would an overweight trainer inspire you?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Went to the gym tonight with my wife and daughter and while we were there a personal fitness trainer was working with this young woman. The trainer was…well…er…a bit on the chubby side. :wink: Now this woman seemed very knowledgeable about fitness, etc. But for me personally it would be difficult to get inspired by someone who weighed more then me and who didn’t look fit! Hopefully I won’t get flamed on this! But I was curious to what other people thought about this issue and this forum seemed the best to post an inquiry.

I want my personal fitness trainer to be a lean mean work out machine and to inspire me to get to look like them. Someone who looks like they consumed a whole pizza prior to meeting me at the gym wouldn’t inspire me. Going through my mind would be if their advise was so good why isn’t it working for them!

Would that make any difference for you out there in Doper land? Would you be okay with a personal trainer on the heavy side. Or does their physical appearance have no bearing on your decision to utilize them?

2

I might be the only one to admit this, but I would have difficulty taking fitness or nutritional advice from someone who didn’t look like they were following that advice themselves. It would make me doubt that those things could be accomplished by me, if the experts themselves clearly couldn’t reach those goals.

3

Yup. Give me something to aspire to.

4

Well there’s certainly something to be said for looking the part. It would raise an eyebrow with me and make me how much they really knew or cared about fitness. But I couldn’t for the life of me think of a polite way to raise the issue with them without looking like an utterly heartless asshole.

I don’t think their appearance would affect my motivation, but then I don’t use a trainer at all.

5

Human bodies aren’t as simple as we like to think. Some people will always be overweight, no matter how much they exercise, how well they eat, how much they know or care about fitness. Just the same way there are skinny unfit junk-food eating people out there too.

If you’re only exercising to change your appearance, then I can see how a chubby trainer would be discouraging. However, I don’t think it would bother me.

6

Perhaps the trainer recently had a baby? Recovering from an injury that left her unable to keep up the fitness level but still has the technical know how to train others?

7

I went to a few outdoor aerobics class with an instructor who was chubby. My reason for signing up was simply to spend more time in Wadi Degla (if you ever go to Cairo, you must go there - the canyon, not the sports club - it is spectacular).

I thought her physique was odd for a fitness instructor. She tried to turn it to her advantage, though, by saying she understood what it was like to have unmet fitness goals, so she would be encouraging but not brutal with anyone who had trouble in the class. (Apparently she had once been in good shape, then had post-baby weight gain, and had lost a lot of the flab but still hadn’t gotten back to a fit look.)

I liked her and the class was fine, but if I were just going to a city gym and had a choice of instructors, I’d prefer a fit one.

8

I agree there is a reason for it, it could be a baby or who knows–it really doesn’t matter to be honest. That wasn’t what I was after in my OP. I am sure she also knows her stuff–at least from what I observed. But from my viewpoint I want my trainer to look the part, just like I want my banker or financial person to exude ‘I will make you money’. None of this is rational—as I said I am quite sure this trainer knows her stuff, but she wouldn’t inspire me personally. I work out mainly to be healthy and I don’t use a trainer, but if I did I want one who inspires me to get to another level.

My wife and I watch ‘The Biggest Loser’ and those two trainers would certainly inspire me (when they weren’t scaring the hell out of me!). But they look the part and they make me want to attain the best health I can, and I believe it when they say ‘eat this’ and ‘do this exercise this way’. But I would wonder about their advice if it didn’t appear they were following it themselves.

9

Well, this guy was pretty motivational…

You don’t want to live in a van down by the river

10

What are they training you for? And what can they do?

A close friend of mine is a certified (I forget which ones) trainer. She does not look like a thin 20-year-old with a six pack. 'Cause she’s not. While she does look “fit,” she’s doesn’t look super skinny or super buff.

But to what can she do? She did start running in her mid-30s, and has since completed several half-marathons, a couple of marathons, and an Ironman. Her idea of “fun” is to get on a bicycle and ride for 4 or 5 hours. And not leisurely “pedal a little here and there, then have brunch” rides. She pushes hard the whole way (unless I’m holding her back. Then she’s patient and encouraging. Or does hills twice, to make sure that she’s really gotten a work out while I’m struggling to get up it the first time). She’s currently training to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and wrote me the other day to find out if I wanted to get ready for a 1/2 ironman next year with her. Plus, she knows the factual training information and is excellent at explaining both facts and concepts to people.

She’s an awesome trainer.

Now, someone with her body type that I only ever saw eating twinkies who got winded while walking across the gym. That might concern me. She doesn’t give me those same concerns in the least. I’m never going to be a 20-year-old with a six-pack. I wasn’t when I was 20, definitely not going to happen now. My friend’s level of fitness is something I can aspire to. It’s a still healthy, yet more realistic standard for me.

11

I would now but that’s because I met Cindy.

She came in to take over a Pilates class I’d been going to and I was a little dismayed–she’s definitely not thin and much as the OP said I wondered what I could learn from her.

Well she kicked our butts and not by telling us what to do. She did it all too. After class she handed out the upcoming schedule and on the back she’d given her story. Turned out she had always had a weight problem and about six years ago she’d hurt her back enough to be bedridden for a month. That was her personal rock bottom and she made sweeping changes in her life. She’s lost over 100 pounds, competed in a couple of marathons, is certified to train yoga, Pilates, spinning, etc. While still overweight by any standard, she’s also incredibly strong and fit. I’d take a class from her any time and I miss her greatly now that I’m in Boston.

12

It’d inspire me if they were overweight because they were on the way down from some mega huge weight.

Plus I’d think ‘hey, maybe they’re not going to be totally judgmental if I don’t measure up’.

Yeah, depending on why they were heavy, I could see it being a plus.

13

My aunt was a trainer at a private gym, she recently retired. When she had a new class and saw someone looking at her like “this is the teacher?” (she was never small, Basque fishermen don’t breed small daughters, and also people expect some young sprig) she’d do a split, talk from the floor while the new students picked up their jaws from the floor and then stand back again, without using her hands.

I look a lot less fit than I am, “walker legs” will do that. The look in the faces of a couple of bodybuilder gym trainers when they saw that I could lift twice my weight one-legged: priceless!

And have you seen the bellies on some Olympic weightlifters?

When I lived in Miami, one of my coworkers (Seminole with lots of Irish and Scottish ancestry) was aways being berated by his wife to lose weight. At one point she brought him to a nutrition specialist who, after a bunch of tests including complete dunking, told her that Doc’s fat content was one of the lowest he’d ever seen; so low, in fact, that it might be dangerous. But his genetics just didn’t come with sculpted arms, sorry, nothing to be done about that.

I will admit to being a bit wary of pixies, though. I always wonder whether a 21yo who weighs less than one of my legs can understand where I come from.

14

Well, that is the whole model of 12 step programs. The inspiration for alcoholics is other alcoholics, for drug addicts it’s drug addicts and so on.

15

Thanks for the other viewpoints. I can see where some of you are coming from. I think it all depends upon your experiences in life and if you knew the story behind the trainer I can see where it might be an inspiration. Thanks for the other insights!

16

For a few years at the Y where I swim, the aquacise or aquarobics (or whatever it is) class instructor… was on oxygen. Seriously. The guy had a little oxygen tank strapped to the pole for the shallow end flags, and had the little tube strung out into the water, looped under his nose.

Now, I am not the target market for that class, but all of us who swam sort of watched the whole thing, gobsmacked. It is a very low-impact workout, and the guy probably knew what he was doing… but it just seemed you’d want your fitness instructor to look like he’d survive his own class, you know? We figured it was maybe less intimidating to newbies to see that the instructor probably wouldn’t be slaughtering them with too much activity.

The other problem, of course, was that this was the Y pool. There were “polliwog” and “minnow” classes right next to the aquawhatever class. Inevitably, some little kid would go off crooked swimming back to the wall… and get tangled up in the guy’s oxygen line. Craziness would ensue, as the aquafolks would mill about confused, and the swimmers and class kids would try to suppress our giggles.

17

One more viewpoint - I would prefer a personal trainer who is fit while overweight, myself.

Part of that is because I know that even if I were at my most fit, I will never have a fitness-guru body. I don’t need to be hit in the face with another body image I will never be able to aspire to.

A lot of it depends on what someone is looking for, I’d think. For me, an overweight, but fit and knowledgeable trainer would be more approachable than one who were just as fit and knowledgeable but didn’t have any extra weight on them.

18

I’m sure people can be motivated by someone with a bigger body style, because a lot of the motivation comes from the one on one contact, and the mesh of personalities.

But not me, I don’t think. The only time I’ve ever signed up for time with a personal trainer in any gym I’ve belonged to is at the one I go to now. And that was only after I’d been there a year, and had the chance to watch all the different trainers, see how they worked with people, read the brief biographies they had on the wall that talked about their education and areas of focus…

One in particular struck me because she not only had a 4 year degree in fitness related study (I forget exactly what now), and played intercollegiate tennis. I don’t play tennis, but I know it keeps you pretty fit, requires good hand-eye coordination and stresses quickness and flexibility. Also, because being in the gym with her, I watched her own personal workout almost every day. She does a lot of fast, hard aerobic work, she does minimal weight work on machines, preferring free weights, barbells, exercise bands, Bosu, exercise balls. A lot of work that works her core and balance.

Plus, she’s in extraordinary shape.

We spent three sessions, talked a lot about theory, why she does what she does, why it’s important not to get in a rut and always do the same thing. I told her the reasons I asked her to help, which seemed to make her happy, she said that it was nice to hear because that’s exactly what she thinks is the best way to motivate- by example.

I see her most every day I’m in the gym now, and we’ll still stop and talk, she’ll suggest different things and occasionally we’ll go and I’ll try to keep up with her for 30 minute stints on the stair machine. I always lose, but my ass feels k****icked.

In the last two year I’ve only lost 6 lbs, but my body fat has dropped by more than 60%, my resting pulse rate is down to 70, from 88 two years ago. I’m in noticeably better shape, for the first time ever I look like I fill out a shirt correctly and the Wife insists I have the finest butt there is.

But she has to say that. And besides, my trainer has the finest butt there is.

19

C’mon, you can’t leave us hanging on that.

20

I’m struggling with a double standard here. I think I could be inspired by a personal trainer who was overweight but capable of doing a harder workout than I am. In other words, for me it’s more about ability than looks. Plus, unless I asked I wouldn’t know if maybe this person had already lost 100 pounds and was still losing or what.

However, I wouldn’t have the same confidence in an overweight, wheezing cardiologist who told me I needed to lose weight to be more heart healthy. I’m not 100% sure why - maybe because as a medical professional they’d know better than anyone the true implications of not following their own advice whereas a personal trainer isn’t required to have the same amount of knowledge. But I guess that’s a different thread.