For me, this is not a double standard. Because a chubby but fit trainer is not necessarily trying and failing to get thin. Thinness for thinness’s sake is not objectively more desirable than being healthy and heftier, and the trainer might feel fine where she is. However, if the cardiologist is saying that being thin and fit is essential to health, but is himself fat and out of shape, it sends me the message that it’s pretty much impossible to achieve those goals - not even an expert with lots of resources, who is daily reminded of what’s at stake can do it, so I probably won’t be able to either.
For me, having a chubby but fit trainer would be great. Because I am a size 20/22 and just not capable of doing some things that smaller people can. I’ve gotten back into yoga recently, and it’s great. But one video I have features a superfit pretzel woman who could never intuit that I can’t follow her instruction to kneel with my butt on my heels, because my extra bulk cuts off my circulation in that position. I also have “Just My Size Yoga” led by a plus sized instructor. She does things like modifying Child’s Pose (kneeling and bending forward to put the forehead on the floor) by opening the legs to the sides to leave room for ample belly and breasts. It’s so wonderful to be able to participate in a beneficial fitness practice led by someone who understands your limitations.
Of course, at this point my ultimate goal is to be a size 14. If I wanted to get to a size 6 and have minimal body fat, I’d probably prefer a trainer who’d achieved those things herself.
If I were to have a personal trainer, I’d want to be inspired by personality and their own motivation. Thin != healthy, anyway. One can be a part of the other, but not always. Otherwise we would declare eating disorders healthy.
Put me firmly in the “it’s not about weight, it’s about health column.” Yes, it’s true, they call it morbid obesity for a reason. But someone with a few extra pounds isn’t necessarily less of an authority on fitness. In fact, in my world (I’ve had weight loss surgery) ONLY carrying 20 extra pounds could be seen as an accomplishment.
Also, I’ve always had trainers who were awfully buff. But I think I’d be less intimidated, less afraid of embarrassing myself with someone who had a body type that was closer to average. Sorry for the lack of a cite (I looked it up and got a bunch of junk from USA Today, which I don’t consider to be a reliable source). But I believe the U.S. Department of Health and Human services has determined that the average woman in America weighs 163 pounds. Honestly, that’s really BAD…that means we are on average very overweight (since our average height is under 5’5").
But it also means that your 20 year old gym rat with 6% body fat is NOT “normal.” Isn’t it likely to be true that someone who has to struggle with weight and fitness issues probably knows more about it than someone who’s simply born with the ability to eat anything they want and stay slim and who hasn’t been on the planet long enough to have done any damage by doing so?
A 400 pound personal trainer would sort of freak me out. A 150 pound one would probably just be a relief.
I’ve never had a personal trainer, but my favorite aerobics instructor is about 15-20 pounds heavier than your average gym bunny. She’s in her 40s, and she’s got 2 kids. She’s a great instructor who leads kick-ass workouts. To me, it’s inspiring to see that someone can look like a normal human being–ie, one who doesn’t spend 6 hours a day at the gym–and still be fit and attractive.
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 kicked.
Start the very last word of that paragraph with an “L” instead of the “K”
