When you’re looking into hiring a personal trainer, there are certain things you need to look out for. Whether it’s making sure they’re certified, or that the two of you get along, here are some questions you should ask when hiring a personal trainer.

Ask About Their Qualifications

Do You Have A Personal Training Certificate?

You want to be sure that the personal trainer you’re going to hire has been certified by an accredited class. If they don’t have any certifications or professional training it might not be a good idea to work with that trainer. When someone hasn’t been trained to train you, they could push you too far and you could end up getting seriously hurt. So when hiring a personal trainer, be sure they have certifications

Do You Have Any Other Type Of Education?

This may seem like a weird question to ask since you’re trying to hire a personal trainer, however, it might be a good idea to see what other areas your trainer is educated with. Especially is they aren’t certified, because they might have a degree in physical education which would help offset the fact that they aren’t certified. If you’re not satisfied with the certifications your potential personal trainer may or may not have, ask them what other education they do have.

Do You Have Any Special Certifications?

They may have extra certifications that you don’t know about that can help you out. It’s good to ask and figure out if that’s the case or not. 

How Long Have You Been A Trainer?

While being a new trainer isn’t a bad thing, the longer someone has been a trainer means they do have more experience. If you’re hiring a personal trainer to help with a specific issue, or you’ve had bad trainers in the past, you’ll want to know how long they’ve been working with people like you.

Ask About How You Will Train

What Type Of Training Do You Do?

Some personal trainers take clients and put them on machines for the entire workout. While machines aren’t the enemy, when you’re hiring a personal trainer you’re paying for someone to train you, not to just use a treadmill the entire session. You’re going to want to know if you’re going to mostly be using machines or dumbbells, or just your own body weight.  

During My Sessions, Will I Be Working With Any Other Trainers, Or Just You?

This is important! Different trainers tend to workout differently, meaning they train their clients differently. If you’re choosing a personal training gym where all they do is personal training, then having multiple trainers could be a huge advantage. So just ask who you’re going to be training with, and talk about what your options are.

How Will We Measure Progress? (Scale, Measurements, Body Fat?)

You’re going to want to know this because if you want to lower body fat, but the trainer only measures your progress based on a scale, then that’s not a good fit, because we all know a scale weight going down doesn’t equal fat loss. Look for a trainer that’s going to be measuring progress the same way you’d like to measure progress. For example, if you want to lose body fat, then you should be measuring body fat content. If you want to lose weight then measuring by a scale might be the way you want to track your progress. Either way, you should have a conversation about how the two of you are going to be measuring your progress. 

How Long Will It Realistically Take For Me To Reach My Goal?

When you ask this question you’re looking at how long you’re going to need to make a commitment to the trainer for. If you’re hiring a personal trainer to reach a specific goal, then it’s fair to ask how long you can expect it to take to reach that goal. If you don’t have a goal in mind, then talk to the trainer about how you can set goals for yourself that you can reach towards.

Ask About Their Clients

How Many Clients Are You Currently Training?

This shows you the capacity of the trainer. Most personal trainers aren’t going to take on more clients than they can handle, but it’s good to know what they’re working with.  

Do You Have A Client I Can Speak With?

When you ask this, you’re really looking to see if the trainer has happy clients who are willing to speak on their behalf. A trainer can very easily just tell you what you want to hear, but hearing it from an actual client means all the difference, and adds validity to what they’re doing.

What Is The Average Age Of Your Clients?

If you’re older, you don’t want the hottest instagram personal trainer. Same with if you’re younger, you don’t want someone who specializes with senior citizens. You’re looking for someone who trains in your age group, because they understand the issues that come with that age group.

Ask If They’re Going To Help Outside Of Just Exercise

Will You Counsel Me On Nutrition?

Working out alone isn’t enough to reach your fitness goals if you’re not eating healthy as well. If you’re trainer can also counsel you on your nutrition, and you don’t have to go to someone else to get nutrition advice, then that’s a win win. 

How Important Do You Think Diet Is?

If your potential trainer doesn’t think nutrition is important, RUN! Nutrition is very important when trying to reach you health goals, and even if your trainer doesn’t counsel you on nutrition, they should at the very least think it’s important.

Ultimately when you’re looking at hiring a personal trainer you’re going to want to get to know them before you continue the relationship. A trainer and client relationship is a partnership, and just like partnerships, they only work well if there is trust and respect on both ends. At Peak Physique, we believe it’s incredibly important to interview a trainer before agreeing to hire them. 

Do you have any other tips for those hiring a personal trainer? Let us know in the comments!

If you’re looking at hiring a personal trainer, look no further than Peak Physique! Contact us today and ask us these questions, we’ll be more than happy to answer them for you.