How To Choose The Right Fitness Coach -The five factors that make or break your personal trainer
Congratulations!
If you’re reading this, that means you’re curious about taking the next step in your fitness journey and hiring a professional to help you educate yourself, learn more about your body, and reach your fitness and wellness goals.
A personal trainer is like that teacher that you always enjoyed listening to.
Not only will they keep you motivated and hold you accountable, but they’ll also help you get the most out of your workouts, prevent injuries, and most importantly stay consistent with your training and nutrition.
However, there is a huge difference between investing to improve yourself and throwing money out the window.
In the personal fitness coach market, not everyone has your best intention in mind.
The industry is full of people who claim to be experts, but in reality, just want to make a dollar off you.
So if you want to truly get the results you’re looking for…
You have to be very careful when picking who trains you. Doing some initial research will help you make a better choice, and will pay off huge in the long-term.
You have to know what you want and do some legwork to determine which type of trainer best suits your interests and goals.
Here are the five most important factors when choosing your personal trainer!
1. Knowing What You Want
There’s a huge variety of “experts” out there! The one who is going to keep you at your best and help you achieve your goal is the one who can actually help you identify that goal.
Do you want to go on stage and compete at a bodybuilding show, or you just want to lose a few pounds?
Maybe you want a personal trainer for a completely different reason – running a marathon, preparing for a competition, or heck, you can even hire a coach to help you become a coach.
Determining what you want is the first, most important step to doing your research on who the right coach is for you.
2. Comfort
Your trainer will see you in moments in which you’re pushing yourself and letting your vulnerability show.
He or she will initially know more about how your body works that you will. Your past experiences in the sport, your regime, and your goals are all things you have to be comfortable expressing with that person, and finding a person that’s trustworthy and that you can be comfortable with is essential to your journey.
Are you someone who needs a lot of praise and encouragement?
Or do you need someone with a “louder” approach, who will push you to your limits?
Spend some time around a trainer. Learn more about them, and how they work. In order to find someone whose approach will match your needs, you need to make sure that’s a person who you’re comfortable with. Your choice must be well-thought out, so you don’t end up regretting the decision.
3. Philosophy
Your personal coach’s philosophy can make or break you.
How they think, what their philosophy and goals are, and how they work are the things that will make you choose them over their competitors after that initial research.
What methods do they use to develop their programs?
How many people have they shown results to?
To these people have the same goal you have?
There are all questions you need to ask yourself.
Take all these things into consideration when you’re choosing a trainer. If a coach doesn’t listen to your personal preferences and simply does “what he knows works best”, that coach is not the right choice for you.
A good trainer will listen and take into consideration your goals and wishes and tailor his approach, creating a workout program and meal plan you can be consistent with. There is no point in which you should be doing and eating things you don’t like. It won’t lead to consistent results, and you will end up at the same place you have started.
4. Experience
Practice leads to perfection. Your coach should be someone who has tested their methods time and time again, shown results to a lot of people, and have proven that they’re the best at what they do.
Don’t get me wrong.
There is nothing wrong with new upcoming certified trainers, but you can never be sure if they’ll have the right approach for you.
Choosing someone with experience is always the better option. An experienced trainer works with many different people. He/she has seen what works best in specific situations, and has the communication experience to allow you to feel comfortable and motivated.
In the world of fitness and nutrition, this is crucial.
A trainer-trainee relationship is a special one. Sometimes it’s not about what you do and eat, but rather what you say. And the only coaches who know what to say to get you going and inspired are those who have done it on a consistent basis.
5. Reputation
Helping you achieve your personal goals is the best proof a personal trainer needs. Their goal is to help you – and a successful trainer will often share testimonials and success stories from people they’ve worked with.
When you do your research, take a look at them and see if anyone they’ve worked with has had the same goals and similar lifestyles as well as body composition.
Certifications, degrees, success stories, and a lot of years of training are all indicators of a coach’s reputation.
If they’ve consistently delivered results to people and are known to be an expert in the field, you can’t go wrong with them.
To conclude…
These are the things that, in my years in fitness, I’ve seen to be the most important dimensions of a personal fitness coach.
But of course, if you’re thinking about hiring a trainer to help you lose a few pounds, your mindset is going to be different than a person who is hiring a trainer to help them prepare for a competition.
Even if this isn’t your first time, trusting the right person with your body and goals requires a little more work than previously thought.
But believe me, it’s all for the right reasons.
Bottom line is, your coach must be someone you look forward to meeting, and training with.
Write these five factors down, and I guarantee you, your next experience with a personal trainer will be the best one you’ve had.
Until next time,
Ally
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