Are personal trainers' values and philosophy of practitionership hampering clients' success?

Personal trainers are suitably placed to improve the health outcomes of the general population through systematic and researched exercise prescription knowledge. Qualification variability and daily pressures of practice result in little time or ability to consider the more conceptual aspects of practitionership. This study explored the perspectives, values and philosophy of trainers’ practitionership to identify areas of operation that might improve client outcomes. Ten male and female personal trainers, aged 26 to 46 years working within north-west London, UK were interviewed using semi- structured interviews. Thematic analysis revealed four emergent themes: trainers perceived their clients through their own value system; all trainers believed they were strong communicators; trainers found difficulty distinguishing where the boundaries of practice existed; trainers assumed that their own connection to exercise was reflected in others. This study also uncovered four practices that might be addressed: evidence of overreach of skills and knowledge that may lead to client injury; improvement and safety relied on trainers’ informal learning and tacit knowledge; ‘trust’ was not delineated, systematically considered or utilized as a useful tool; discourse was important but resulted in confusion as to the boundaries of the relationship and practice. The findings suggest practice would improve if trainers better understood their underlying values and philosophies of practitionership. Education programmes might teach reflective models and ethical systems that help the practitioner frame decision-making.