You've just plunked down half your lifetime savings and mortgaged your home for a second time. Why? So you could join the ranks of the elite by enlisting with the swanky new health club around the corner. After a few trips to the gym you begin to notice that everyone around you, and I mean everyone, is basking in the attentive care and service provided by a personal fitness instructor. You nonchalantly peer down at yourself and suddenly, it hits you: Yes, a personal fitness instructor1x That's it1x I will pay for a personal fitness instructor. I will hire the best and look my best. I will get in shape.

You proceed to the front office and request a personal training session with a top notch, highly qualified instructor. The club sets you up with an androgynous trainer who proceeds to plop you down in machine after machine, explaining how each one is designed to tone and shape your body. Your trainer speaks in such intricate detail that your convinced this person knows what s/he is talking about? You perform each exercise according to what your trainer tells you, lifting enough weight to rupture your spleen and wreak extreme havoc on your virgin muscles. You're then put on a treadmill and ordered to jog. You do. And before you know it, your trainer is gone. And you've scheduled another session. You leave the club exhausted, and muscles you never knew you had before are throbbing. You realize you could never do that alone -- not without your personal instructor. After all, s/he's the expert.

This how beginning exercisers are duped into believing they absolutely must have a personal fitness instructor in order to get in shape. Why? Because, they tell you, you wouldn't hire an electrician to handle your legal matters, would you? Of course not1x The same reasoning lies behind the need for a personal fitness instructor. You wouldn't trust your body to just anyone, would you? No, you want the best, an expert. You want someone trained in matters of health and the body.

Unfortunately, for many, hiring one is simply a waste of time and money. First, and most important, what many beginning, enthusiastic exercisers don't know is that an unsettling number of personal fitness instructors are not certified by any fitness organization. Many, however, are allowed to train clients and charge the same fee as if they were certified instructors. More appalling is the fact that some health clubs are not only aware of the practice, but encourage it.

A local club I know employs many instructors who are certified by one of the many fitness organizations, such as the American Council on Exercise, the American Fitness Association of America, and the American College of Sports Medicine. But according to some certified trainers, lurking in the background of this same club are uncertified trainers who have been informally trained by the club's fitness manager. The client pays the club's traditional hourly fee, around $60. The difference is that when the trainer is certified, the Club retains approximately 40% of the fee, with the remaining 60% going to the trainer. In the case of an uncertified trainer, the flip side occurs; The Club retains 60%, while the non-certified trainer keeps only 40%.

What is more absurd is that the client does not even benefit from the lack of certification. None of the monetary advantages gets passed off to the client in the form of a lower fee for a less certified instructor. On the contrary, it's a financial success for the health clubs. But for the client, it's simply bad business. He or she pays the same amount whether the trainer is certified or not.

If you're unsure or skeptical, ask questions. Ask to see the trainer's certification. Ask to see his or her current CPR card. Ask which fitness organizations he or she is affiliated with. Check credentials. After all, it's your body, and your money -- let the buyer beware. Remember, trainers are like a box of chocolate; you never know what you're gonna get.