How to Find the Personal Trainer Best for You

Need to get over the party season weight gain? See our tips for finding a personal trainer perfect for you.

Some of us need a little more motivation than others, especially when it comes to regular exercise and healthy eating. You can enlist a friend to check in with you every day and to keep you motivated, walk with a group of people, or get into a sporting team. However, aside all of these, personalised training plans are often one the most effective ways to kick you back into shape.

Personal trainers provide you with the guidance for working out, train with you, offer plenty of motivation and are an excellent way of keeping you accountable to your fitness goals. They keep you on track as well as giving you expert health and fitness advice. What’s even better, PT’s often make working out a lot more fun than working out alone!

If you cringe at the mere thought of a muscle-clad mad man barking instructions, the truth is you probably haven’t found a personal trainer that has been right for you. In fact, there are not many personal trainers who can be likened to Commando who we all know as one of the former trainers from The Biggest Loser (looks aside of course!).

Good personal trainers are attentive to their trainees’ individual needs. Training done the right way is rewarding and will get you on the straight and narrow to feeling great.

So, kick the pessimistic thoughts aside for a moment and check out our tips on how to find the best personal trainer for you.

Starting straight up with the basics - your search for a personal trainer should be treated much like a first date. Your personalities should match, your communication is bang on, and your expectations shared.

Here are some basic fundamentals to follow when you are looking for a personal trainer.

What are you looking for and what do you want to achieve?

Now is the perfect time to grab a pen, paper and a fresh cup of herbal tea. Sit back and compile a thorough mind dump of what it is that you want to achieve from your personal training sessions before meeting with anyone.

Some examples of the expectations you have could include:

• You want to increase your overall fitness generally
• You want to lose weight - is there a particular area or areas you are most concerned with?
• You want to bulk up with more muscle
• You need to lose some muscle or tone down
• Consider the type of fitness regime you would be happy with – you like working out inside, outdoors, open to group training sessions, one-on-one training, etc
• The activities you like doing (e.g. boxing)
• Activities that you are not so fond of doing (e.g. yoga or Pilates)

When you meet with a personal trainer share this information with him or her. Consider any information they provide you and how that will match in with what you are looking for.

Ask them about their PT experience or personal fitness goals as well. Having a common goal or understanding a bit about their background is always a bonus.

Is your PT a traveller and only here for a short while or looking to move on anytime soon? This could pose a problem for you if you have to find another trainer in the near future.

Personality

Finding a personal trainer with a personality that matches yours is vitally important. If you don’t respect someone for who they are, you are more than likely not going to respect their guidance or assistance. Good chemistry between personal trainer and trainee will help to make your PT sessions more enjoyable and rewarding at the end of the day 

Communication

You need a fitness partner who you have no problem being open with. If you are not happy with something, it is important that you feel welcomed to tell them. For example, if the last training session made your body far too sore, you need to be able to communicate that.

A PT should know how and when to make any routine adjustments to fit in with you and what you have communicated. They should have excellent listening skills as well.

Make a connection

Hiring a personal trainer is a big investment in your time, your health, and often your hip pocket. You need to have a connection with them as a person as well as to their training style. A PT will break through the challenges of working on your fitness goals and offer you increased motivation to get there.

It is important your personal trainer offers you the respect which you, in turn, will offer to them.

Try before you buy!

Before being locked into contracts, many gyms and trainers these days offer a free personal training session. Make use of this free session as a good time to try the above. If you are not comfortable from the get-go, try another trainer or two. Compare their pros and cons in full before locking into a contract with any of them.

A healthy trainer/trainee relationship is all about openness and respect.

Personal training can be highly rewarding and highly effective. Approach the search for your personal trainer with these basic pointers as a guide. This will offer you a better chance of finding a personal trainer perfect for your needs and expectations, ruling out those who won’t work so well with you.

Already on your personal training regime?

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