so you might be thinking about having personal training.
So what’s my advice for you when looking for a personal trainer.
Obviously I think I should be the one that trains you, but if not then here are some of the things that I think you should look out for.
The first thing that I think that you should look at with a personal trainer is their qualifications. You should be looking for someone who has a bare minimum of a level three diploma in personal training. Level three is generally considered around a level knowledge or a little bit more in the specified subject. Someone with a level three is considered to have advanced understanding of anatomy and physiology for fitness, advanced understanding of strength and conditioning training and advanced understanding of cardiovascular training alongside some nutritional training.
You definitely want a bare minimum of a level three.
Some people may have more at level four and some people will have years of experience. Experience is definitely something that can be taken into account as well as passion but as long as you have the level three then they have the understanding to be able to create a program specifically for you.
One of the great things about personal training is that’s what it’s all about. it’s about creating a personal plan for you.
Now for me personally when I’m working with my clients I like to sit them down and have a chat before I even take them on and decide that I’m going to work with them or that they’re going to work with me.
I need to know what their goals are and that I have the knowledge to be able to help them achieve their goals.
When working with my clients I generally use a 70 30 rule 70 of their training will be things that they like. Ideally I want those things that they like to fit in with their goals but they don’t always. Sometimes we just have to do the things that we enjoy to make it fun to make us want to come back and do more. I give them 30 of what they need. So these might be things that they don’t like but as long as I can give them the education that they understand that they need this, for the specific goal that they have set themselves, then we’ll be able to get there.
Ideally I would like what they need and what they like to be the same thing and then that makes my life so much easier.
You want to set smart goals. As an instructor generally we’re looking for things that are specific and measurable and achievable. It must be achievable and within a time frame that suits you.
We all might want to lose a million pounds in three weeks and that’s not what’s going to happen, it needs to be realistic.
we need to say okay I want to lose some of the size that I have on my body, but let’s be realistic I’m not going to lose three stone in two weeks. Not unless I chop off my leg, so we need to start thinking about how we can realistically get to where we need to be. It’s one of the things that we want to have.
Another thing that I like to have or that I certainly have with my clients is I’d like to have measurable goals.
My clients don’t always realize that I’m measuring their goals and as a good personal trainer I like to kind of keep that hidden sometimes.
Most clients like to think about watching the dial on scales I don’t particularly like that myself because I think weight is only one form of metric that we can use.
At the moment I’m definitely looking at clients that I’m training that are recovering from covid that have got long covid.
We are looking at how we can increase their cardiovascular system after having covid. What we could do is be very specific and measurable and do that on a time scale and how many things we could do within a time scale. Sometimes we do it in a less specific way, but just as measurable.
Seeing how long someone can do something for and at the beginning of that period of time they might not be able to talk, and by the end of that time they might be able to talk for the entire time that they’re training. It’s still a measurable way of doing it. it’s still quite specific. I’m looking at can they breathe and talk at the same time as they’re doing things.
hopefully that has kind of helped in the choices that you might have of looking for a personal trainer.
One of the other things I’d also look at is do they have a passion for the same thing that you’re doing or that you want to achieve.
If you want to run a marathon it’s probably a good idea to find somebody who is into running and run a marathon.
If you want to cycle the tour de France probably want to find a trainer that’s into cycling.
Wherever you are you still need to find someone that you like.
Someone that’s going to make you turn up.
Someone who’s going to hold you accountable for your training, and that’s one of the great things pick a personal trainer that is going to make you pay up whether you turn up or not. Sounds like quite a harsh thing to say but if a motivation for you is that I have paid the money and I therefore need to turn up you have accountability. That way if that’s important to you, that’s a way that you need to work.
You need someone who’s going to say come on have you turned up, this is what we’re going to do.
Ask for homework! What can I do outside of these sessions that’s going to complement the training that we’re doing so that i can achieve results faster?
You need accountability. You need to be doing this regularly to make sure that you are getting the results that you desire, but find a personal trainer like I say that you like, that you get on with, and that has passion for the things that you want to do.