Is a Personal Trainer really worth it?
I am sure you are expecting me to answer this with an emphatic “YES!!!” But in all honesty, on the whole I would have to answer that no they are not!
Australia-wide there are over 30,000 registered Personal Trainers and sadly many do not offer value for money and you would be better off joining a gym, a sporting club, walking group or taking up group exercise classes. The whole purpose of having a Personal Trainer is to have them guide you toward the results you want but to teach and educate you as to why you need to do what it is they are telling you to do. They need to provide expert exercise guidance and eliminating the chance of injury and/or poor posture or movement patterns. They need to provide gradual progression to your program to drive you to greater heights. Most importantly they need to help develop behaviour change through accountability and through integrity stay on top of you to help drive the results you are not only striving for but paying for!
Herein lies my answer as to why the majority of competing Personal Trainers that I come across on a daily basis offer little more than an intense session but with little else structure, guidance, correct teaching of technique or any forms of accountability. Seriously, what sort of trainer rocks up to a session with no exercise “homekit”, heart rate monitor, program card/s and any form of measurement device (we use the OMRON body composition monitor with scale)?
I have been around for over 20 years as a Personal Trainer, employed many staff in my 15 years as a Personal Training Operations Manager for a large nation-wide workplace health and PT company and now close to my fifth year running my very own Personal Training business and as a mobile Personal Trainer I am appalled at what would be close to 80% of other Personal Trainers that in all seriousness my under 14 football coach Frank (who incidentally was a part-time stripper at Crystal T’s but I digress) could do a better job at getting them to raise a sweat and know that they have had a workout.
Personal Training when done at the higher and comprehensive end is definitely worth it! It is an investment in one’s health, fitness and wellbeing. It can be the catalyst for discovering one’s true self and help drive them to better relationships, work-life balance, clarity with work/career, not to mention improve one’s mindfulness and ability to strive for bigger and better things. But just how do you find a Personal Trainer to meet these needs? This is the tricky one as sadly too many people shop on price alone. One session a week with a very competent and good Personal Trainer will often get you better results than doing 2 or 3 sessions a week with a lesser trainer that just works you hard in the session proper but doesn’t have the necessary skills to drive you to change behaviour and uses no system of accountability. Here is an example of an exercise video that we would send our client’s in between sessions to re-iterate how to perform it correctly in our absence.
I have devised a 12 point checklist for selecting a Personal Trainer and may I strongly advise that you use it when acquiring the services of one. Have a deep conversation and cross-reference them to the 12 points as this is likely to be a substantial investment of your time and money and you don’t want to get it wrong. Compare 2-4 different trainers over the phone and make a sound decision based on exactly what it is that you are looking for. Try and actually call the trainer (or PT company) rather than email as this is a person that you want to gel with and build rapport, an email does none of this.
Remember that in seeing a Personal Trainer for 1 hour a week, you are spending more quality time with this person than possibly your closest friend! You need to get along and note that whilst they may see you for 1 hour a week, the real skill in the Personal Trainer is them having you structured and guided to do things in the other 167 hours for the week and have you make the necessity changes to make exercise (and eating) habitual.
Here are a couple of other invaluable links that you may find helpful:
- Regular exercise – it all starts with behaviour change
- Accepting mediocrity – not on our time and under our watch
- Please help me improve the standards of Personal Training in Australia
- The 7 proven successful tools for long-term health and fitness results! A successful Personal Trainer’s perspective
- Why you must wear a heart rate monitor when Personal Training
- “More than just a Personal Trainer” – what am I then?
In summation, most Personal Trainers provide little value other than providing a solid and intense workout which for anywhere between $50-$150 is just not providing value for money and whilst it may get you active and training harder than you would on your own, you can do better. Do your research and find a Personal Trainer that is worth it! I can assure that you won’t look back!
Kind regards,
Justin Moran
0411 798 934
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