How to choose the best personal trainer for you

There are plenty of ways a personal trainer can improve your life. Perhaps you’ve noticed some extra “padding” around your stomach? Or perhaps you’re concerned by how out of breath you were when walking up a hill the other day? It could even be as little as noticing that certain movements are causing you discomfort or pain.

For some of my clients, staying fit and healthy helps them can enjoy family life. They can be active with their kids and they enjoy being a good role model. Whereas for other clients, it’s about keeping their bodies looking strong and healthy – so everyone’s motivation is different.

Which is why it’s vital that you find the right personal trainer for you. A great personal trainer will:

• Work with you, supporting you with fitness, nutrition and lifestyle guidance

• Form a partnership with you, to help you reach your personal goals 

A bad personal trainer will make you:

• Make you lose the motivation that made you want to train in the first place

• Lose your love of fitness, which is essential for living a long and healthy life

• Give up on changing your life for the better

So now we need to find the best personal trainer for you, which isn’t easy! Type “personal training Bristol” into Google and you’ll get 22,000,000 results – so how do you know who to work with?

Start by following these six essential rules: 

Rule 1: Make it personal Training (because one size doesn’t fit all)

Ever seen a trainer finish with one client only to do the same session with the next? This is lazy training – and unfortunately it’s all too common. To get success from your sessions, the personal trainer needs to be make the training relevant for you at your current level. That’s how a PT will support you on your journey to reach your goals. To sum up: personal training should be personal, it's in the name!

A good personal trainer should carry out an in depth assessment to truly make it a personal experience.

Rule 2: Look for qualifications That will help you hit your fitness goals

Believe it or not, personal training is an unregulated industry – which means pretty much anyone can call themselves a personal trainer. Keep yourself safe by looking for someone who has the Reps Level 3 qualification (as a minimum) and who can demonstrate a decent knowledge of anatomy and physiology. But don’t get too hung up on qualifications either – experience is also very important. The best personal trainer should have a good mix of qualifications, experience and career progression – they should be constantly learning and improving.

Rule 3. Get genuine testimonials from thier personal training clients

Yes, you can look at Google reviews, but how do you know they’re real? The best way of checking whether testimonials are real or fake is by meeting the people who gave them. Ask to go along to a training session so you can see the PT in action and ask the client a few questions about the process. If the trainer is reluctant to arrange this then ask why. Does their response seem genuine (perhaps they work with clients who have experienced trauma, for example) or are they hiding something? Remember, most good PTs should have no problem with you attending a session and asking the client a few questions – they’ll welcome the opportunity to prove themselves. 

Rule 4: Find a teacher who will educate you on health and fitness

The best personal trainers won’t just train you, they’ll teach you. By discussing nutrition, lifestyle and fitness with you, they’ll equip you with the knowledge you need to take your training beyond the gym and into your everyday life. This way they won’t just look after you during your session, but they’ll be training you beyond your sessions too. Here at the Opex Fitness Bristol, we often joke that we’re trying to make ourselves redundant – and it’s kind of true. We want to make the people we train so knowledgeable, confident and motivated that they don’t need us anymore!

Rule 5: Look for flexibility

A good personal trainer should be busy. If a trainer is available at short notice, at all times, then they’re probably not very good. (This isn’t always the case of course, it could be that they’ve only recently starting training, moved to the area, or returned to work after a career break/parental leave.) So if a good trainer is very busy, how can you find flexibility? Look for more effective ways to work with the trainer. For example, at OPEX Fitness Bristol our trainers work on rotation which means you’ll always have access to one of three trainers when you visit the gym. And because we house all our training notes and routines in an app, each trainer is fully briefed and up to speed on what your training goals and motivations are. This way, you always have access to a coach

Rule 6: Demand a high ROI

To get the results you need, you should be looking at around two to three PT sessions per week. Given that the average price of a session in Bristol is £40 to £50, you’re looking at £320 to £600 for the month. It's a big investment, but 100% worthwhile when you think about why you’re doing it.  It’s also a lot to pay for the potential of no results and limited support, so make sure you demand a high return on your investment. The right PT should support you with an effective training program that gets results, educate you on basic nutrition changes, and encourage you to make better lifestyle choices. The right PT will track your progress so you can see your improvement over 12 weeks, 6 months and 1 year. This means finding someone who’ll educate you in making life-long changes, not someone you’ll watch you warm up and run on a treadmill for 20 minutes.

Remember: a great personal trainer will change your life, and a bad one will put you off fitness forever.

James Grogan has worked as a professional health and fitness coach for over eight years and has trained over 500 people. He’s currently based in Bristol and owns and runs the OPEX Fitness Bristol gym in BS3. Find out more about working with James, or arrange to visit the OPEX gym by contacting James on:

Email: james@opexbristol.com