4 things to look for in a Good Personal Trainer

Ready for a Fitness Trainer?

Your ready… Whatever the circumstances, your ready to hire a trainer to guide you through some Professional Workouts. You either don’t have the time to plan out your workouts or you don’t have the confidence, and your willing to put your trust into someone who really knows what their doing. 

“Someone who really know what their doing” can be hard to come by. After all we aren’t talking about just anything here, we are talking about the health, safety, and well being of the body you live in. Just like I wouldn’t take my car to just anyone to get worked on, I wouldn’t rely on just any old personal trainer either. Granted, you get what you pay for. If you go into planet fitness or Anytime fitness, its unlikely you are going to find a seasoned veteran who really knows his/her stuff on multiple areas of fitness. However, everyone has to start somewhere, and I know this from experience. And after years of Personal Training in Fayetteville and Springdale Arkansas, and years of watching other trainers, I decided to write out for you my top 4 tips in looking for and hiring a Good Personal Trainer.

4 Tips for a good Personal Trainer

1. What are their Credentials?    

If your talking with a Personal Trainer, and your interested in hiring them, ask them for their Credentials. Ask them if they are CPR Certified. Ask them what Continuing education they have done…. These are all things that a Good Personal Trainer in your area should have. The 3 best Programs for Personal Training is the American College of Sports Med(ACSM), American Council of Exercise (ACE), or the National Academy of Sports Med (NASM). If you don’t here one these names, do some research and possibly look for someone more qualified. Believe it or not, but most states do not mandate anything other than a weekend online course to be a trainer. Sad….

2. Do they Understand Physiology ?

This is really important. If a Personal Trainer can’t explain how the body works to complete a movement, or why you should eat what you are eating, that is a huge red flag! Good Personal Training comes along with tackling more than just a kick butt workout. It involves helping your clients understand the importance of Warming up before a workout, and setting up, stabilizing, and initiating the proper muscles for a specific lift, and the Explaining the importance of posture and mobility and it’s effects on the body. Asking questions is key. Make sure a prospective trainer can accurately answer questions with confidence or you may want to find someone who really knows science and not what they read in shape magazine……

3. Do they understand Nutrition?

This is huge! A personal trainer is not a licensed Nutritionist or Dietician, however they are considered a nutrition coach, meaning they can give general advice but not specific dietary meal plans. And yes many personal Trainers still give people meal plans even though they could loose their certification for it. When speaking to a potential fitness coach, do they have a good understanding of nutritional guidelines or are they just pushing a fad diet on people. Ask them, “What diet do you recommend”, and if they don’t say something like, ” Well it depends on the individual”, than run the other way! Otherwise I can promise you something- They will pitch you on whatever diet they are currently on at that time. Which may be the entirely wrong nutritional approach for you and your goals.  Ask them about nutrient density, and Amino acids. Make them explain what these things are. You will get a really good feel if this person will truly be able to help you, or if you need to find someone more balanced and with more knowledge on a variety of areas.

4. Before and Agreement- Get a Trial run!

This is probably the most important step. The reason is simple. Not everyone meshes well with everyone. As a Fayetteville AR Personal Trainer I Usually will sell 4 to 8 week packages of sessions. I got away from the globe gym scene because I didn’t like how they rope people into year long personal training contracts. Life Happens! So before you agree to any contract or package, make sure that you really like your trainer, and that you are confident that they can help you get the results you are paying for. This is where finding  personal trainer that is certified as a Health coach or Nutrition Coach can really give you the most benefit. IF a trainer is really confident in his knowledge they will likely offer some free sessions for you to try them out. Then you can make sure that your personalities go well together. Red Flags are: They are looking at their phone constantly, just counting reps and not correcting you on any movements, they don’t look the part(yes trainers should be somewhat fit or I personally would not hire them), and they should be taking notes and writing down your progress throughout the entire workout. How will you know your progress if someone isn’t documenting your strength gains, weight, Body Fat, Cardio vascular improvements, etc etc.

In Summary

• Choose a Personal Trainer that has good Credentials and the proper safety training.
• Find a trainer who is somewhat nerdy on the physiology of weight and cardio training. Make sure they understand the details about why something has it’s certain effect on the body. 
• Find a trainer who understand nutrition and who doesn’t just push fad diets, and weight loss supplements. Make sure they understand the science behind nutrition and not what they read on facebook or instagram.
• No matter what, before you sign an agreement. Try a personal trainer out for a free session to make sure they know what they are doing and that your personalities match up.

I hope these tips help you understand what to look for. I compiled these things based off what I would look for in a personal trainer now that I have been one for multiple years. Let me know if you have any questions. You can email me here. 

Zach Johannsen is a Ceritifed Personal Trainer (ACSM), Weight Management Specialist (ACE), Crossfit Level 1 Coach, and Integrative Wellness Academy Life+health Coach. He is a Personal Trainer Locally in Fayetteville Arkansas.