Do you need a Personal Trainer? – If you have a goal or something you want to achieve, the answer is yes. Working with a personal trainer has been PROVEN to achieve better & faster results than working alone.
What do you want from your Personal Trainer? – This is probably the most important question. Yet it is often the least explored. Most people will consider cost as the main priority. However, whilst money is an important factor, as everyone has their own budget, there is no point in getting the wrong service for the right price. If you are looking for a Personal Trainer to work with, then you are most certainly looking for a result of some kind.
Therefore you should be looking for the best coach that you can within your budget. As yourself, “what do I want to achieve?” and then find the best person to help you achieve that. One session, week or even just one chat with the right person will be vastly more beneficial than any amount of sessions with someone who is throwing generic workouts at you.
How much should you pay for a Personal Trainer?
It may not seem so right now, but this is, by far, the least important question. The way to get the best results for your investment is to work out in advance what you can GENUINELY afford to pay, find the best person for your purposes and then work out the best way to put those things together.
Who is the best Personal Trainer for you?
Only you can really know the answer to that. But, you are going to be working with this person for a while and you will be spending a lot of time with them, so you MUST find out if you feel comfortable with them. You might be able to get a feel for this from their website, flyers, etc. If they can’t be bothered putting the effort into their public image, then how much effort are they likely to put into your training.
Do they offer a free consultation?
They should be confident enough in themselves to be willing to speak to you about them with no outlay on your part and use the consultation to make sure you are speaking to the right person for you.
5 Things to ask at the consultation:
Treat it like you would an interview.
Make sure you know what you are getting for your investment. This shouldn’t just be about your gym sessions. Remember there are 168hrs in a week unless you intend to spend most of that at the gym then you need to know that you are using the rest of your time wisely. What kind of nutritional advice will you receive? Will you be given a diet analysis? Will you get meal plans tailored to your needs? Etc.
How will your progress be tracked?
The only way to track body composition improvements is by measuring body fat. This should be done through the use of skinfold calipers NOT through the use of an electronic body fat tester or scales. How often will this be tracked? Ideally, you are looking for weekly feedback to ensure you are not going for long periods doing the wrong thing. Even if a programme SHOULD work, everyone is different and there are no guarantees so you need to get regular feedback.
How will your workouts be created?
Too many Personal Trainers treat every client as the next on the conveyor belt. If you are female, short and looking to flatten that stomach for your holidays, you should not be doing the same workout as a 6ft male who is obese and trying to stay out of the hospital. So if you find you are turning up and doing the same workout as the person that just left, I’d be questioning the effort and thought that is being applied to your training.
What is your guarantee? Your personal trainer should be able to Guarantee your results if you follow their guidance correctly. You should not be paying for 1hr sessions. You should get the session length that is right for you. Different people respond better to different training times. So if you are someone who is better suited to short sessions, you should not be doing 1hr sessions. If you are someone who is suited to long sessions, then you shouldn’t be getting cut off at 1hr. You are paying for a result and if you don’t get one then why should you pay for fruitless use of your time.
Once you get started
Watch out for bean counters – If you do sign up with a trainer, check that you are getting useful feedback. There are too many trainers who seem to think that their job is to count the reps out for you. If your ‘feedback’ is simply “ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, keep going, FIVE, SIX…etc” You may want to re-assess what you are paying them for.
Keep these things in mind and find the right Personal Trainer for you and whatever your goals ( flatten that stomach, burn the fat, shape your shoulders or increase your endurance) and it could be the best investment you’ve ever made.
