Personal Trainers

Working with a Personal Trainer

Working with a personal trainer provides benefits beyond simply having someone to spot you on your exercises, and motivate you during your routine. While these are important aspects of what personal trainers offer, there are several other good reason to use the assistance of a qualified personal trainer. For purposes of your workout routine, a qualified personal trainer serves almost as a business partner, being able to offer his or her expertise in developing your training plan, and certainly in supervising the execution of the plan. From time to time, it will be advantageous for you to review and revise your plan, and your personal trainer will be helpful in that regard as well.

A well qualified personal trainer will also have good experience with nutrition and diet issues. Also, if you have special needs, like rehabilitating from injury, or some other special consideration, a personal trainer can help you to execute that plan more safely.

Like most other professionals, the level of expertise of a particular trainer can vary dramatically. There are a number of organizations that purport to "certify" personal trainers, and you should seek to employ one that possesses some level of certification. We believe that the ultimate test of the quality of a personal trainer is recommendations and referrals from people with whom they have worked. While this is not the only measure of quality, it certainly should be part of the inquiry process. Ask to speak to clients with whom the personal trainer currently works, and several with whom they no longer work, regardless of the reason.

If you get lucky, your personal trainer may also have expertise with things like alternative medicine, including massage therapy, accupressure, and other tangential expertise that supplement his or her personal training qualifications. Be sure to ask about these and other services.

At a minimum, your trainer should:

• evaluate your fitness and goals
  
• give you a balanced program of fitness
  
• supervise you closely
  
• work with you to reassess goals and measure your progress
  
• factor in feedback you give him
  
• teach you have accomplish your goals without complete dependence on your personal trainer
  
• explain things clearly to you in layman's terms
  

In order to get the most out of your personal trainers expertise, be sure to follow these tips:

• try to schedule at least her initial session during a time when the gym is not crowded
  
• don't be afraid to take notes, or even record your training conference
  
• ask plenty of questions. That's which are paying for.
  
• Don't expect to have total recall of everything the trainer tells you on the first day.
  
• Show up prepared to go to work in your trainer will be motivated to work with you
  

Good personal trainers are not cheap. You expect to pay between $25-$75 an hour or more depending on where you are in the country. For some, this may be a little steep, but even if you cannot afford the expense of a regular personal trainer, it makes sense to get at least any initial and periodic consultation with one. Another alternative is to hire a" Cyber trainer". These are people who have personal training experience, but work with you remotely to accomplish substantially all of the normal tasks assigned to trainer. Obviously, the place that suffers the most is supervising your workouts personally. Nevertheless, obtaining the expertise necessary to formulate your plan and review from time to time can be effectively done on a remote basis.

For additional resources on personal trainers, please consult our fitness directory, and the additional resources below: