How To Pick The Right Personal Trainer For You (and how to become the right trainer for them)
Hiring a personal trainer can be intimidating. Especially if you walk into the wrong gym.
Big box gyms create a poisionous culture around their trainers by either overworking, underworking, or underpaying them, usually a combination of the three.
There are also trainers out there who have their best interests placed ahead of their clients’ — looking for ways to cut corners, save time, sell more, and make their jobs easier.
You must hire the right, not the smartest, person.
As a trainer myself, I chose to work in a small women’s studio as my first training opportunity because it felt like the most authentic experience for me to engage with and help my clients. There was no bureaucratic corporate heads reigning down over my every move. It allowed me, as a trainer, to grow organically with my clients which is what allows me to give them the best experience possible.
Why you hire a personal trainer is just as important as how you hire a personal trainer. Clients, use these guidelines to help you find the right trainer for you. Trainers and trainers in training, use this to ensure you’re setting yourself up to provide the best service you can.
- You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk? — Its paramount that the trainer you hire have the prerequistie knowledge to give you what you need. There are a lot of PT certification programs whose course material and standards for completion are paper thin — some require no more than a weekend to complete. Ask the trainer you’re talking to who they’re certified with. The gold standard of the industry is comprised of a handful of organizations, those being:
- NASM — National Academy of Sports Medicine
- ACSM — American College of Sports Medicine
- ACE — American Council on Exercise
- NSCA — National Strength and Conditioning Association
- ISSA — International Sports Sciences
The first four are accredited by National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) while ISSA is accredited by Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). Both the NCCA and the DETC are rigorous and widely accepted and recognized accreditations so if your trainer responds with any of the above agencies, you can rest assured they’ve met high standards to obtain their respective certificates.
2. Hiring the right person — You must hire the right, not the smartest, person. A trainer isn’t just providing their book knowledge, they’re providing their listening skills, empathy, guidance, personality, and patience. Hiring someone that offers the right balance of these things that suit your personality is key for a positive experience. In a world where anything you need to know is a Google search away, what someone knows off the top of their head becomes less important. IQ is losing value to EQ, or emotional intelligence. The trainer that can connect with their clients the best is going to win, both for themselves and for the client too.
3. Environment —Choosing the right gym environment is critical to your success, but dependent on so many variables right down to how the gym makes you feel. My best advice is to know yourself and your goals. A 22 year old amateur powerlifter and a 47 year old diabetic are looking for two totally different experiences. The former is likely looking for a powerlifting gym filled with other experienced lifters and trainers who specialize in power lifting. The latter might be looking for a health club that offers trainers who have more experience with special populations and can help them manage their diabetes. Visit a few gyms and find out what and who they are.
4. Cost —I will always advocate that people not let a price point stand in the way of their health. What’s the point of a $10 a month gym if the product sucks? If the trainers are sub par? If the facilities are average? If the members are d-bags? Spending the extra $20 a month to get the gym/trainer you want/need is always worth it.
