How to determine if personal training will be valuable to you
Investing in a personal trainer whether in person or as an online fitness trainer can be costly. If you already have access to a gym, or even some exercise equipment at home, you may be asking ‘why spend money on a personal trainer when I could just plan my own workouts?’ This is a good question, and the cost vs benefit will vary greatly from person to person.
Ultimately it comes down to the value you put on achieving your goals. Think about the most burning desire you have right now when it comes to health & fitness, and don’t think about it as weight loss, muscle gain or more energy those are pretty stale goals.
Think of the desire behind the goal. This would include motivations like having more confidence, better self-esteem and feeling alive when you wake up in the morning. not to mention how having a far higher baseline energy level might benefit your career.
Below is one of my favourite analogies about investing in professional expertise:
A man calls a plumber to his home to solve a problem with one of his pipes. The plumber looks around the room and listens as various spots on the wall for about 10 minutes.
Then he grabs a pipe wrench and hits a single pipe three or four times in the same place. The problem is miraculously solved. The plumber then hands the man his bill, and the man is shocked to see that the invoice is for $200. The man objects, “How on earth can you charge $200 for simply banging on a pipe three or four times with a pipe wrench? I demand that you itemize this bill.” The plumber takes the invoice from the man, recalculates it, and hands it back. The invoice now reads:
Item one: Hitting the pipe with a pipe wrench–$2.00
Item two: Knowing to hit the pipe with the pipe wrench–$99
Item three: Knowing where and how to hit it–$99.
It a fun way of showcasing the benefit of experience and expertise. A great personal trainer is going to know which fitness methodology works, anticipate challenges or banana skins along your path and save you a lot of wasted time and guesswork.
For this reason, I don’t think the benefits of fitness coaching should be valued based on an hourly rate for a training session or a fixed price for a workout program, but rather as the investment you are making in order to achieve your fitness goals.
How would it go if you do it alone?
Of course, you have the ability to work out, and the option to design your own fitness programs, to eat well, and to adopt positive lifestyle habits. But the best personal trainers, like the expert plumber, will be able to decipher patterns in your lifestyle, approach to training, exercise history and preferences and create a highly personalised workout program for you. Marry that with a well-informed and professional approach to nutrition and you begin to massively stack the odds of success In your favour.
For example what value would the individual who desperately seeks an end to restrictive cycles of dieting put on a sustainable lifestyle that could keep them at their healthy weight?
What value would someone trying to meet the love of their life on a dating app put on being able to display fantastic profile pictures and the confidence that would ooze from them on their first date with a dream partner because they felt the best version of themselves?
How much would a lifestyle-focused fitness program capable of restoring energy levels be worth for someone who has been working themselves into the ground in order to pursue their career goals? Perhaps the right program could allow them to once again wake up in the morning full of energy.
How about someone who feels alone and unsupported with their goals, what price would that put on an expert personal trainer offering consistent accountability following up on their fitness efforts?
So you can see, value is relative you aren’t paying for a personal training session when you work with a fitness coach, you are investing in the feelings or opportunities the successful completion of your fitness goals would mean for you.
How to find the right personal trainer for you
Of course there is a big caveat here….
Not all Personal Trainers are the same, so choosing the right fitness coach for you is crucial. Investing in the wrong personal trainer or fitness program may cost you time and money if it doesn’t bear fruit. This is why you shouldn’t be shopping on price alone. You have to factor in the opportunity cost of making the wrong choice.
Let’s say you workout for three months with the wrong coach and you don’t get the results you are looking for, or perhaps even worse they put you on such a restrictive program that what you do achieve on the program can’t be maintained. Not only would you have lost the money, but you’d also have wasted the time which for many people is just as bad if not worse. Not to mention ended up back at square one having to again go out in search of someone who can get you across the finish line and invest again.
To avoid that here are a few tips to help you find the best personal trainer or fitness coach.
Track Record
Look for a track record of the ability to get results with other people. Ideally people in similar scenarios and with similar goals.
Let’s play with another analogy, if for some reason you had to have surgery would you want the surgeon who had successfully completed 1000 operations or one who was charging a fraction of the price, with just a handful of operations under their belt? Experience counts.
Often you’ll be able to hear the testimony of a personal trainer’s clients in their own words. There is little better insight into how effective a potential training program is going to be than hearing how it all unfolded from someone who has been through the process. For example, I have collated some video testimonials from my online personal training clients, which you can watch below.
Make sure they are a professional
Have a look at who they are online
Check out your prospective personal trainer’s online presence and get a feel for their ethos, professionalism and coaching style. If you are about to invest a good deal of money in your training goals you will want to ensure sure that you get on well with your coach and believe in the way they work. So watch a few of their videos and see if its going to be a good fit.
Can you reach them?
Get them on the phone for a consultation or meet in person to discuss your goals, let them explain their proposed strategy and intended timeframe for goal completion. Perhaps the key factor here is the least tangible. Which is whether you get the feeling that they care about you and your goals?
Availability is key, if your proposed coach is tough to get a hold of before you start working together, you’ll have to make your own decision as to whether that’s going to improve once you’ve parted with your hard-earned money.
Once you have all of this information you’ll be in a great position to decide if you want to invest in working with a personal trainer to help you achieve your goals and indeed which fitness coach would be the perfect fit for you.