Are you sitting uncomfortably.....When is PT not PT?

Before you read on, do what I do, put your watch on the other wrist until you finish reading! Why? For me its a bit like the pre-match rituals I had in my rugby playing days, I use it to mentally trigger me to focus on the issue in front of me, it's a discipline I have that makes me block out external distractions. I often test people around a group meeting by asking them to change their watch wrists - the reaction can be quiet animated, but try it.

So first here is a description for you
".......... should be, at the least, educated and certified through a reputable fitness organization. This person's job is to assess your fitness level, set up a program for you and keep you motivated. He or she will push you past your comfort level-something difficult to do on your own. He should also provide:

•guidance on reaching your goals
•education about strength training, cardio and basic nutrition
•a reason to show up at the gym each week
•accountability
•ways to help track your progress

To me, all that says Fitness Instructor! Actually its of a Personal Trainer. Now depending on the business model within your facility (that you run or use as a customer) Staff will either be an integral part, or, as we now see with the rise of the budget gym, they will be peripheral in the gym environment merely there to handle admin and meet and greet (I have views on the budget gym vs traditional model that I will save for another blog)either way we often see Personal Trainers working within the gym, sometimes they are a seperate team, but can actually be the same people doing additional hours after shift as a PT. Is this healthy?

There is no hard and fast here, but the whole question of what constitutes PT is not clear to me. There is sometimes a mystique about the content of PT, and here is where I have issue, I still see most of what a PT does as the core role of a Fitness Instructor! It is common to see a market for PT developed as a result of Fitness Instructors not delivering 'Service' that should be in place and was promised at the point of sale. If a club is unable to service its customers beyond the initial sale, rather than bluff and muddle through this, watching member cancel in thier droves after their expectations are not met, why don't clubs and PT's work together to offer appropriate services, not merely PT but perhaps remote/online support in addition to face to face either by PT or Fitness Teams? With so many devices and applications the technology is probably ahead of Fitness Management innovative thinking, so there is no real excuse to take a step into technology.After all face to face contact has a capacity issue, limited by PT hours available and club opening hours/working hours.

Rarely is anything recorded/tracked by PT's, the stock response when tackled is "well every session is different its down to how the individual feel on the day". After looking them in the eye (with the Lee Van Cleef look, if your old enough to remember spaghetti westerns? or alternatively Clint Eastwoods squint)My view on what I have seen this should really be translated to "well I don't record it cos I don't really plan ahead and if I did the client might take it and dispense with my services. Also if I don't write it down the Gym Manager and Club Manager can't audit me or check what I deliver" (Don't throw things my way yet!) Surely tracking/monitoring should be an inherent factor in the output from PT sessions.

By comparison we see a huge effort in making Fitness Teams accountable/measurable and Quality checked (with varying degrees of conviction)Yet PT's are almost bombproof. So where is my thinking here? I firmly believe that as a Club Owner/Manager we must have a way of evaluating their service, not simply looking at the £££ generated and be far more demanding of PT's if we are to let them work with 'our' customer base. There are very professional and valuable PT's out there and they perform a valuable, if not essential provision to a percentage of our customers, unfortunately there is too much unregulated, low quality service masquerading as PT. Technical qualifications are no confirmation of quality, so Level 3 Instructors don't convince me by rite that they are quality as a PT. There is also another issue that has been associated with PT in clubs and that is the pathway to PT by qualified Fitness Instructors. There are diplomas etc that an individual can pursue, but a proactive Instructor will gain additional qualifications and enhance knowldege and experience over time, how long do they have to wait before they will be allowed to PT It would also appear harder to get some agreed standards when the PT's are all independant as opposed to a PT Company that has Brand standard and leadership to ensure quality and value.

As we start this year, I have seen several discussions about Service 'is the new black for this year' that this will be the saviour for all those Operators who are not winning the retention war. It is seen as the key differentiator against the rise of the budget gym model. Having PT in place is seen as a tool to improve retention, yet no data is produced and published to prove this. I would simply like to see PT's and clubs working to identify which members have had PT and how does the survival rate vary to this who have Fitnes team only support or increasingly prefer to support themselves.

This must be the year when we create the equivilant of customer charters that reflect our service plan, backed up with evidence. One last thought, what time is it? did you look at the wrong wrist?