equate fitness to having abs. Nope.

Having abs just means you have a low body fat percentage, which is achieved in many different ways and made easier with good genetics. So it’s annoying when people assume that you aren’t fit just because you don’t have abs. More on that here. They aren’t everything but they’ve become such an obsession. Kinda like a right of passage. Show me one “fitness expert/guru” that doesn’t have a flashy abs! Yep. There aren’t many.

Which is why I also think representation matters too. Showing fit and healthy people of different ethnicities, backgrounds and body types would be awesome. Then we can finally realize that fitness isn’t a one size fits all kinda thing.

4. Obsession with Food

This is about more than just gluttonous eating behavior, but more that food and eating is over complicated. Clean eating, counting your macros, shredding, cheat meals… It’s just tew much for me. The obsession with food tracking and judging other people’s food choices is over the top. I constantly get judged because I’m a trainer and I eat bread, cookies, crisps like a “regular person”. Just because I’m a trainer doesn’t mean that I constantly need to be on a diet. Why would I tell my clients to diet when I don’t diet myself?

5. Being Out of Touch

Autumn: Many fitness pros assume that everyone they train or sell to wants to be some sort of pseudo-athlete bodybuilder, bikini comp champion. We’ve strayed far away from the fact that most people just want to be healthy and get fit. Nothing super intense, just something that’ll enrich their daily lives for the better. Most clients won’t even make it to an intermediate level of fitness and that’s fine.

You must tailor programs to what the client wants to achieve not what you personally think they should be achieving.

6. Not Enough of Fitness Role Models are “Regular”

I’m talking about average bodies, no fake tans, real boobs, REAL people etc. Read up on Anna Victoria here.

7. The Worship of the Fitness Model/Competitor

Just because something works for someone else does NOT mean it will work for you. Fitness competitors have been all too glamorized and it seems like everywhere you turn people who were once sedentary (a few months ago) are training for a bikini or fitness competition. I used to be one of those girls that desperately longed to look like one of those girls on the stage. I tried all the workouts, diets, religiously read Oxygen etc. It wasn’t for me. I thought in order to get respect in the fitness industry that I had to do that. Read my story here.

8. Short-Term Solutions for Long-Term Problems

If I see one more celebrity promoting detox tea or a waist trainer… You won’t get a six pack in in 30 days guys. Stop wasting your time on these short term solutions. The amount of money that people spend on stupid gimmicks they could’ve spent on something that actually works.

9. Ulterior Motives

Autumn: I know PT’s and gyms need to make money, but I don’t think you have to sell your soul to do it. Everyone has become super “sell-y” to the point where people don’t take them seriously anymore. I even have to be careful about over-selling because I know it can become a huge turn off for people. If you have the right intentions and approach, people will like you and actually care about their well-being and progress.

10. It’s now become “Cool”

When it should be regular. Fitness is a lifestyle and it should become part of your daily routine.

I’m all for people posting their workouts online and being proud of their fitness goals etc. BUT people want trophies for being in shape or going to the gym. You should want to be healthy. It SHOULD be part of your daily routine. It’s almost like so did you post a status about going to the bathroom today too?

What are your fitness pet peeves? Let us know!

Autumn is a “personal trainer in training”, who lives in sunny south Florida with her family. She loves watching (obsessing over) soccer, a good yoga sesh, and a warm cup of tea and treating myself to bacon maple frosted donuts every once in awhile.

“I’ve always had a passion for health and fitness and I’ve also had my share of bumps and struggles with it was well. After years of bombarding myself with comparisons, bouncing from diet to diet and obsessing over how slim I needed to be, I had an epiphany thanks to Iskra Lawrence. No, I don’t know her personally (it’s on my bucket list). But after seeing how beautiful and happy she was with her body, I finally realized that I was enough and my body deserved to be loved and properly taken care of.

When I finally started to embrace my body for what it is and started to set goals that would nurture and sustain it, I realized that a ton of women still hadn’t had that epiphany yet and it crushed me.

I’m a natural born helper and encourager which is why I decided to transition my blog from fashion to fitness. I want to help and encourage other women who haven’t had their epiphany or “aha” moment when it comes to their bodies.”

Check out Her Social Media Channels:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWPfKW9qNqfVuQXToAaXW7A

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autumn.dickens/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/itisautumn/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/autumn.dickens/

Blog: https://www.itsautumn.com/

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