Episode 14: Personal Trainers and Nutrition Transcript
[00:00:06.970] - Ashley
Hi, everyone, welcome to the show. This week, we have a special listener question that we're going to be answering. If you have questions about nutrition and wellness that you want to email us, or if you happen to take our Nutrition Navigator podcast survey to tell us some things you'd like to learn more about.
[00:00:33.910] - Ashley
One of our dietetic interns who is with us this past week is going to be answering a couple of your questions before we introduce our guest for the podcast today.
[00:00:46.510] - Selene
Hey, Ashley thank you so much for having me. I am going to be responding to the following questions are zero sugars a good thing or zero carbohydrates a good thing? And how much sugar is enough? When I hear the word sugar, a few things come to mind is this sugar coming from pastries, ice cream, fruits or dairy products, a diet that is completely sugar free would avoid all fruit, whole grains and dairy, which are foods that we know offer many nutritional benefits completely.
[00:01:21.070] - Selene
Eliminating or restricting sugar may be challenging and is not generally encouraged. The restriction of sugar may increase the thought of sugar and develop either an obsession or lead to uncontrollable urges to consume sugar. In fact, sugar can be a part of a diet that includes several other nutrient dense foods. Sugars are carbohydrates. Now, have you ever had a low carb day, either intentionally or even unintentionally, and felt a little rundown? That may be because carbohydrates are our bodies preferred fuel source and provide our bodies with the energy that we need to go on about our day.
[00:02:09.520] - Selene
Carbohydrates are also our only source of fiber. Therefore, if we're eliminating carbohydrates, that can not only negatively impact our ability to perform tasks, but it may also affect our digestion, our blood sugar control, among other things. Again, sugars are carbohydrates. The amount of sugar that is enough for me may not be enough for you as we all live through different experiences and have unique needs. Sugar and carbohydrates can be a part of an enjoyable diet, and speaking with the registered dietitian may help you figure out what works best for you. Thank you so much for listening.
[00:02:58.520] - Ashley
Welcome to Nutrition Navigator's podcast, Bringing Nutrition and Wellness to You. Together, we learn from a variety of health professionals about their stories and how they contribute to the world, its wellness. My name's Ashley Monroe and I'm one of the nutrition counselors at Campus Health and Advisor for Nutrition Navigators. First off, I want to introduce Sarah, who will be my co-host today.
[00:03:19.010] - Sarah
Hello, everyone. My name is Sarah and I am a dietetic intern for Maricopa County Department of Public Health. It's an internship in Phenix, Arizona. On today's episode, we are welcoming back Jake from Campus Recreation, where we will be talking about the role of personal trainers and dietitians and help students on their health goals. Jake has been working for campus recreation at the University of Arizona as a fitness and wellness coordinator since two thousand seventeen. Before working at University of Arizona, Jake worked as a graduate assistant for the Department of Wellness in Oklahoma State University, where he received a B.S. in health, education and promotion and an MS in Applied Exercise Science.
[00:04:01.430] - Sarah
He currently holds certifications and ACE, as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor. Jake oversees the fitness stuff and the group Fitness, Personal Training, Wellness and small group training programs. Just a note that all the content on the podcast is for general audience is intended for informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual medical or mental health advice.
[00:04:32.870] - Sarah
Now let's welcome Jake to the show.
[00:04:36.570] - Sarah
All right, so for those of you who haven't been with us in the past, the speaker has been with us before in Episode nine. So welcome back, Jake. Can you discuss what about this topic is interesting to you personally?
[00:04:50.520] - Jake
I've been in a fitness for around ten years, and I've had the opportunity to work in a few different kind of settings. So within private facilities, within mom and pop kind of gyms with very large facilities, campus recreation and athletic performance. And I think of what we kind of see through individuals and through personal trainers at different of these locations. Sometimes you're more often find a personal trainer that may go outside of their scope of practice and provide some nutritional information that may be really personal to them.
[00:05:26.010] - Jake
They might have a strong opinion about but may not be backed up with science, may not be backed up through peer reviewed research and data. It's understanding where the personal training scope of practices and helping clients and participants understand what their good options are for personal trainer and understand the difference between a personal trainer and a registered dietitian, the information that they can give and how they can each personally help you reach your goals. So giving that knowledge to the participants, to the clients, can help them make a better informed decision on a personal trainer.
[00:06:04.290] - Jake
If one is is talking about nutrition a little bit more in depth than they should, or providing recommendations that may not be fully science based or more opinion based.
[00:06:14.100] - Ashley
Yeah, I feel like it's hard for students and really anyone to know where that line is. What is the role of the personal trainer? What is the role of the dietitian?
[00:06:25.290] - Ashley
How do you teach your your trainees? If student or a client asks you about nutrition and advice in the gym while they're training, like, what are your thoughts when you field those? And do all trainers get the same training on how to address nutrition?
[00:06:42.090] - Jake
I think it depends on the place. One of the big things that that I try to teach any of our young trainers or anybody coming through a prep course or wanting to become a personal trainer is, when in doubt refer out. If you do not know an answer to a question, don't be scared to say no, I do not know. But I can help you with the answer or provide you with the appropriate resource, which in nutrition case is registered dietitians. On the on the weight room floor or in the fitness area.
[00:07:11.550] - Jake
I think some of the biggest things that we see is what about this food? Is this food healthy? Is this food not healthy? I think we're starting to understand a little bit more through nutrition. That maybe we need to look more in depth about what our terminology of healthy and unhealthy is. And it may be kind of a loaded question based upon the individual, some other things, you know, protein supplement intake that we get a lot of questions about.
[00:07:38.700] - Jake
What we tell our trainers is to give them references to look up a particular macronutrient or what is the recommended dose. You can give them resources for peer reviewed articles, but we can't necessarily tell them "you need to consume this much or take this much" based upon on that. Plus the small information we know about the individual from the weight room floor, we've got no basis for information. So making sure that we try to deflect and tell them about registered dietitians and what that is and not necessarily the "Instagram fitness person" who may not have any credentials or may not understand the scientific process that is just giving information based off of their opinions or who's giving them money.
[00:08:32.530] - Ashley
I think some folks are good about disclaimers with that, like they'll say things around. I don't know necessarily what would work with your body, but this is what's been my experience. Like, maybe that's. I don't know, that's maybe a fine line, but maybe that's something. Do you feel like students have a good idea of what macronutrients are or is that a surprising gap in information?
[00:08:56.280] - Jake
I think people learn more baseline information the more in depth that they go into fitness. They start learning about these basics over macronutrients versus micronutrients and kind of what is the what is the levels that we need based upon our goals. But however, those individuals are a very small population of people regularly work out and are very, very involved with fitness. Most population does not work out.
[00:09:30.510] - Jake
I think it's around 70 or 80 percent of individuals do not regularly participate in exercise. So a lot of those individuals may not even understand those baseline basic nutrition information. And that's why I think we got to get a lot of misinformation out there that people kind of believe the first thing that they hear and that you're able to put out just a bunch of B.S. nutrition and people grab a hold of it.
[00:10:00.810] - Jake
So as a whole, I think no, but within our little bubble of a fitness area, maybe there's more than not that understand there's those differences.
[00:10:11.010] - Ashley
When they're asking for advice around, like what is healthy and what is not healthy, just that kind of labeling foods "good" or "bad" that all or nothing, thinking or eating has to be "perfect". And there is no perfect eating. Folks ask other professionals whether it be trainers or dietitians, are they just asking for permission to be told like it's OK to not eat perfect?
[00:10:32.790] - Jake
Yeah, that's a good point. I think that with different people's relationship with their own body and with people's relationship with food, that can be in a whole bunch of different levels. I think that's important to understand and important to not do anything that tips the balance of those kinds of things. Right. Their relationship with their body and their relationship with the food either. Mainly, we're trying not to tip it to a negative.
[00:11:01.320] - Jake
That's something that we really have to watch out for with the total well-being approach of our profession, that mental health aspect as well. So, yeah, that's a good point. And I think a lot of people want to try to find this magic bullet. They want to try to find this, hey, this is the one thing I need to do and then I'm set, you know. All I have to do is not consume sugar or all I have to do is consume this particular product or whatever it may be, and then they're set for life. We want the easy way out. And it's not always it's not that case.
[00:11:33.910] - Ashley
We wanted to have it had happened yesterday. It has urgency.
[00:11:41.550] - Ashley
Do you feel like there's a broken record comment that you say all the time? Do you feel like you get questions around nutrition as a trainer? And there's just this one question. You get a lot or do you feel like anything stands out as, like you feel like a broken record?
[00:11:55.470] - Jake
I think my continual thing that I say is, this is what I know based on some basic information. If you want to know more about it (nutrition), here are some resources that you can have or you can talk to a registered dietitian by going to campus health, by going through life & work connections. Those that's kind of the info I give. That's a real quick and and be able to help them with somebody who has the background and license or registration to do that.
[00:12:26.100] - Ashley
Do you feel like at the U of a two part of the privilege is we are this community that has all these different resources and maybe a trainer outside of our UA community feels less like they know who's available to refer out to. Do you feel like that's a barrier? Maybe.
[00:12:45.440] - Jake
Definitely. So when you're talking about independent contractors out there. One thing that I try to tell all of our personal trainers when they go through the prep courses, we would love to have your campus recreation, but if you want to go through independent contracting later down the road and have your own business or open your own gym, these are the things you need to watch out for. At the university you have all of these resources at your disposal, independent contractors. You need a lot of friends and you need a lot of people that you know, that you trust to refer out to.
[00:13:22.370] - Jake
Because even with there's there's bad personal trainers out there.
[00:13:26.690] - Jake
There's bad dietitians. There's bad doctors. Right. Everybody is not going to be where human fully skilled. So having that having that group of individuals that work within the health care continuum outside of your scope, psychologists, dietitians, medical doctors, physical therapists, those are the things that are really important for us to have. And that can be tough. And you have to do part of being a private personal trainer or owning your gym is a networking is huge and it's important to be able to get out there and network.So, yes, definitely personal trainers do have outside independent contractors have a lot of barriers that they may have to work with. And some of their clients are paying big money. Don't have that.
[00:14:12.200] - Ashley
Like I feel like as the professional, there's like this pressure to know it all, do it all because they are paying a service. I'm sure this comes up in lots of different professions. But I know as a dietitian, when we get asked, I mean, physical activity questions, from the standpoint of our physiology background and just like talking about movement, I think there's lots of healthy habits we can promote.
[00:14:39.410] - Ashley
But if there's specific things around they want to learn specific types of exercise or movement, we're not the best option for that person either. And it's so nice at the UofA to say something like campus recreation has these resources and these options and at the same time feel like the same thing in the community that might feel different. Or you might feel as the dietitian, I'm sending them to a trainer and I don't know what they're going to say about food either.
[00:15:07.190] - Jake
And I think it's building that relationship. And I think we have a fairly good relationship and we're able to train our staff to be able to train years for us to be able to have that cross bridge and not worry too much. I think on the opposite side of that, when we're talking about personal trainers and nutrition and what they can and can't give, that line is often crossed with medical professionals. That line is crossed with a lot of people who think they know, oh, you need to be doing this exercise, don't resistance train, don't do this. You're going to hurt those kinds of things as well. Are on the opposite side. That's outside of their scope of practice. They need to be referring out to a personal trainer or a dietitian if it's referring to nutrition or whatever it may be.
[00:15:52.070] - Ashley
And you just don't want our students to get hurt either. I would hate to recommend something. And the form is such a big deal when you're doing certain types of movement. And if we're having a consult and we're in an office setting or in a virtual setting, that's not the setting. I can give good advice if you need someone to be there with you on the gym floor or show you a video or, I don't know, I think a more comprehensive assessment of the person so that you can have that whole body approach.
[00:16:23.750] - Ashley
I did read that when I was doing some research about personal trainers that the training that personal trainers get has moved, towards a more whole body approach. So I think that's really great. And I didn't know that before.
[00:16:39.050] - Jake
So, yeah, we I mean, well-being and and all of these different aspects play within the behavior, change the trans theoretical model and matters of behavior change. So, you know, if we want and just like with nutrition counseling and what you all are trying to do with trying to have people have a plan that meets their goals and meets their lifestyle, you have to provide those those different holistic well-being aspects in order to help change their mindset about a particular habit or particular thing they've done and where how to move forward.
[00:17:10.890] - Ashley
Exactly.
[00:17:12.080] - Sarah
So in your personal opinion, what are some reasons a person might want to work with a trainer versus a dietician? And then in your professional opinion, when do we as dietitians come into play?
[00:17:24.560] - Jake
I think it's just I think it's a lot of misinformation and a lot of perception that a personal trainer is going to help you with nutrition and give you a plan on. Because we've seen a lot of personal trainers cross that line and they're fine with crossing that line, there's not really any repercussions unless someone decides to sue or anything like that. And beforehand when there was personal training, you know, I'm not sure with the history of dietetics in the history of of registered dietitians and their role.
[00:18:01.150] - Jake
But at the beginning, you know, personal trainers and these bodybuilders would give would train people and give this nutritional advice, because there really wasn't that line between registered dietitians and personal trainers in the past that was so well known. So and they were used differently. Right. Dietetics has evolved greatly here with different kind of. Now you've got specialties within endurance athletes versus these different people that want to meet their different goals, everything is becoming very specific and so with personal training. So if things become more specific, we need to be able to branch out, make sure that we refer out. So I think that people think that, oh, a personal trainer, they're going to give me my nutrition advice and it's easy to go to a one stop shop, right? People want that ease and convenience. A lot of registered dietitians now are becoming personal trainers.
[00:19:00.910] - Jake
We've had a few that I've worked with in other universities that I've worked at. We've had a few registered dietitians that were also personal trainers. So we knew that if someone really put a lot of nutrition information into their intake form, we would give it to the registered dietitian and they would be able to do that. So and I think vice versa.
[00:19:18.760] - Jake
I think a lot of strength coaches and a lot of personal trainers are working into dietetics and trying to get a RD.
[00:19:27.730] - Ashley
Yeah, Because you see a good overlap and you probably see a good opportunity to close that gap a little or be that resource for the client or the student or. Yeah, that person who really wants it to be a one stop shop.
[00:19:41.830] - Jake
That's right and that's what we all want. Right. That's why Wal-Mart is one of the biggest stores in the world has got everything and you just go there.
[00:19:53.000] - Ashley
What are some resources that you would share for students if they are interested in having personal training or if they're interested in being a personal trainer? Like what are some resources for students to kind of get get started in that realm if they kind of like what they hear? Well, at the University of Arizona, we've got a few options, anybody who wants to become a personal trainer can go through a certification process and get certified.
[00:20:23.220] - Jake
You can have NCCA recognized certifications, which is what we run through, or NSCA, NASM, those are the big four for which in the personal training realm, you could just simply buy a textbook by the study material, do it on your own and have at it and pass the exam.
[00:20:45.510] - Ashley
How long will that take, Jake?
[00:20:47.610] - Jake
Well, it depends on how smart you are or how much time you have (laughs).
[00:20:52.920] - Jake
I usually tell people it's studying on their own. And if you're studying five days out of the week for an hour, you take that six months to be able to really hunker down. I've known students have been able to do it in three months and be able to go through that. And, you know, if you have the baseline information and are a physiology major or exercise science major or whatever it may be, you may be more prepared than somebody else.
[00:21:18.600] - Jake
However, if you go that route, you do not gain the practical skills in order to how am I going to cue an exercise? How do I interact with this class? How is that first initial assessment going to go? How do I run an assessment, practicing on those individuals? So there are preparation courses. We run one here, campus recreation every semester, spring and fall semesters. We run a personal training course that uses the ACE curriculum where you get to gain those practical skills.
[00:21:47.670] - Jake
You get to practice working with a mock client and practice with your peers about program design and running assessments, which are huge postural movement screens. So there's a lot of opportunities to get. We run an eleven week course. There's also here if you're a nutritional science major NSC 320, runs the same course, which is academic credit, there's a 16 week course and then there's a seven week course that have just been created. I would recommend the 16 week course, but it runs through the same ACE personal training curriculum that you get.
[00:22:20.250] - Jake
You also have labs where you gain some of those practical skills as well. So, you know, you can study the book, you can pass the exam. But if you go out there and you don't know how to interact with people, you don't know how to cue. Don't know the proper technique, then you're not going to come out being a very good trainer. There's a lot of experience that's met. So our goal is to have you come out as good trainers.
[00:22:44.970] - Jake
Your goal after we have you come out as good trainers is become great trainers and there's always continual education. But we can get you to that good part. Becoming a good trainer is really hard to do. It's a big uphill battle for that beginning portion.
[00:22:59.820] - Ashley
Can I ask if there's nutrition in the course?
[00:23:04.140] - Jake
There is. There is very baseline information again for nutritional sciences. We actually have Lisa MacDonald, she teaches us the nutrition portion. So we have a registered dietitian and students will have the opportunity to ask questions. But it's very it's very general. Right, based on the information that we can give, being able to resource Myplate.gov, looking and seeing what some of this terminology is, what is macronutrients, what is micronutrients, what is toxicity and what are these things actually mean?
[00:23:32.400] - Jake
But we're not going into OK, if you have a client coming in for weight loss, this is the type of nutritional plan they need. You're not give nutritional we do not give meal plans.
[00:23:42.960] - Jake
We do not give particular foods or supplements that can be given that we should stay within a registered dietitian scope of practice.
[00:23:58.710] - Ashley
Well, thank you, Jake. That was so helpful and insightful. And I loved learning the resources we have on campus for students to if they're interested in getting involved. And do you have personal training right now? Like is there can students have a personal training session virtually.?
[00:24:15.390] - Jake
They could do both. So we have in-person personal training available right now in in-person personal training is we have protocols in place. So everybody wears masks. Trainers are required to wear gloves and we stay eight feet apart. There's specific areas that you're able to train in and then we do have online options as well. So online options are great for individuals who may want to step up their game.
[00:24:46.920] - Jake
And they may want to kind of try to increase that. So, you know, program designs. If you're already comfortable going into the facility and working out on your own, it's a great way to get some programs. It's at a lot more affordable price. You get to meet a personal trainer after every five session to see how it goes to work on technique to do any of that kind of stuff. And it's all virtual. So it's a great safe option now for individuals who may not want to come into the facility at the time.
[00:25:15.010] - Sarah
Jake, as you know, we like to ask for questions at the end of the podcast. We mixed it up a little bit since the last time you were with us. Are you ready?
[00:25:25.180] - Jake
I'm ready.
[00:25:26.560] - Sarah
All right. So humous or guacamole?
[00:25:29.230] - Jake
Well, I grew up with a lot of allergies, but none of them food. But my mom and my grandmother are. I've always been allergic to avocados. And so I was always scared to have avocados because I was always allergic to everything they were. But, you know, I've actually eaten it. And I was like, OK, nothing's going on. And then I consumed more of it. So I'm not I'm not allergic. Thank goodness. I really don't care for either one of them, especially guacamole, since I stayed away from it for so long.
[00:26:00.590] - Jake
But if I had to pick the two, I would probably pick... well what kind of hummus. So there's different types of hummus, right?
[00:26:11.050] - Ashley
That's true. We can have regular hummus. There could be. I've seen like Buffalo, spicy hummus.
[00:26:18.250] - Jake
I would like that. Yeah. So it's a toss up. I don't have enough experience to answer this question.
[00:26:26.560] - Sarah
Right. And favorite ice cream flavor.
[00:26:29.950] - Jake
Depends on what's on top of. But if you just give me ice cream, I'll take Rocky Road.
[00:26:34.480] - Sarah
OK, good choice and it's a great choice.
[00:26:37.120] - Sarah
Your favorite meal. You know how to cook. My mom passed down her homemade chicken soup recipe, and I love that
[00:26:46.210] - Sarah
Comfort food.
[00:26:47.860] - Ashley
Did you know there's this chicken noodle soup recipe we found and it didn't call for noodles. It called for Israeli couscous. It was those big those big noodle pasta. They're like circle balls, but it was delicious. And I had never put Israeli couscous in a soup before. But it was it had a very good texture.
[00:27:12.370] - Jake
Does it have the same texture as the noodles, but kind of thicker?
[00:27:17.080] - Ashley
No, it's like a little ball. It's like I don't even know how to describe it because it's just like a pea, like it's the size of a pea, maybe a little smaller than a pea but pasta.
[00:27:28.590] - Jake
I would like that. I do love the egg noodles. Parts of it like finding frozen egg noodles around here is pretty tough.
[00:27:36.890] - Jake
I don't know what the deal is, but ever since I moved to Arizona, I've had a really tough time, a frozen egg noodles.
[00:27:42.100] - Ashley
I don't know if I've ever seen frozen egg noodles.
[00:27:54.670] - Sarah
Last question. What is your favorite part about being a personal trainer?
[00:27:58.810] - Jake
I think it's the interaction that we have with different individuals. I think that is for me personally, that's my favorite part, to be able to help individuals. But not just that, but learn about different cultures, learn about different people and kind of what's their approach to exercise and based upon their different lifestyles, based upon how they're raised, how can we get them to meet their goals? But you meet a lot of different characters. I've learned I know how to say "one more" in three different languages.
[00:28:26.230] - Jake
So and I've learned that all from clients be able to say one more for one more rep so often is, you know, physical activity and exercise is good for ninety nine point nine percent of us. Right. And so it doesn't matter what race, it doesn't matter what your past is, what your environment you grew up in.
[00:28:52.180] - Jake
Any of that stuff doesn't matter because it's now looking at you as your biological being, being able to help you have lifelong health and wellbeing.
[00:29:02.050] - Ashley
Bodies like to move in all kinds of ways.
[00:29:13.570] - Ashley
So thank you for being back on the show, Jake. Appreciate your expertise and your insight and just your willingness to come on and share with students. It's always a great time. So thank you.
[00:29:26.710] - Jake
Definitely. I appreciate you all.
[00:29:28.420] - Ashley
And that's our show. Thank you so much for listening. Please share with your friends and connect with us on all our campus health social channels and email us at CHS-NutritionNavigators@emai.arizona.edu to submit your questions and comments about the show. We are so excited to be bringing you the monthly content to spark curiosity and further empower you to feel your best. We are sponsored by Campus Health and our program and health promotion and preventive services. We want to thank Jake for coming on the show and bringing awareness to being mindful of the information you receive from different professionals out there.
[00:30:01.900] - Ashley
It sometimes takes a team to get you to your health goals. A dietitian can really support your specific nutrition concerns and trainers can make sure you're safe and productive in fitness. Plus, he gave us some great resources. If you're interested in being or working with a trainer until next time, Be Well, Wildcats.