How to find a personal trainer

Selecting the right personal trainer is absolutely critical to the success or failure of your fitness program. As a matter of fact, a wrong personal trainer may result in you getting injured. Looking at the importance of getting the answer to the question of how to find a personal trainer, we have tried our best to put together a simple plan that will help you to find a really good personal trainer.

Step 1: Questions to answer before you start trying to find a personal trainer

• Decide if you are going to join a gym or do the workouts in house. Most gyms now a days have a resident personal trainer and they may not allow you to get a personal trainer of your choice. In such a scenario, it may be good idea to first decide on the trainer and then select a gym based on his suggestion. Please remember that your personal trainer makes a much larger difference to your success than availability of some fancy equipment at your gym. If you are going to workout at your home then obviously you can select anyone that you like.
• When do you intend to hit the gym? Different options include early in the morning, right after office and weekends. When you go about trying to find a good trainer, please keep this point in mind and make sure to double check that the preferences of the trainer matches with yours.
• Your budget I do not need to elaborate on this point I guess.
• Your preferred type of exercises: I do not mean to say that you decide exactly what all exercises you will do. Obviously the personal trainers are paid to decide that only. However figure out if you have a preference for some specifc type of exercises like strength training, aerobics, martial arts or something else. Like any other profession even personal trainers have their own specialization and it will be stupid to select one who is great at aerobics to help you with your martial arts workouts.

Step 2: Preparing a list of personal trainers

Now we are going to prepare a list of personal trainers who meet the criteria decided by us in Step 1. Before that we have to get a detailed list of all personal trainers available in our locality. Some good sources to find out information about personal trainers in our local area include

• Local classified sites like cariglist
• Specialized personal trainer directories
• websites of gyms in the area and
• most importantly reference from people that you already know

That last point reagrding getting references from people that you already know is one of the most important ones.  No matter how much of background research you do on a particular trainer, you shall never get to know him as well as someone who has already trained with him.

Having said that, do not go to the trainer recommended by your friend right away. Just put him his name in the list along with other information obtained from sources listed above and apply the filters decided in step1. Hopefully you will be left with a list of 10 or so personal trainers after this list. We shall decide on the final person that we shall train with in the next step 3.

Step 3: How to find The personal trainer for you

The use of The in the heading of this section is not a mistake. We need to figure out the exact person that you are going to work with in this step. Following points are important considerations in the final selection.

• Personality match This is one of the most important points and unfortunately many people overlook this one. If the trainer is too fast or too slow compared to what you plan then you will be left either exhausted or frustrated. Highly avoidable scenarios in any case. Similarly if you are someone who needs to be driven hard then you want a hands on instructor. While for people who are already motivated enough, an instructor who just tells them what to do, shows them how to do it and then leaves it to the person will be a great match. This is precisely why it is important to meet the perspective personal trainer personally before making the final choice. If you do not seem to get along with him then do not go for him irrespective how great feedback you have got.
• Level of his other students: The style of a trainer is often influenced by the students that he is having. If the person is training only pros till now, his expectation from you will be too high for you to match. So it is a good idea to select a trainer who trains people of your fitness level.

Finally I will conclude that finding a good personal trainer is more of an art than science. Do your homework and do a thorough background check following the steps suggested by me. But finally go with someone that you like.