First off, I think there are a variety of problems, not just one or two.  So here’s my list:

A Focus On Everything But Results – If you go to the mechanic, you go to get your car fixed…not just worked on, right? It’s pretty much that way for any service.

If I drop my clothes of at the dry cleaner, it’s because I want them clean and pressed.

In fact, if my car isn’t fixed or my clothes aren’t cleaned – the service provider didn’t do their job.

The fitness industry’s job is to get people results.  Not just ‘work them out’.

These are far from perfect analogies because they deal with objects like cars and clothes – not people – but the point remains.

If gyms and trainers were graded on the outcomes they deliver to their clients – most would get an ‘F.’

You can argue that their job isn’t to provide the outcome – it’s to deliver the tools or the process.

Fair enough – but if that’s the case they shouldn’t be using the outcome (results) to sell the clients.

If the industry focused more on delivering results businesses would be a lot healthier and clients would be a lot happier.

The Typical Health Club Approach To Business – For the most part health clubs do nothing more than rent their members access to their equipment.  They put little if any effort into building relationships with their members, helping members achieve their goals and essentially delivering on the promises they made in order to sell the membership.

They’re too busy chasing the next member.

It’s little wonder the typical club only has about 30% of their members actively using the facility and only about 3% involved with personal training.

If a member hasn’t visited the club in a couple of weeks, do they get a call or a note wondering where they’ve been? Nope – no one cares…until it’s time to renew.

I know of no other ‘service’ business in the world that provides less actual service than big box clubs.

Personal Trainers That Don’t Respect The Profession – While a lot of people get caught up in other things like ‘there are too many certifications’ – I just think that most of the trainers you find in clubs – and a significant percentage of the trainers in the industry as a whole just don’t get it.

As simply as I can put it – the job of a trainer is to make their client ‘better.’

‘Better’ can mean any number of things depending on the client’s goals.

Unfortunately, most trainers are just busy making clients tired.  They just give them a workout with no real concern as to the client’s goals.

If you go to a doctor, you don’t just want a random prescription.  You want one that will cure what ails you.

Same thing applies here.

That means more focus on trainers becoming better trainers.  More education. More assessments.  More thought to program design.

It makes me throw up in my mouth a little when I read someone suggesting that they just dream up their bootcamp workout as it’s going on.

If you’re charging someone for a professional service, treat the service with respect.

Bad Business Models – Only offering 1 on 1 training so only the affluent can afford training held back the personal training industry for so long it’s scary.  Finally the industry has evolved so that more people can afford to work with a professional coach / trainer.  Multiple offerings = better reach. That’s one side of it.  The other side is that most people with the title ‘personal trainer’ work in a club setting and make $7 a session for 4 months then decide to get a real job.

To deliver a professional level of service the business model needs to accommodate paying professionals.  In most club settings, the only person in the training department making a decent wage is the person doing the selling.

Don’t mistake this for needing to start every trainer out at $25 per hour or more.  They just need a career path that allows them to grow within the profession if we want more stability and a better quality of service.

No Career Path For Trainers – Personal training is a very young profession. How many retired trainers do you know of?

With this youth comes a lack of development within the profession.  It’s kinda like the wild west in a sense.

Once you get a certification or a degree and decide to set out on your career – where do you start?

For a seldom few – they get to do an internship with someone really good and are set on a sound path.

For a few others, maybe they come across a blog like this or the IYCA where I (or someone smarter) can help them pursue an entrepreneurial path.

But for most, they head to the local health club and get caught up in the turn and burn nature of that environment.  A few survive, but most move on to another career. And the club members are probably the biggest losers of all as they only the rawest of trainers and a club environment that is focused far more on sales than service.

Honestly, this is an area that I would like to one day be able to look back and say I had an impact on helping to develop career paths for fitness professionals – but this is at best a work in progress.

No Understanding Of Social Support – Too many people in this industry think that there is a magic program that fixes everything and give little concern to the other variables (outside of discussing nutrition) that impact results.

Clients don’t live in a vacuum.

To really make change happen you need to embrace the other things that impact client success.  Atmosphere matters.  Community matters.  Social support matters.

If you as the trainer or a gym owner creates an atmosphere that is motivating to your clients – average programming will deliver above average results.

If your clients have a community – they have social support – they’ll be more accountable not only when they’re in the gym, but for the 23 hours they’re not each day.

I don’t care if you love programs like CrossFit and Zumba or hate them.  They certainly do one thing better than most everyone else in the fitness world – they create a community atmosphere.  People wear the fact that they do CrossFit or Zumba like a badge of honor. If other programs got their participants to become ambassadors for what they do like these programs do – retention and reach would be far smaller problems.

Too Much Sizzle – Junk ab gizmos on TV promising you’ll fit back into your skinny jeans for only 3 easy payments of $49.95. Magic pills to make you thin. 5000 diet books all trying to say ‘Eat Less’ in a catchier way. Hundreds of E-Books all providing the secrets to being buff – with 2/3 of them written by people with less experience working with clients than my 8yr old has.

The consumer gets so caught up in the bullshit that they often either give up or don’t have a realistic perception of what attaining results requires.  Or worse yet – we get caught up in the bullshit and focus on the quick buck instead of building a high-impact career.

Those are the big problems I see in the fitness industry right now.  Next week I’ll tell you how I think you can take advantage of the opportunities they present.

In the mean time, tell me what you think below.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.