Beyond the stereotypes of personal training

From time to time, it’s good to stop and examine one’s biases.  

As for me, when it comes to personal training, I pictured working out one-on-one with a super-fit dude yelling at me to get every last ounce of effort from me. Although great for accountability and personalizing workouts, I assumed it was only for professional athletes and rich people because it was so expensive.  

Since I’ve never actually worked with a personal trainer these vague impressions were not based on facts or lived experience. So, I recently met up with my friend Brinnon Mandel at Coeur Training in midtown Coeur d’Alene to learn more about personal training and challenge my assumptions.  

It turns out that I was right about the accountability of personal training because, as Brinnon explained, “unlike a big class where if you don’t show up nobody’s going to notice,” exercising at Coeur Training two mornings a week keeps her on track.  

She even admitted that “I love being in shape, I love physical activity, but this is one where I have somebody bossing me around and I have to have that accountability of showing up somewhere.”   

I was also right about the personalization aspect of personal training. As Megan Kane, co-owner of Coeur Training explained, “It’s very individualized — if you have an injury or health history then we can really sit down and ... have a conversation about it. We do a full assessment before we start.”  Brinnon agreed, saying, “It just feels like you’re not a dime a dozen … so it just feels very personalized.”  

However, I was wrong about it being for professional athletes. Most of the clients at Coeur Training are women and it’s ideal for beginners or those intimidated by going to a gym. As Megan put it, “Most people that are getting off a lull, they want to do personal training because they’re intimidated ... they want to get in shape before they start working out.”  

Brinnon agreed that going to a gym can be overwhelming because “I don’t even know where to start” so she loves “having someone tell me what to do. I will never do it on my own. I know that about myself.”  

Megan, along with co-owner and wife Lindsay Herbert also trains kids and teaches classes for kids in the summer.  “That’s what Lindsay and I love — that’s our passion,” because, as she explained, "we both played college sports so it’s kind of near and dear to our hearts.”

I was also wrong about it being super expensive and solely one-on-one. According to Megan, “We actually have a lot of couples that workout together, husband and wife situation” but she added that “the husbands don’t last very long usually” because the wives “are a lot, I don’t want to say tougher, but they can handle things a little more than the men — the pain.” And it’s less expensive to do personal training with a friend or as a couple. You can even do small group training which has “become a huge concept” because “it’s cheaper and you’re in a group setting which we also do really well.”  

Another thing I didn’t realize is that personal training can help prevent injuries. In group classes, Megan finds that “People also look at what everyone else is doing and they try to keep up … and then they can’t walk for a week and then they don’t want to do it anymore.” Brinnon agreed that “they really care about function and injury prevention and not just brute strength.”  

As if to prove the point, I joined one of Megan’s small group classes and tried my best to keep up with everyone else. It was a very chill vibe and felt very inclusive — there was no yelling — but the next day I couldn’t straighten my arms because they were so sore. Overall, though, I was glad I did it both for the workout and for challenging my stereotypes about personal training.

 THE GOOD: A good personal trainer can make exercise fun and keep it from getting stale. As Brinnon put it, “I like that they have a variety of workouts so it’s not just the same thing and they will adapt it to where my fitness level is. They will push me but not too far, just the right amount.”

THE BAD: One-on-one personal training ranges from $35 to $60 per session depending on the length and number of sessions per week but private group and small group training options are much more affordable (can be as little as $15 per session). 

THE NITTY GRITTY: Personal training is way more inclusive than I imagined, serving a diverse clientele of folks of all abilities, ages, shapes and sizes. So why not abandon your prejudice? Find a personal trainer or go to www.coeur-training.com for more information.

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Dr. Emry is a family physician and partner at Ironwood Family Practice in Coeur d’Alene. Exercise Explorer MD will appear every other week in The Press and Dr. Emry can be contacted via email exercisexplorermd@gmail.com. © 2024. This work is licensed under a CC BY-ND 4.0 license.