Transcript:
What should you look for in a personal trainer?
That’s an excellent question, because if you’re going to be spending a considerable amount of possibly time and money with a person, you want to know before you start working with them whether they are the right person to work with you.
So here are 9 things you should know before hiring a personal trainer:
First and foremost, you want someone who is serious about professional development. What do I mean by that? It’s a little-known fact that it only takes about 3 days to become a personal trainer. It’s a weekend certification course. So, would you trust someone with a three-day, weeekend certification course to get you to your goals, to get rid of your lower back pain, or to lose weight? I wouldn’t either. So you want somebody with a few more qualifications than that. It may not be a degree or diploma necessarily, but you want somebody who is very serious about professional development by taking courses. It could be university or college courses but it could also be courses with external companies who provide very specialized courses in into different areas of fitness and nutrition. That’s the first thing.
The second thing you want is somebody who knows how to integrate exercise, nutrition, and supplementation. Again, because most personal trainers only have the weekend certification course, their knowledge, their training, their education in nutrition and supplementation is very limited. If they went to university or college, usually they are trained in Canada’s Food Guide which is not appropriate for many people.
If they didn’t go to university, or college and all they have is that weekend certification course, they may not have very much training in nutrition and supplementation at all. Or if they do, it usually comes from bodybuilding and fitness magazines, which aren’t always the best sources of information. So you want someone who knows how to intelligently integrate train, with nutrition, with supplementation. Why? Because you get better results then doing any one of those by themselves.
The other thing you want the trainer to do is do an initial assessment on you. So let’s say you walk in, you tell them your goal, and the trainer says “great let’s get going”, not enough.
That trainer does not have enough information about you to give you an intelligent exercise, nutrition and supplementation program. At the very minimum, the trainer should ask you:
- Your goals
- What is your deadline
- Do you have something specific in mind?
- What is your medical history?
- What is your exercise history?
All these things will affect it.
In our company, Fitness Solutions plus, what we do if we look at your hormones, we look at all the things I mentioned earlier. We look at your muscular balance. So things like ranges of motion, muscle strength and we look at your lifestyle. We look at what medications you are taking, what supplements you are taking. We look at everything that’s going on in your life, that could affect the results, and has a bearing on it.
So that’s a little more extensive but not all trainers need to do that. It just depends on the quality that you are looking for.
The next thing you should look for, is other satisfied clients. So you want other people, who are trained by the trainer, who are trying to achieve what you are trying to achieve. In other words, if you were trying to lose 50 pounds, you want the trainer who has a history of helping people lose 50 pounds. Now, a lot of trainers specialize in sports-specific training. Would it help you, somebody who wants to lose 50 pounds, if that trainer just helps somebody with a mixed martial arts match? Probably not. So you want somebody who has a history of success in helping people achieve what you are trying to achieve. That’s number four.
Number 5 is you want somebody who has a written program for you. So based on all the data, all the information that the trainer gathered in your initial assessment, you want them to come with a written program FOR YOU. Not just “here are the exercises we are going to do today and that’s going to change tomorrow”. That’s not right. You want somebody who has a distinct written program with your name on it and the exercises. And you want the trainer to explain to you why these exercises are good FOR YOU. Not just why those exercises are good, but why they are good for you. It has to be individualized. That’s key.
Another thing you want is somebody who will write down your workout, or that you will write down your workouts. In other words, you finished your workout, you write down:
- Which exercises you did
- How many sets
- How many reps
- How did it feel
…and other variables like that.
Why is that important? This allows you to track your progress over time. And that’s very important, so that you can see how your body changes in response to different exercise programs. Not only that, but its very very cool to come back to a program to the first time you did that program, 2 months after you’ve been doing it, and to see how much further you have progressed.
The next thing that you want to do if you want somebody who has a history of setting specific goals. What do I mean by that? You want somebody who doesn’t just tell you “I want to get fit”, but you want somebody who will make it very specific. What does getting fit mean to you? To some people, it means running a marathon. And to other people, means losing 10 pounds. And yes to others it means going up the stairs without getting winded. Or getting rid of lower back pain. So it has to be very specific.
And lastly, you want somebody who has a referral network. Often, there are issues that go beyond the personal trainer’s scope of practice. And you want that personal trainer to be able to refer you out to qualified professionals like chiropractors, osteopaths, naturopaths, nutritionists, who may be able to help you with your goals.
The other thing you want that person to do in regards to the referral network is you want that person to have taken the time to interview the professionals they refer you to. Because very often, a chiropractor or a naturopathic doctor is positioned in the same location as the trainer. So if the trainer is referring to that person they may not be the most qualified person for the job. They may just be referring you to them for convenience. So you want a personal trainer who has taken the time to actually interview the people that they are referring you to.
My name is Igor, and we do provide all of these nine criteria. You can learn more about us at www.FitnessSolutionsPlus.ca