A guy calls in a plumber to fix a problem he's having in his house. When the plumber shows up and listens to a brief description of the problem, he heads down to the basement and kneels down at one section of a pipe near the water heater. The plumber takes out is hammer, aims it at a particular bend in the pipe, and with one clink of the hammer, the problem is fixed. The plumber smiles, tips his hat to the guy, and is on his way within five minutes. The guy is understandably impressed.
Two days later the guy gets a bill from the plumber for $500. The guy is outraged, and calls the plumber to dispute the bill. "All you did was tap the pipe with a hammer!" he says. "How in the world does that cost you $500 to accomplish?"
After another two days, the guy receives a bill that outlined the charges in his bill. It read:
-$1: tapping pipe with hammer
-$499: knowing where to tap it
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| To be fair, most of life's problems can be solved in some way with a hammer. |
When I was just starting out training a year ago, I felt like I need to use the most expensive pieces of equipment in the gym to make sure my clients were getting their money's worth. I honestly felt guilty when I had them do planks and push-ups because I still thought of myself as a demonstrator of equipment, not a designer of programs.
"Trainers do more than demonstrate exercises."
When you hire a personal trainer, you're not hiring someone to show you how to do a squat. At least, not just how. You also need to know why you're doing this squat, with this much weight, this many times, before these lunges but after those mobility drills, for this many sets, resting this much afterwards, on this day of the week.
There is, believe it or not, a reason I went to school for this.
I'm glad I bought this program for my arms, because it reminded me of my own value as a trainer. I'm writing this an hour after I finished a tricep-focused workout that had me doing 100 rope pressdowns to end the day. For the record, it felt like my arms were about to pop, and I'm having trouble keeping them in place atop my laptop as I type.
Could I have thought of that on my own?
Yeah, but I didn't.
Do I know how to do every exercise presented in the program?
I have a literal degree in knowing every exercise in the program.
Do I understand the concepts of eccentric muscle contractions, time under tension, and volume principles that are the basis for the design of this program?
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, homey.
But when someone else puts it all together, they provide a service that is absolutely worth the money.
I wouldn't have stuck with an arm program for this long if I had written it myself. I would have found reasons to switch to something else, or would have convinced myself I had to change something, or wouldn't have pushed myself as hard and let the weights just fall instead of being controlled and stopped at 8 reps instead of 12, and blah blah blah. But I have a sheet of paper telling me to do these things, and that's all it took for me to stick to a program and make some already noticeable gains in my physique.
Now imagine if that piece of paper could talk, instantly clear up any questions you had, and look damn good in a 1/4 zip pullover, and you'd have yourself a personal trainer.
It also makes me think maybe I shouldn't complain about my doctor's bill from when I cut off part of my pinky. (But I'm still gonna.)
Justin is personal trainer in Lexington, Kentucky. He also writes the blog for his gym over at liftfitnessandwellness.blogspot.com.
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