5 Things to Consider When Shopping for a Personal Trainer

Fitness is personal. What works for you is an amalgam of your injury history, current health status, interests, and history with exercise. Your history with exercise includes your thoughts and emotions around exercises as much as it does your physical history with movement and sports. Here are 5 Things to consider when looking for a personal trainer who's right for you!

1. What is their training style? Does it mesh with yours? If you are motivated by a military, boot camp approach to training, it's important to find someone who will train you with that mentality. If like me, you find encouragement from education and a team-approach, you need to find a trainer who will be your teammate in your fitness journey. What motivates you?

2. There is a vast disparity in the quality of personal training certifications. Some allow for open book testing after a weekend of training and never require a trainer to demonstrate their skill to an actual evaluator. Others, like the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and the National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA) provide research-backed principles and stringent testing. When looking at your prospective trainer's education, look for a CPT (certified personal trainer). Your trainer should be able to answer your questions about programming, biomechanics, and injury prevention. If you have a low back injury or walk with a rollator, ask them how they will approach your unique circumstances.

3. Consider the price tag for the area in which you live. In smaller towns, training might run as low as $50-60/ session. In larger towns, training might run upwards of $150/session. It's also important to consider your prospective trainer's education and experience. A 20 hour personal training certification requires a lot less time and financial investment than more extensive and thorough certs like NASM or NSCA. If the trainer was certified 20 years ago, do they continue to learn or are they still going by standards set 20 years ago? Similarly, some trainers offer each client the same workout. Your trainer should provide a program that is catered to your needs, goals and history, AFTER learning those things about you.

4. Your progress is personal. How will it be tracked? Are you looking to scale Kilimanjaro, to beat your PR (personal record) on a bench press, or to get on-and-off the ground with more ease? The ways in which your progress is tracked should be specific to your goals and multi-modal.

5. Ask your prospective trainer how long it will take to reach your goals. If the trainer promises "results in 45 day!" you might consider looking elsewhere. Your progress depends on your training history, time commitment per day/week/month and your sleep, nutrition and stress-levels. A good trainer will consider all of those variables during the start of each session. If you didn't sleep well, are stressed out and under-fueled, maybe today is a good day to focus on mobility instead of doing a HIIT (high intensity interval training) session.

I hope this helps you on your quest to find the right personal trainer! There are a lot of us out there! Ultimately, if you don't enjoy time with your trainer, feel misunderstood, not listened to, or under, or over-challenged, it's unlikely that you will stay with your program. A little research can go a long way.