OK, you’re all revved-up, you’re ready to achieve great things with your body, but you want some professional help to do so! So how do you go about choosing a good personal trainer?

In this series of posts, I will give you all the information you need to select a good quality personal trainer that will be able to help you achieve your goals, help you to find value for money and how to find a trainer who will not damage you physically in the process.

bigstock_Personal_Training_8438695Having worked in the fitness industry since 1996 and having worked alongside, recruited, trained and managed thousands of personal trainers in the UK and in Australia, I have seen the good, the bad and down right ugly side of personal training. In addition to having worked in the health club industry for 9 years, I have also worked outside the industry in my own practise since 2004.

I still have my practise in London and alongside all my other work, I do still see a small number of personal training clients. I am also an educator of personal trainers as a member of the C.H.E.K Institute Faculty, where most of our students come from a personal training background.

The reason I only see a few personal training clients these days is that in order to achieve the best results, people need to take responsibility for their own goals. This can best be described by the old saying, “Give a man to fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”

bigstock_Empowerment_-_Road_Sign__2737865So the way I prefer to work with people is to consult with them, do my initial investigations, then give them the tools to do it on their own. I have found this to be a more empowering successful model than the personal training model. However, this will not always be the case in every circumstance.

The consultative model I use isn’t such a great business model for repeat business for personal trainers and so most trainers don’t use this model. However, when done well, it produces a great business model for referral business, which is how my business works.

In Part 2, I’ll be telling you what you should be looking for to find a good (and safe) personal trainer…