I Fired my Personal Trainer

Before trying to get pregnant, I hired an online personal trainer. I wanted my body to be as healthy and strong as possible before getting pregnant. My goals were mostly to strengthen my core and pelvic floor, as well as to maintain my current cardio level. She had good reviews and was recommended from a forum I follow and respect. She was my 3rd online trainer that I tried.

I had her for over 5 months. She provided me with 16 workouts a month (4 a month, 2 upper body and 2 lower body). I had told her I wasn't going to stop running, so to make sure to include that in my plan. The previous 2 trainers I had, told me I had to stop running because it would effect my progress to get stronger - hello - have you ever met a runner before??? Not going to happen! That was one reason I didn't like them.....trust me - there were a lot of other reasons too.

Anyways, I really enjoyed the workouts. They were about 30-35 minutes long, which was a lot different than the hour plus ones I would do myself. My doctor had told me earlier in the spring that I needed to probably gain weight in order to get pregnancy because my body fat was too low, so I started to eat more too - not necessarily eating junk, but not really monitoring what I was eating either. So eating more and working out less, helped to gain about 5 pounds, which obviously helped to get me pregnant (along with acupuncture).

She adjusted the workouts for when I was traveling to China (hotel gyms) and to my parents (no equipment other than bands). But her accountability was terrible. Now, I don't need motivation or someone to encourage me to workout, but I did want someone to see the weights I was using and if the workouts were good for me and my goals. (The workouts did not include what weights I should be lifting) Usually I would email her at the end of the week to tell her what workouts I did and how far I ran on which days. But she never asked me for the weights how I felt, or what I did if I didn't email her. She would just send me the next week's workouts. (She didn't use an online check in system - it was all old school online with Word documents.)

After awhile, I realized that she might not be looking out for my best interest and helping me get as healthy as possible before (and then once I found out I was pregnant, which she was the first person I told minus Chris). That bothered me. I was paying her more than double what my online training clients pay me and she wasn't providing any feedback whatsoever, unless I asked her a question.

In fact, at one point, we got into an argument because she told me I probably wasn't lifting heavy even weights because I told her I wasn't going to do more than 25# dumbbells. My reasoning was partially because that's the highest weight I have in dumbbells, but I didn't want to bulk up in my shoulders, which I know would happen to my body if I lifted too much, but also because I am pregnant and have no need to lift that heavy.

After much thought and discussion with a couple close friends, I decided to let her go. I did enjoy not having to think about my workouts, but it was just lazy of me now to depend on her since I could do a better job for myself. And it really made me think about how I do online training for my own clients. Am I charging too little? Putting in too much time checking up on clients who I see haven't been working out what they are supposed to, asking for feedback on the workouts or any changes needed, etc? I can't just step back and not communicate with my clients at all - I think that a big part of my job. I guess I can charge more, but for now, I will just know that I am doing a much better job for my clients than these other 3 trainers, who were highly recommended to me.