HEALTH HORIZONS : FITNESS : Trusting Your Trainer : A one-on-one coach can be a boon to a fitness program. But anyone can offer his services as a personal trainer.

“So how it all started was I’m outa work, see, and I’m sittin’ by my pool at this apartment complex in Studio City. And this actress comes over and says, ‘Jake, I like ya but I don’t wanna look like ya , ‘ but she’s gonna do this Club Med spot and needs to look good in a bikini so I start training her and well, the rest is . . . well, I guess it’s history. Know what I mean?”

Jake Steinfeld, founder of Body by Jake

Observe the human body. Now, observe the human body by Jake. So what if he costs more than a psychiatrist (and maybe a few brain surgeons), this guy gets results! This guy--no exaggeration--can give you a body to love.

With the exception of Delta Burke and a few famous others who were, uh, unable to complete the program, Steinfeld’s successes are legendary. Bodies by Jake include those of Teri Garr, Bette Midler, Harrison Ford, Priscilla Presley and Aaron Spelling.

At 33, the man who once played the Incredible Hulk on the Universal Studios tour now has a syndicated exercise show, a TV sitcom, a deal with Disney and plans for 162 hotel-based studios around the country.

And he still charges only $200 per 30-minute workout.

“I was at the right place at the right time,” shrugs the guy whose main qualifications to become “Trainer to the Stars” were a great body and a nice disposition. But now that he’s at the top, even Steinfeld believes the personal training business is ready for more brains and less brawn.

“Today, anybody who’s in good shape can go out and be a personal trainer. I think it’s about time some sorta body--for lack of a better word--started puttin’ some method to this madness,” says Steinfeld.

“My thoughts exactly,” concurs Jackson Sousa, the cerebral other “Trainer to the Stars.” At 41, Sousa has been in the personal fitness biz since before it was a biz. “I’m practically a fossil,” he smiles. “But I’ve seen enough to say the personal training business is now out of control.”

It is not known exactly how many people work as personal trainers, and with no single national agency for certifying or training them, it is impossible to even guess at how many are qualified to provide one-on-one exercise instruction.

But there is no question that the business is growing.

In 1989, a survey of the 18,000-member International Dance-Exercise Assn. showed that 40% of the 1,000 members sampled called themselves “personal trainers.” That organization, which has become the American Council on Exercise, now offers a certification, as do other groups, including the Aerobics and Fitness Assn. of America and the venerable American College of Sports Medicine.

But Sousa, for one, worries that until there is a single national certification standard, the private training business will continue to be “anybody’s game.”

“As it stands now, any out-of-work actor or dancer, anyone who looks good and talks nice, can say they are a personal trainer,” says Sousa, who has completed several advanced degrees and believes any personal trainer should at the very least hold a bachelor’s degree. “It’s just too dangerous to entrust your body to someone who doesn’t know even the basics of physiology and physical education.”

According to veteran trainers such as John Rutigliano of the Houstonian Institute in Texas, injury to those working out without competent trainers are well-documented: “People have been pushed into conditions where there is not enough blood flowing into their hearts . . . where people have trained to exhaustion and lost consciousness or ripped tendons and cartilage. All sorts of things can happen if you don’t exercise correctly.”

Maureen Smith Plombon, who heads the American College of Sports Medicine’s certification program, also recommends that consumers look for trainers with a college degree, even though the organization does not require it of all fitness instructors.

“Half of personal training is being a cheerleader, a support person,” says Plombon. “But not being a good motivator will not physically harm the person. Giving them the wrong exercise will hurt them.”

For Paula Besson, author of the Aerobics and Fitness Assn.’s training program, the degree alone may not be enough. “It’s important to look at other training and experience in working with people who want to exercise safely. . . . They should know how to use the equipment and proper methods as well.”

One area of special risk, say those who want better regulation of the fitness business, is the tendency of some trainers to become instant experts in fields outside their immediate area of experience.

“Any number of personal trainers are now offering advice on nutrition, dietary supplements and all sorts of things that go far beyond their abilities,” says Rutigliano. “Unless they have specialized training or degrees in such specialties, they should be making referrals only.” Jackson Sousa and other big-name trainers have staffs to handle dietary and other non-exercise guidance. But the service is also included by some trainers, such as Altadena’s Richard and Cathy Cota, who bring to their Personal Fitness company a background in such disciplines.

Richard Cota is a registered dietitian and veteran physical trainer who four years ago began offering personal, at-home training to a few clients. His wife Cathy, a registered nurse, secured her certification as an aerobics instructor to offer clients a choice of exercise programs at costs more modest than the big names.

“People want to be healthy and our main goal is to help them achieve that in a fun and safe way,” says Cathy Cota.

The exercise programs offered by personal trainers are as varied as the trainers themselves. Steinfeld, for example, began training his first client on the deck of his apartment pool.

“We really started working with just a towel,” shrugs Jake, who helped his friend build muscles isometrically by stretching and pulling the towel across her body. Steinfeld also exploits the value of a simple wooden broom handle as a training tool for folks without a home gym.

But most trainers include weights--both free weights and machines--in their clients’ regimen. The weights, or other resistance devices, may be used in concert with traditional calisthenics, such as sit-ups and pushups, as well as aerobic routines.

Trainers such as Jackson Sousa emphasize lifestyle changes as much as the standard workout. “You need to look at training as a health as well as a fitness undertaking. There are ways to become very big and muscled that are not necessarily healthful,” says the lean Sousa. “The focus needs to be on achieving a healthy lifestyle.”

At a recent session with a novice trainee, Sousa began with a good long look at the body in question. “What do you want?” Sousa asked politely. The 40something woman replied: “A flat stomach, firm thighs, and no more backaches.”

Sousa smiled reassuringly and slid his hand lightly down her spine. “Well, we can certainly do something about the back . . . “he said as he pushed gently between her shoulder blades, shifting her spine into alignment.

Then he took her to a weight machine, and as she addressed the weights, Sousa grasped a few strands of hair at the top of her head and tugged straight up. Suddenly, the woman straightened up, shoulders back, stomach in, head high. “There,” said Sousa, “there is where you want to be. Feels better doesn’t it? And it’s not too late, it’s never too late.”

That sort of approach has brought Sousa’s school of personal training more and more respect in the physical rehabilitation field and has introduced his consultant services into hospitals as well as movie studios.

But whether it’s Sousa’s style of toning both mind and body or the more traditional goal of looking good, personal training can, at the very least, motivate. As one trainer put it, “Just having somebody standing there looking at you can make you work harder.”

And for trainees who simply want to look good fast, the high standards recommended by professionals in the field may become dangerously irrelevant.

“The bottom line is that people are still looking for that magic bullet,” says Besson. “They want their bodies to be beautiful.”

But Tony Cortes, the trainer who turned actress Linda Hamilton into a hard body for “Terminator II,” says it is not necessary to sacrifice safety for beauty. “Linda had just had a child. And, through a man I was working with at Brignoli’s gym in Pasadena, I was offered the chance to help her get in shape for the movie.

“We had just 13 weeks to accomplish our goals. It was grueling, but it was never, ever dangerous,” says Cortes, who received a relatively modest $100 an hour for transforming postpartum mommy into a woman of steel.

Of course, the former college physical education major also received recognition from his assignment. “Cher said she wanted to meet the man who made Linda Hamilton look the way she did in “Terminator II,” and when we met, she asked me to train her for her fitness video. I feel extremely lucky right now. I really do.”