Sometimes we can all benefit from professional help. No, I'm not suggesting
you've gone loco and need a shrink (though it is a danger of strict dieting)
but a Personal Trainer. Those who have read my articles in the past know my
standing recommendation of seeing a PT at least once a year to make sure
your once strict form has not mutated into a potential back-breaker. But how do
you find the right one?
There is a myriad of PT licensing organizations out there, and there are no
federal regulations about who can or cannot call himself a Personal Trainer.
An unskilled PT can cause as much damage as an unskilled chiropractor, but
while the chiropractor must go to school for many years and remains under
scrutiny through his career, the PT can basically write out his own license
on the back of a piece of cardboard and get started. Make sense? Nope. But
that's the way it is.
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To protect yourself, and to make sure you're getting
your money's worth, there are a few guidelines to observe. There's also a
couple of litmus tests you can throw at your prospective trainer -- which he
should pass in order to count you among his clients.
Credentials & Skills
Since there is no central governing authority, certification requirements
vary a lot. For example, National Personal Training Institute has schools
from California to New York and require all students to successfully
complete 500 hours of intense classroom and hands-on training.
The National
Association for Fitness Training works entirely by correspondence.
That is
not to say that an NPTI-certified trainer is by default better than an
NATF-certified trainer, only that it's harder to BS your way through 500
in-person hours than taking a correspondence course.
So which certifications
do I consider respectable, you ask? American Council on Exercise (ACE),
International Weightlifting Association (IWA), American College of Sports
Medicine (ACSM) and the Canadian Association of Fitness Professionals
(CanPro) are examples of certifying bodies that require hands-on training
(and in some cases, health-related college degrees).
Needless to say, a PT
with a masters degree in physiology can have a crummy certification and
still be a good choice - skill is always more important than a piece of
paper. There's a lot more to a good trainer than a certificate.
Credentials Litmus Test:
Ask the PT how many hours of hands-on
training he or she took to get the certification. That does not count
practicing with a buddy for fun, but required hands-on hours under
instructor supervision. Zero is not a good number, especially if the PT is a
newbie with little client experience.
Skill Litmus Test:
Ask the PT to take a look at an exercise you're
performing. Pick something complex, like
seated cable rows or lat pulldowns
to the front. Make a conscious mistake, such as rounding your lower back or
tensing and shrugging up your shoulders, and see if he catches the mistake.
If she waves it through without noticing, you've got a dud.
Personality
You want a friendly, attentive person who listens to your concerns and shows
interest in helping you. Avoid the PT who won't let you talk because he
wants to describe all the great things he's going to help you achieve. Odds
are he'll assume you want to be the next Mr. Olympia just like him, and by
golly he'll prod you accordingly even if you just wanted to learn how to
train around your injured knee.
Also be wary of the huge steroid-monsters who
have problems putting a sentence together. Sure, he may have achieved some
success (with a bit of help from his pharmacist friend in Mexico) but a
muscular body does not automatically make that person a good teacher and
coach. It is also important that your PT is honest and realistic. Wild
promises are rarely the trademark of a serious professional.
Personality Litmus Test 1:
Ask a tricky question, such as where the
Fibularis Longus muscle ties in. Look up the answer in advance (Hint: look
below the knee!) If your PT can answer the right question off the top of his
head, that's a very good sign. If he doesn't know, that's perfectly Ok as
long as he offers to find out -- and actually does it. However, if he plays
you for a novice and makes something up, walk away.
Personality Litmus Test 2:
Throw a curveball -- ask what he or she
doesn't like about the job. Or ask what type of customer they just hate.
They do this all the time in regular job interviews to see how applicants
react to unforeseen questions - you should do the same. You can learn a lot
about your potential coach this way, and a good PT will not get angry at you
for asking.
References, Fees And Other Stuff
You don't want to be anyone's Guinea pig, so make sure to get someone with a
solid list of references. Be attentive to who's on the list (if half the
names have the same last name as the PT, that's a red flag right there) and
don't make the mistake of not calling them.
They are on that list because
they have explicitly agreed to be contacted, so they won't mind you calling.
Really. When you talk to them, don't just ask if the PT was "good". Ask what
his or her strengths and weaknesses were. What exactly did the PT help the
reference achieve?
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If all references were middle-aged ladies who lost 50 lbs
of fat then that's great for an overweight woman but not too helpful to a
20 something bodybuilder looking to enter his first contest. As for fees,
good PTs range from $40 to $200 an hour or more if your PT is either a
celebrity-trainer or a highly-specialized expert in some aspect of training.
Be cautious about lowball-offers -- a professional won't give away his
services for next to nothing. It is Ok to negotiate a discount if you intend
to be a faithful customer. Offer to pre-pay a decent number of sessions if
you do, since this shows you're serious (many PTs will offer this type of
discounts on their own -- ask!)
Reference Litmus Test:
Ask the reference why she picked this
particular PT. Did she compare several different ones? What was her
criteria? Sometimes it's like insurance companies -- people pick one at
random and keeps giving them business for years without bothering to make a
comparison. For a reference to be useful -- as far as you're concerned --
that person should have done her homework and made an informed decision, not
just picked a PT at random.
Fee Litmus Test:
Throw another curveball -- ask why they're charging
more or less than another PT at that gym. If mud-slinging ensues ("Joe can't
charge as much as me because he found his certification in a cereal box!")
you may want to consider another PT. If the PT politely declines to discuss
fellow trainers, or if he can give a matter-of-fact explanation ("I charge
more because I am also a certified dietician.") he's Ok.
If your prospective PT passed the tests and seems to like a knowledgable
person that you can get along with, go ahead and hire him. Be sure to get a
written road map with the goals you're trying to achieve and a timeline with
partial goals on your way there. Discuss the dieting aspect of your goals
and make a gut check to see if the plan sounds realistic. Remember: A good
Personal Trainer guides you towards your goals, but you still have to do all
the work yourself.
Thanks,
mattdanielsson@hotmail.com
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