The perception of what constitutes a good personal trainer is subjective. Most people when they consider hiring a personal trainer don’t exactly know what attributes they should look for.
Perhaps you find yourself in a similar position-is choosing a trainer about personality, age, or gender? Is it about work ethic or similar fitness ideals? What should potential clients need to know about the person they choose? Are there “deal-breaker” questions? Does it matter if a trainer doesn’t actually possess any education in exercise fitness, physiology, or nutrition? If you are in the market for a personal fitness trainer, get answers for yourself and hire the trainer with the answers that most closely match the following suggestions.
First of all, fitness trainers are not workout buddies. Rather, a professional trainer listens to your personal needs and goals; assesses your physical fitness; designs a means of tracking your progress; motivates, pushes, or otherwise inspires you to keep moving forward; and then creates or builds a program specifically for you. The level of expertise, professional training, and education required by these tasks is nothing to sneeze at. Ask your trainer if they are a certified fitness trainer. Some highly regarded certification fitness associations include ISSA, the National Academy of Sports Medicine and the National Strength and Conditioning Association. If your potential trainer is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist or a Health Fitness Specialist and CPR certified, you’re off to a great start.
What about college? Of course, it’s possible to be a certified trainer without a four-year major in a health, fitness, and/or wellness program. But, any preliminary or additional college-level education certainly takes a prospective trainer up a notch or two above the competition. Also, trainers who get excited about fitness-oriented seminars, training opportunities, and/or alternate industry certifications should be kept on the potential trainer list. If they are interested in bettering themselves they’re probably genuinely interested in bettering you and your fitness too.
Why all the hoopla about record keeping and accountability? The ability to track a client’s progress in a concrete, easy-to-understand way often separates the good personal fitness trainers from the great ones. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Ask a trainer how he/she plans to map your fitness. Will you get copies of workouts to take home and do on your own? Will the trainer use a computer program to track your progress? Get a clear image of how training will “look” with anyone you’re serious about hiring. If a trainer can’t give you a clear, concise response to these questions (or better yet, show you actual examples of model workouts, readouts, etc.) take them out of the running.
Lastly, how serious is your trainer about you? Does this trainer give undivided attention to you during the personal time you pay for? Or does he/she speak to other gym members while you struggle through the last chin-up, lose count of reps and/or come unprepared to train you (“Let’s just wing it today…”). You health and fitness is important to you. It should be important to your trainer too.
Dennis Blair is a Personal Trainer in Fort Collins and the owner of Core Fitness and Nutrition, a personal fitness coaching company which helps people to look and feel great. Go here: Personal Training Fort Collins for more info on these services and more great fitness tips.
