10 reasons why your personal trainer sucks

By Martin Ebner
Updated September 2026

The title is blunt, but so is paying somebody to help you train and realising they’re wasting your time.

A good personal trainer gives your training structure, watches the details you can’t always see yourself and makes sensible decisions when life, stress or a dodgy shoulder changes the plan. A bad one turns up, invents an hour of exercise and counts the minutes until the next client.

One bad session doesn’t make somebody a bad trainer. People have off days, emergencies happen and even a good program occasionally needs changing on the spot. The problem is the pattern.

If several of these sound familiar, it may be time for a proper conversation or a better personal trainer.

1. THEY’RE ALWAYS LATE OR CANCELLING

Life happens. A trainer who has to move one session isn’t committing a crime, and neither are you when you occasionally need to do the same.

Regular lateness and last-minute cancellations are different. You’ve organised your day, travelled to the session and paid for somebody’s time. If they repeatedly treat your booking as optional, they’re telling you exactly how seriously they take it.

Accountability works both ways. Your trainer can expect you to turn up, and you can expect the same from them.

2. EVERY SESSION LOOKS MADE UP ON THE SPOT

A good trainer doesn’t need to clutch a clipboard for the entire hour, but there should be a plan behind what you’re doing. Your exercises, sets, reps and progression should connect to your goals rather than whichever machine happens to be free.

Plans can change. If you slept badly, something hurts or the gym is chaos, adapting the session is good coaching. Making up every workout from scratch because your trainer hasn’t thought beyond today isn’t.

Ask what the plan is. A decent trainer should be able to explain it without producing a TED Talk or looking as though you’ve asked for the nuclear codes. If you want to know what purposeful training should feel like, start with these 10 signs of a great workout.

3. THE WORKOUT IS DESIGNED TO IMPRESS YOU

Some trainers seem terrified that a client might perform a normal squat. Everything has to involve a wobbling surface, three pieces of equipment and a movement that looks impressive on Instagram.

There’s nothing wrong with variety, coordination work or learning a difficult skill when it serves a purpose. The problem is complexity for show. If you’re balancing on one leg, swinging a kettlebell and curling a dumbbell while your trainer films it, you may have accidentally joined the circus.

Good training doesn’t have to look clever. It has to be appropriate, repeatable and capable of progressing.

4. THEY DON’T WATCH HOW YOU MOVE

Your trainer’s attention should be on you, especially when you’re learning an exercise or lifting something demanding. They should notice when your position changes, when the final repetitions become messy and when the load has stopped being useful.

That doesn’t mean every repetition needs an interruption or a biomechanics lecture. Good coaching gives you the cue you need, then lets you move. Bad coaching either ignores everything or shouts six corrections at once until you’ve forgotten which direction is up.

Technique isn’t about making every exercise look identical for every person. Bodies differ. The job is to help you perform the movement safely and effectively with the body you have.

5. THEY SPEND THE SESSION ON THEIR PHONE

Trainers use phones for timers, programs, notes, videos and music. Seeing one in their hand doesn’t automatically mean they’re checking Instagram while you struggle through a set.

You’ll know the difference. If they regularly miss your repetitions, answer messages or wander mentally out of the room, you’re paying for supervision you aren’t receiving.

You shouldn’t have to compete with somebody’s notifications for their attention. If the phone is part of the session, it should be helping your training.

6. THEY PUSH HARDER THAN THEY LISTEN

A trainer should challenge you. That’s often part of what you’re paying for, and most of us can do a little more than we think when somebody experienced is paying attention.

There’s still a difference between productive effort and treating every session like punishment. If you say something feels wrong and the response is always “push through it”, that isn’t toughness. It’s laziness dressed as motivation.

The right level changes from day to day. A trainer who understands that can still get excellent work from you without pretending sleep, stress, illness and injury don’t exist.

7. THEY TOUCH YOU WITHOUT ASKING

Physical guidance can occasionally help with positioning, but it should have a clear purpose and it should come with your permission. A trainer can say where they need to place a hand and ask whether you’re comfortable before doing it. This isn’t complicated.

Unnecessary touching, getting into your personal space or making you feel uncomfortable isn’t part of personal training. You don’t owe somebody access to your body because they’re holding a stopwatch.

If a boundary is crossed, say so if you feel able. If the behaviour continues, leave. You don’t need to debate whether your discomfort is reasonable enough.

8. THEY PROMISE RESULTS THEY CAN’T GUARANTEE

Your trainer can control the quality of the plan, how well they coach and how honestly they respond to your progress. They can’t guarantee exactly how your body will change or promise a celebrity physique by a particular Friday.

Be especially wary of trainers selling dramatic results through extreme diets, punishing exercise or supplements you supposedly can’t succeed without. Good coaching gives you realistic expectations and adjusts the process as the evidence comes in.

Progress takes time. Anybody promising to bypass that fact is selling the fantasy rather than the work.

9. THEY MAKE EVERYTHING ABOUT THEM

Your trainer’s own training, physique and experience can tell you something, but your session isn’t an audition for their autobiography. What worked for them may not suit your body, schedule, preferences or goals.

Watch out for somebody who turns every question into a story about themselves, expects you to copy their diet or treats your progress as content for their social media. You’re the client, not a supporting character in their fitness brand.

A good trainer brings experience to the session without making the session about proving how experienced they are.

10. YOU DON’T TRUST THEM ENOUGH TO ASK QUESTIONS

You should be able to ask why an exercise is in your program, what progress looks like or why the plan has changed. Your trainer doesn’t need to defend every decision as if they’re in court, but they should be comfortable explaining their thinking.

Trust doesn’t mean agreeing with everything. It means believing that the person coaching you is paying attention, knows the limits of their expertise and will be honest when they don’t know something.

Sometimes the trainer is perfectly competent and the relationship still isn’t right. Personality, communication and training style matter. A good trainer for somebody else can still be the wrong trainer for you.

ONE BAD DAY OR A BAD TRAINER?

Before you sack somebody over a late arrival or one uninspired workout, look for the pattern. Raise the problem clearly and give them the chance to respond. Good trainers can take feedback, and sometimes a direct conversation fixes the issue immediately.

If nothing changes, move on. Personal training is a professional service, and you’re allowed to expect preparation, attention, boundaries and honest advice.

If you’re in Barcelona and want a trainer who plans the work, pays attention and explains what you’re doing, read about how I approach personal training. If it sounds like the right fit, you can start training here.