When you pick a personal trainer or fitness coach to work with, you will want to keep consider their personality, people-skills, level of professionalism, experience, education, and their location. If you factor all of these elements into your decision, you are bound to come up with a win-win relationship between yourself and your personal trainer.
Personality is one of the most important factors in picking a personal trainer to work with because you are going to be partnering with them on your quest to achieve your fitness goals. Therefore it is a good idea to meet them first somewhere casual-be it at the gym, a public restaurant or coffee shop to get a feel for what they are like and what you can expect.
Imagine if you are a happy, upbeat person who decides to get started with a trainer that you have never met or had many conversations with and during your first training session realize you have an evil, loud drill sergeant on your hands who shows no mercy during your training sessions? What if that is the last type of trainer that you would like to work with? Gulp!
Select a personal trainer or fitness coach with a personality that you feel compliments your own and that you can respect. After all, you want to look forward to your personal training sessions with them and if you do, they will be more productive for both of you.
Professionalism is another important consideration. Your personal trainer should be a good listener, understand what your goals are and help you devise a fitness plan to reach those goals. From time-to-time they should track your progress so that you can see the progress you have been making each month or every other month.
Being professional also includes giving you their full, undivided attention during your personal training sessions. They should not answer their cell phones all the time when their working with you, should show-up on time and stay on schedule, just as they expect you to do as a good client. In addition, they themselves should workout and train on a regular basis.
Experience & Education will factor into how you pick a personal trainer or fitness coach as well and as a general rule- the more experienced and educated the trainer the more they charge per session.
When you decide how much experience your trainer should have, try to stay open-minded. Newer trainers are not necessarily less desirable than trainers who have been around for a while depending on what your goals are. They can be motivated and enthused and fun to work with. However, if you have a very specific type of training you are after, then it is best to interview the trainer to see if the area is something that they feel comfortable with.
For example, let us say you are a competitive swimmer and want to work with a trainer to help enhance your swimming skills. You will want to make sure that your trainer is experienced in sports-specific training or is willing to work with your swim coach and will research and include exercises to best help you excel in your training plan.
Your trainer should have some type of educational background in fitness or in the sports that they are specializing in. Most personal trainers are certified in one or more organizations such as: IFA, IFPA, ACE, AAFA, etc. Being certified still does not mean they know what they are doing, however, they should have understand and know the basics of creating a safe, workout program for you. Feel free to ask your trainer what their background is, and what certifications that they have.
Location will be important to you and must be fairly convenient if you are going to commit yourself to working with a personal trainer. In an ideal world, it would be great if your trainer was located between 5-10 minutes from your home, job, or some other location that you are at on a regular basis. If you have to drive more than 15 minutes each way-then you may begin to talk yourself out of your workouts.
If you are having your personal trainer or fitness coach come to your home, that is even more convenient to your schedule, and to your follow-through. It may be as much as $10.00-$30.00 more a session to host your trainer at your residence or workplace, but again the benefit of saving you 20-30 minutes of travel time may outweigh the extra expense of each session.
When you pick a personal trainer following the suggestions in this article, you are bound to select one that you will enjoy working with and benefit from.
Best of luck to you as you strive to achieve your fitness and health goals!
Kathy Marlor- a.k.a. the “Self-Empowerment Sensei” is an experienced self-improvement writer, seminar presenter and & fitness coach. She is a 4th degree black belt and former 1991 World Open TKD Fighting Champion who offers personal training, sports-specific coaching and kickboxing/self-defense instruction in St. Petersburg, FL
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