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American Morning

New Study Shows Some Personal Trainers Can't Make Grade

Aired May 22, 2002 - 09:44   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Got other health news to share with you now this morning. They push you. Sometimes they even scream at you, and they always somehow seem to be able to get you to do one more set of reps when you don't think your arms and legs can handle it. They feel like rubber. We're talking about personal trainers. And while more and more turn to them to get into shape, a new study shows some of those trainers can not make the grade. I guess maybe a suggestion of incompetency here.

Let's turn to CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, who is very competent at what she does. She joins us from the athletic club at CNN Center in Atlanta to explain.

So what's the deal? These folks don't know what they're talking about?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, many of them, it appears, Paula, don't know what they're talking about. I mean, I bet a lot of people out there think, oh personal trainer must be certified or licensed by the state. Well, they're not. Anyone could hand out a shingle saying they're personal trainer. I could do it, and I certainly wouldn't be competent to be a personal trainer.

Some researchers at UCLA gave a quiz to 115 personal trainers, and on average they got 43 percent of the answers correct, just 43 percent. Let's look at some of these questions to see what they didn't know. Here's a question they said, protein should contribute no more than what percent of the total daily caloric input for the average individual? The choices were between 0-9 percent, 10-15 percent, 16-25 percent, 26-35 percent and 36-4 percent. And the correct answer is b, 10-15 percent. Protein is supposed to make up that much of your diet.

Here's another question. This one is about exercise, when administering what is called the sit-and-reach test, the client should do what? And the choices are a, remove his or her shoes, b, fully extend the legs with the feet shoulder-width apart, c, exhale and slowly flex the torso forward, reaching the hands along the measuring device, or d, all of the above.

Now, I didn't know the answer to that until I started doing this story, but I have someone here with us who does. This is Melinda Gore, who is a trainer here at the Turner Athletic Club.

And, Melinda, tell us what the answer is.

MELINDA GORE, PERSONAL TRAINER: The answer is D, all of the above.

COHEN: I got you. Well, here, We have this sit-and-reach test. Before we show everybody how it worked, what is the purpose of this?

GORE: The importance of the sit-and-reach test is to determine an individual's hamstring, low back flexibility, very important in creating a program later for the individual.

COHEN: OK, so this is just one of many test people like you know how to do.

We've got Brian here who manages the club. Show us how you do it.

GORE: OK, what we have is the individual needs to remove their shoes first of all, legs are shoulder-width apart. What we're going to have Brian do is put both hands one on top of the other, and take a deep breath in, exhaling, fluidly pushing that measure forward.

Very good.

And that's pretty good, Ryan.

COHEN: So he did well. He's pretty flexible.

GORE: He's pretty flexible. He did well.

COHEN: Tell me, why is important that someone like you know how to administer a test like that?

GORE: When you get individuals coming to you for personal training, to create a program for them, you want to know what their current level of fitness is, so that later on, you can show how much they've improved and how well they're doing.

COHEN: Thank you, Melinda.

Now, Paula, so when you're choose a personal trainer, you really want to beware. You want Someone like Melinda who knows what they're doing, because a personal trainer, if they don't do it right, you could get hurt, plus you wasted 50 bucks an hour -- Paula.

ZAHN: So do you have a checklist of the things we should go through when we're prospectively looking at someone to help us out?

GORE: Absolutely. The single most important thing, according to this study, is that you find someone who either, a, has four-year degree in something like exercise physiology, which is what -- or exercise science, which is the degree that Melinda has. Or you want to say, are you certified by one of the bodies that certifies personal trainers.

Let's take a look the difference in the scores. As I said, the average score on this test was 43 percent right. But when the trainers were certified, they got 83 percent correct, a much better score. For the trainers who were not certified, the average score was 38 percent correct.

So certification is very, very important, and it's also important who does it. There are groups like the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Council on Exercise. You want to look. Those two groups are good. Another one, the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Make sure it's a real group and not one of these fly-by-night ones. You can look on the Internet and see which of the groups seem to be reputable or not -- Paula.

ZAHN: So, Elizabeth, how far is that gym from your workspace on CNN?

COHEN: It's in the same building. I can say, I do come down here. I really do try.

ZAHN: We are jealous of your work facility.

COHEN: I'm very lucky.

ZAHN: Thanks for the advice this morning, Elizabeth Cohen reporting from Atlanta.

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