How to Know if a Personal Trainer is Qualified

His business card says “Certified Personal Trainer,” and he has really inspiring pictures of client transformations on his brochure, but how do you truly know if a personal trainer is qualified? A bit of investigative research combined with asking some pointed questions will help reveal the true extent of a trainer’s qualifications. Follow these steps to get your answers.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Ask where they received their certification. Because there is no governing body for personal training, anyone can call themselves a “personal trainer,” even if they don’t have a certification. Almost all certifying bodies require a minimum number of continuing education credits every two years in order to remain current, so be sure to ask what type of classes or workshops the trainer has been to lately.
2. Go online or call the certifying body to confirm. It’s not too invasive to confirm the information that a trainer gives you. Call the certifying body to make sure you’re getting accurate and up to date information regarding the trainer’s certification.
3. Find out how long they’ve been in the field. A piece of paper is necessary for a trainer to call himself “certified,” but it in no way reflects how much experience he has in the field. As a trainer, I can confidently say that I learned at least 70 percent of what I know about training simply from experience. There is no replacement for walking the walk.
4. Ask how many clients they see a week. Even if a trainer has held a certification and been “in the field” for 10 years, that doesn’t mean that he has been logging a certain number of hours. Perhaps he has only seen 2 clients a week for those 10 years. That’s a big difference in experience compared with a trainer who may only have 5 years experience but has been seeing 30 clients a week during that time. You want a trainer who is in demand.
5. Speak to current or past clients. A trainer’s clients are the best source of information regarding how qualified the trainer might be. Ask to speak with at least two clients and then inquire as to how knowledgeable those clients feel the trainer is.