(Newswire.net — October 6, 2021) —
How To Evaluate a Personal Trainer
Choosing a personal trainer can be hard. Deciding whether they are right for you as training progress can be just as challenging. Here are eight ways in which you can evaluate a personal trainer to make it more likely that you will stick with a trainer that works for your needs.
1. What is Their Training Style Like?
Training styles aren’t necessarily good or bad. Whether a particular training style works well for you depends on your personality and needs. Some people respond very well to trainers that get in their face and are very intense, whereas other people do better with gentle encouragement. You need to think hard about what kind of training style will work best for you and pick a trainer with this type of style.
2. Do They Have Accreditation and Insurance?
The personal trainer that you choose should be accredited with the NCCA and have liability coverage to protect you if anything goes wrong. While a perfectly good trainer may not have this kind of accreditation and insurance, you will take a meaningful risk in working with them.
3. Do They Offer Varied Routines?
A personal trainer may swear by a couple of core routines or a training philosophy, but if they don’t offer enough variety in their routine to give you a rounded workout, you are unlikely to be happy with the training that you receive. A high-quality trainer should be able to work with you in a number of different ways to achieve your fitness goals.
4. Does Training Cause Inappropriate Pain or Unexpected Strain?
You want to find local personal trainers that keep your safety and overall fitness in mind during the training routine. If you feel like you are always working the same body parts or you experience pain in places like your knees, neck, or lower back, you may want to discuss your training routine or consider a new trainer.
5. Do They Come With Good Recommendations?
The trainer you choose should be able to provide recommendations from people that they have trained in the past who are happy with the success that they have achieved. Don’t just look at the number of recommendations; look carefully at the people recommending the trainer to see if they have essential things in common with you that will be important in training.
6. Do They Talk to You About Your Goals?
You don’t want a trainer that is going to look at your body and decide for themselves what kind of training you need. You want a trainer that will discuss exactly what you want from training and help you to meet your personal goals. The more specific they are in talking about what you want to achieve and how you should achieve it, the better.
7. Are They Experienced in the Training You Need?
The trainer that you are considering should have experience training in precisely the kind of training that you need. If you have big weight loss goals, they should have experience helping people achieve this kind of significant weight loss in the past. If you want to achieve fitness for a particular athletic endeavor, they should have helped similar athletes as well.
8. Do You Know What You’re Doing During Your Training?
You shouldn’t feel like you are just being ordered to perform different activities without knowing why. Your trainer should explain why certain training is being recommended and what a particular exercise is supposed to accomplish. This will help you to translate training to your own routine as well as motivate you to keep going.
Is A Personal Trainer Right For You?
As training is progressing, you may find yourself wondering whether a personal trainer is even the right kind of training for your needs. Perhaps you find that your trainer makes you feel bad about yourself or fails to keep you motivated. Maybe getting to the gym or arranging a specific time to work out is challenging for your schedule.
Sometimes you don’t know whether a personal trainer is right for your needs until you have tried. However, if the problem is a difference in personality or the fact that you don’t like the trainer’s style, you may want to consider trying a different trainer before giving up on a personal trainer altogether.
If you feel that you have learned a lot from your personal trainer but are having trouble fitting training into your schedule, ask yourself whether you will stick to exercising at all without a trainer to plan around. You can always give up the personal trainer and see whether you stick with your exercise goals. You can hire them again if you find that you are not.
Choose the Right Personal Trainer for You
It can be hard to evaluate a personal trainer, particularly if you don’t enjoy exercise. However, by keeping these questions in mind during your sessions, you have a good chance of making a good evaluation of whether a trainer is right for your needs.