HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST PERSONAL FITNESS TRAINER FOR YOU
Updated: Aug 18
Let's look at how to choose the best personal trainer for you
With the fitness industry exploding, how do you go about finding the best personal trainer to help you get fit?
I'm Dennis Romatz, owner and personal trainer at Dennis Romatz Fitness with personal trainer locations in Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Chicago. I'm going to help you choose the best personal trainer for you.
The task of finding a highly skilled, talented, educated and experienced personal trainer can be daunting with all of the newly certified trainers and even non-certified trainers flooding the market. Seems everyday more and more trainers are advertising as personal trainers and content creators on social media platforms such as Facebook.
The best way to start your search for a personal trainer who can meet your needs is to understand exactly what your personal needs are. Some very good questions to ask yourself are:
What are my goals?
What is my preferred training location?
What are my desired training days & times?
What is my budget?
These questions and answers will help your prospective trainer define whether they have availability in their schedule to serve your needs or not. It also helps to narrow down which trainers are in your budget.
So with this, let's break down the categories which you'll need to gain an education in to help sort out and narrow down which trainer is best for you. Ultimately, we want to learn how to choose the best personal trainer for you.
1. Goals
Some trainers are versed in a variety of fitness training disciplines and styles while others may have experience in only a few training methods. Typically the rookie personal trainers have limited abilities in that they simply don't have experience training for various styles of fitness. Veteran trainers with many years of experience usually have a longer resume of experience and history of having trained in a broader scope of styles and can provide a more expansive and all encompassing service.
Dennis Romatz Fitness personal trainers for instance are required to have a minimum of 10 years of practical freelance personal training experience to be considered for employment.
Ultimately, you'll need to ask yourself if you think your fitness goals in intricate enough to warrant a trainer with many years of experience and a University education in Exercise Science or if you can get by with a rookie trainer or someone not certified.
Personally, I wouldn't hire a Doctor if he or she didn't have a formal medical education or practical field experience.
Training Location
With gyms popping up all over the world, there has never been so many training options.
Most gyms are good, some are really good and a couple are actually great.
But with traffic being such a travel deterrent, do you really want to join the "great" new gym that just opened that will take an hour to get to? Nope, nobody has time for that!
When I started my private, freelance fitness business many years ago providing my personal training, I had to offer something special to differentiate myself from other trainers. Something that would enhance my client's training experience and make it more convenient and consistent for better results.
I started offering apartment and condo gym training and the results were amazing. My clients were way more consistent thus, their results were far better and they came much faster.
Most newer apartment and condo gyms are well equipped with machines from reputable manufacturers and ample cardio equipment so that there is never a wait.
So, if we're talking about gym locations, I have to give the nod to simply training at your condo gym.
Dennis Romatz Fitness home, condo & apartment gym personal training is a concierge style training method whereas our personal trainers come to your location. All you have to do is simply meet us in your lobby prior to the session start time.
My recommendation on training location definitely goes to your home, condo or apartment gym training option simply for the convenience.
Training Days & Times
If your training days and times are what w call "prime-time" weekdays from 6am - 8am and 5pm - 7pm then you may have to search for a trainer with availability. Most quality personal trainers are quite busy during these times and you can expect the price to be a bit higher due to the demand.
If you can, try to train between 10am and 4pm as these are "off-peak" training times and are offered at a lower price with most trainers.
Keep in mind that personal trainers have two busy blocks of time. One in the early morning and one in the evening with a block of time late morning until early afternoon which they would always like to fill and most offer these time slot at discounted rates.
Price
What most people don't know is that a large percentage of personal trainers aren't actually personal trainers at all. Many are unemployed hacks posing as a personal trainer because they lost their real job.
These are the personal trainers who low-ball their price to get training clients and then ruin the fitness industry by training their clients incorrectly.
Do you want these trainers? NO!
The International average cost for a personal trainer is $50 per session. Rates can range from $35 up to $70 with some charging higher. Relatively speaking, you should be paying somewhere in the average price range at commercial gyms and studios and slightly higher for private training at your condo gym as the trainer has to add in travel time costs.
Dennis Romatz Fitness prices are well within the average with my own personal rates being just slightly high due to my Exercise Science University education and 37 years personal training experience.
Summary
Choosing a personal trainer can be easy as long as you understand your needs and go about your search with the intention of finding that trainer who can best serve your needs. I don't suggest shopping price. Any trainer can offer a low price. Not every trainer can offer education, experience and a proven track record of successful training results.
Dennis Romatz Fitness offers the highest quality personal trainers at affordable prices. I and my staff personal trainers offer a variety of plans & pricing to accommodate every busy schedule and budget.
About the Author:
Dennis Romatz is the Owner and Head Personal Trainer at Dennis Romatz Fitness representing the pinnacle of excellence in personal training with locations in Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Chicago, IL. You can contact Dennis to train with him in person or live online or connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.