How to Find the Best Personal Fitness Trainer for You
Personal fitness trainers are a great asset to your overall health and well being. Good personal trainers teach you proper form when working out and suggest what you should and should not be eating. Great personal trainers explain why. They help you understand why you should be strength training, they address injuries and imbalances in your body and work with you to overcome them. They should design workouts tailored to your bod and goals and come up with a strategy to help you make it more of a lifestyle rather than a temporary fix.
Finding the best personal fitness trainer for you can be a bit overwhelming. If you are going to invest your time and money in a fitness trainer, you want to make sure you trust and like this person. Here are a few key points you should look for when on your quest to find a personal trainer.
Decide on Your Fitness Goals
Just like a business, fitness trainers specialize in different areas. It’s important that you are looking for a personal fitness trainer that has a focus on what your fitness goals are.
Check their Certifications
Good personal fitness trainers have certifications. They have a foundation of fitness education from reputable organizations and/or degrees in fitness or exercise fields of study. They have legit credibility. Speak to them honestly. Ask questions. Typically, the longer someone has been in the field the better. However, things in the field change so make sure they are progressing themselves year to year by somehow learning and bettering their education.
Ask if they program for each client. This is one of the most important things you can do before deciding on a trainer. Your trainer should have a system in place monitoring exactly how their clients progress, and they should be able to clearly explain how they plan on taking you through your journey. How will they progress you? How often does your program change?
*TIP* You want to be working mostly with free weights, cables, kettlebells, TRX, etc. If your trainer has you mostly on machines, doesn’t que you on form, doesn’t warm you up or is constantly late- get out quick!
Flexibility and Communication
What is key to working out and being healthy is consistency. Yes you can plan to meet 2 times a week at a particular time with your trainer, but sometimes things come up and you may need to move your workout. It’s important that your personal fitness trainer is flexible and able to adjust if need be (of course you have to give them notice!).
You also want a personal fitness trainer that is willing to communicate with you via email or text messages. You shouldn’t hesitate to ask your personal fitness trainer a quick question about something workout or diet related. Having an open relationship with your trainer will help tremendously in getting the results you are going for.
