A personal fitness trainer is helpful for some people and can be an important component in helping you reach your health and fitness goals. But a personal trainer is not for everyone, and may not be necessary for you to reach your personal fitness goals. Use these tips to help you locate a personal trainer that's right for you.

What to Look for In a Personal Fitness Trainer

In this fitness article, we’ll help you decide if a personal trainer might be right for you and what to look for when searching for the right personal trainer for your fitness goals.

A good personal fitness trainer can help in these areas:

- Personal trainers can help show you how to reach your health and fitness goals.

- A good personal trainer can design the right fitness program for you, based on your needs.

- A good personal trainer can help you select the right foods to eat how to lose weight.

- A personal trainer can teach you how to exercise properly.

- A good personal trainer can help you to avoid injury or properly work through an injury.

- Personal trainers can help motivate you.

Some drawbacks about personal fitness trainers:

- The cost. Some fitness trainers are definitely not worth the money.

- Personal trainers can be a crutch. For example, if you are hiring a personal trainer to help you get motivated to work out, at some point you will have to find the motivation from within if you are going to succeed in your fitness program.

- Some personal trainers do not have the proper knowledge or expertise to help you reach your fitness goals.

What to look for in a personal fitness trainer:

- Most importantly, look someone who knows what they are talking about. This may sound obvious. But we are amazed at the number of fitness trainers who we see training clients with the wrong regimen, the wrong exercises, or with the wrong form. Because of the client's lack of knowledge, they do not always know that they are dealing with a poor personal trainer - one who does not have the proper knowledge to help them.

- The proper personal trainer certification.

- Find a fitness trainer who really cares about your fitness success, and is 100% dedicated to seeing you succeed. After all, you’re paying them.

- Professionalism. Many personal trainers are very young, and with that youth comes immaturity.

- Someone who is dedicated to his or her field and keeping up with the latest fitness information.

Many personal trainers are fly-by-nighters. They are not committed to their field. They simply took on a job. There are those who are experts (the few) and then there are those who have gotten ACE certification and suddenly think they know it all (the many).

The barriers to entry in the personal fitness training field can be low. We’ve seen this several times – a young kid gets a job working at the front desk at the local fitness chain location. In a month or so, the kid is suddenly wearing a shirt that says, “personal trainer” on the back of it and “training” clientele. He (or she) wanted more out of his job than simply the wage paying front desk position so he asked the fitness club manager if he could be a personal trainer. Presto! Our young lad has suddenly been dubbed a personal trainer.

We don’t blame the kid for being ambitious. But, if someone is going to be working with you on a vitally important part of your life – your health – then what you’re looking for is a real expert in the field. Not the kid who thought it would be more lucrative and fun to be a personal trainer rather than work at his (or her) front desk job at the health club.

Such fitness experts are hard to find. But they are out there. Ask around. Consider asking your prospective personal trainer for references. If you’re not happy with those personal trainers at your local gym or fitness club, consider looking elsewhere. The personal trainer you are looking for does not have to be someone who wrote a book on fitness and appeared on Oprah. But they do have to be committed to their field and know their stuff (like other top performers in other walks of life).

Avoid these types of personal fitness trainers:

1. Avoid (run from) any personal trainer who does not know what they are talking about. Bad advice is worse than no advice at all.

2. We’ve seen several personal trainers who are looking around the gym and getting easily distracted when working with their clients. There are personal trainers who check out the hotties in the gym while training people on their dime. We've seen many personal trainers who check out what other gym clientele are doing, socialize with their friends, gossip with other gym members, and just plain goof around while clients are doing a set of exercises.

Your personal trainer should be 100% focused on you while they are training you. It’s your dime, it’s your time! They can goof off later.

If your personal trainer cannot find it within himself or herself to focus completely on you for 30 minutes (or whatever time you’ve paid for), find someone who can.

3. Absolutely drop any personal fitness trainer who is verbally abusive, demeaning, or ridicules your body or puts you down in any way. You are paying them to help you reach your fitness goals, not to tear you down.

If you’re personal trainer is critical of your inability to get motivated that is probably not the right personal trainer for you. There is a difference between someone pushing you (in a healthy way) and someone who is ripping you for having trouble with motivation.

We have found the issue of motivation in any health and fitness routine to be a major reason why people do not start, stay with, or succeed in their fitness goals. Much of motivation is a mental game, and it is not to be taken lightly. Read our article on how to get and stay motivated to achieve your fitness goals.

If your personal trainer does not seem to have much of an understanding of the important mental aspects of getting and staying motivated to start and stay with a fitness program, find one who does have the knowledge and understanding.

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