I guess a lot of my personal training clients start out wondering how to pick a personal trainer. What type of personal trainer is going to be best for them and there goals?
I’ve met a lot of personal trainers over the years with a wide variety of styles, from ones who are quite quiet and calm to full of on shout in your face drill sergeant style. Depending on you personality type will determining what type you respond to best.
Some personal trainers are in you face shouting at you for an hour, this is great is you are lacking in motivation and need a massive kick up the butt. If however you have pretty good motivation and looking for more guidance and new ideas in your fitness routine a quieter more measured personal trainer will do you fine.
There is also a difference between personal trainers and class instructors so don’t slip up on this. Class instructors generally tend to be great at doing a big mass participation class like aerobics or spinning, they are super high energy people but tend to fall short on the detail. This is why they tend not to make the best personal trainers, in a one to one situation they tend to lack the detail to tailor the session to your specific needs. Personal trainers on the other hand are the opposite, they are more detail orientated which makes them great one to one, but not so good in a big fitness class with lots of people. Be sure to get the right one for you.
You are going to be spending a lot of time with your personal trainer so it is important that you get along well. Make sure you have an initial consultation with them and sure you get along well. They should almost be like a friend, someone who you chat to easily and make the hour fitness session fly by.
If you have specific fitness needs such as running a marathon or a certain sporting discipline have a search around for a personal trainer who specialises in this area. If you are looking to build up some muscle avoid the trainer who mainly deals with running and seek someone else who deals in muscle building for example.
The take home message is that there are loads of personal trainers our there specialising in all aspect of fitness, so just make sure you shop around for one that suits you.
If you need some help with your personal training and fitness goals give me a call on 07947 049889 or pop and email to pete@petegriggs.com
