Major Issues in Personal Fitness Training

If you are a personal trainer, the relationship between you and a client is one of trust. That customer is paying you to help him improve his health and his physical appearance. That puts him in a vulnerable position. He must be able to trust that you will respect his personal boundaries, treat him with respect, acknowledge that he is capable of making his own financial decisions, and that you will not place him in any unnecessary financial pressure. Also, in the case of an emergency, he also must trust that you will take steps towards saving his life.

  1. Physical Touch

    • One of the major issues that have arisen between personal trainers and their clients is that of physical touch -- how much is too much. According to the Idea Code of Ethics website, you should use touch only to correct a person's physical position or alignment during training, and even then it should not exceed the client's comfort level. You should view your relationship to your client to be strictly professional, and respect those boundaries.

    Medical

    • As a personal trainer, you can create a medical emergency by pushing your clients far beyond their capabilities. The Smart Money Magazine website chronicles a story of a trainer overworking a client in his 40s to the point that he almost fainted. This trainer ostensibly did it to show the client how out of shape he was. If this man had actually died due to a heart attack or other ailment during or after the session, the family could have lodged a lawsuit against this trainer, or the company for whom he worked.

    Financial

    • Finances can be a major issue in the trainer-client relationship. As the Idea Code of Ethics website suggests, as a personal trainer you should guard against agreeing to a specific number of sessions because you feel that that's how many meetings your customer needs to get into shape. It's best not to set a minimum number of lessons, or trainings. The idea is to avoid the perception that you are trying to make the largest amount of money off that client as you can. To avoid this, let the client know at the beginning of the relationship that you want him to choose how many lessons he deems are necessary to reach his goals.

    Competency as First Responder

    • A major issue in the industry has also been the lack of first response skills on the part of trainers. That could create a liability issue for your gym if you are employed by one -- or for you if you work for yourself. According to the Life Fitness website, a number of states are beginning to pass laws concerning the competency of trainers to respond by administering CPR or defibrillation in the event of a medical emergency.