Four things that you should consider before choosing a personal trainer
Your goals and targets
The first thing you need to have a good idea about before choosing a personal trainer, are your goals and targets. You may have thought generally about strength building and weight loss, areas where many personal trainers can certainly help you achieve results. But, if you’re looking for anything more specific, like improving in a particular sport, or rehabilitating from an injury, you’re going to need to find a personal trainer who has exceptional knowledge and experience in these areas. Make sure when you are talking through your goals with your potential trainer, that they are really understanding your needs, and not brushing off your thoughts or circumventing the topic in order just to sign you up as a new client.
Qualifications and experience
Secondly, make sure your personal trainer is certified. This sounds obvious, but in every industry there are always people that will try and get away with starting up on their own without sufficient training. You can get away with it in some kinds of work, but not with fitness. Your instructor needs to know their stuff so that you have minimal risk of injury and maximum chance of achieving results. The bare minimum a personal trainer needs to work with someone one-on-one is their Level 3 PT certification. However, you should also be checking what else they have in addition to this, such as a degree or professional training diploma in a related subject, or any extra specialisation courses such as nutrition.
You’ll also get an idea from this just how motivated the personal trainer is for their own personal development, and in turn get a gist of what type of instructor they’re going to be.
Personality
Next, you’re going to need to like their personality. Personal training is just that, personal. You’ll be working one-on-one with them, probably once or twice a week, and if you don’t get on with them you’re not going to look forward to these sessions. This will mean you will have less motivation and won’t get as much out of your training. Results will be slower. Let’s be honest, you’ll probably end up giving up after a few weeks. Think about what might work for you. Do you want a drill sergeant style trainer, or someone more sympathetic? Is it important for you to be able to laugh through your workouts, or are you somebody who likes a more detached working partnership? Most importantly though, make sure your personal trainer is a good listener, no matter the style of their training. Your fitness sessions are about you, your satisfaction, your results. There’s nothing worse than listening to a trainer blithely chatting non-stop about what they got up to at the weekend when you’re struggling with your current squat.
Location and availability
Finally, considering the location and availability of your personal trainer is important. If you’ve got to drive 30 minutes to get to their location, and you’re likely to be training at a time when traffic is heavy or super early in the morning, are you going to want to keep going with your sessions? Make sure they have enough availability to fit in sessions with your schedule, so that you’re not feeling stressed about it before you even start. Consider working with a personal trainer that can come to your home or is willing to travel to a location nearby you. It may sound slightly selfish, but this training needs to work for you in order for you to make it a successful regular part of your life.
At re:sculpt Personal Training, we have qualified personal trainers local to London and Surrey. If you’d like to find out more, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Written by Becky Barrett.
Becky Barrett is an international talent manager and personal fitness coach with over 15 years’ professional experience and a 1st class Honours degree in Business & Law.
Driven by her unique values of compassion and a holistic approach to talent management, Becky has devised an innovative solution to take on the fitness industry with a brand-new personal fitness concept that aims to inspire and boost ‘new normal’ approaches to exercise routines.
Features include: Health & Wellbeing, Natural Health, Arden University, The Telegraph, BBC, Time & Leisure, Bdaily News, The Stage.