How to choose the right Personal Trainer for you
With the growth of the health and fitness industry due to an ever growing obese population, there are so many underqualified and very under experienced personal trainers out there. It seems every second person is a personal trainer or does a bit of “personal training” on the side…
Even the education providers are advertising easier and faster ways to get qualified. Each one is trying to outdo the next by making it easier to get qualified just so the other college won’t get the business.
And so, the standard of education and experience gets lower and lower due to the increased competition of education providers. Maybe this increased competition should improve standards by advertising who can give you the most experience and highest qualifications to convince you to train with them, rather than who can get you in and out of the door the quickest. Which by the way is a bit of a joke really, because these days you don’t even have to get in the door, you can do the whole thing at home by copying your friends assignments and case studies (oops, I mean via correspondence or “distance learning”). I saw enough of this when I worked at Australias largest gym chain which is home to the largest population of inexperienced trainers around, they don’t even need the minimum qualificatiosn to work there!
It is making the industry somewhat of a joke.
So many times these day, I see a personal training session being conducted but I cannot tell who is the trainer and who is the client!
Here are a few things to think about when choosing a personal trainer;
* Are they fatter than you? I think this is the most important! Why go to a trainer to lose weight if they can’t even lose weight themselves.
* Do they practice what they preach? Do they drink plenty of filtered water and eat a diet rich in fruits, veggies, lean protein and nuts. Limiting junk food to treats on weekends. How can they tell you to do something yet not do it themselves?
* Do they chat to you about how drunk they got on the weekend? Or are they trying to convince you that alcohol should be strictly limited.
* Can they answer your health and fitness questions? And not fumble through it like they are making it up.
* How much experience do they have? How many people have they helped so far?
* What is their client retention like? Are they constantly looking for new clients all the time? This is a sure fire way to know how good a trainer is by whether their clients stick with them, people are pretty savvy these days and when they see a cowboy, they either move on to another trainer, or give up because they have lost faith in the industry.
* Do they try to put you onto the latest gimmick or fad diet to get you to your goals?
* Do they tell you what you want to hear to get you onboard rather than the truth?
* Do they focus on your form and technique, ensuring your safety? Or are they just counting the reps and minutes to the end of the session? Do they even know what the correct technique is, or are they just re-enacting something they saw another trianer do?
Tags: personal training