31 Oct 2017

What Makes a Good Personal Trainer?

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first: ‘Must love fitness’.

It seems obvious, but a lot of people mistake a love of fitness for a love of walking on a treadmill for half an hour while watching Oprah.

A love of fitness as a potential career must encompass all the things a love for engineering or a love for medicine encompasses; a holistic love that goes way beyond 3 sets of 12.

So let’s pull you apart and see if we end up with a personal trainer when we put you back together again.

You have the mind of a mechanic

You see an arm curling a dumbbell and can instantly pinpoint the slightest flaw in technique; an angle, a flow; a pause, anything that depreciates the effectiveness of that motion. And if you can’t see that yet, you’re passionate enough about the physics of fitness to learn. Every weight exercise, every aerobics move, every running style has good and bad technique. As a personal trainer, you’ll know the difference and be skilled enough to teach the adjustments.

You have the patience of a childcare worker

Let’s be realistic; when you’re starting out as a personal trainer, Dwayne Johnson is unlikely to turn up on day one. In fact, half of your clients will be anything but Dwayne Johnson; a lot of them will be obesity, diabetes and arthritis sufferers; a good percentage of them will be approaching middle age, or past it. Which basically means you’ll be teaching a lot of basic technique to people coming to you with absolutely no technique.

Is that a bad thing? Not at all if you have the patience. One of the recurring joys you’ll have as a trainer is to see ordinary people achieve ordinary, yet magical milestones; their Everest, and you’ll be there to see it.

You have the recording skills of a bookkeeper

Every training program for every client is a record of immense importance; it is to them and it needs to be for you. Check it, update it and add to it with genuine care and attention to ensure every client is more than just a number.

You have the fitness of, well, a personal trainer

What do you expect a personal trainer to look like? Male or female, a personal trainer should simply look like they know their way around the inside of a gym, be they lean, muscular or just in decent physical shape.

You are the example you want your clients to follow, so you do need to be fit. Gasping for air as you try to egg on a jogging client isn’t a good look. Nor is straining to push out a demonstration rep for your last client of the night.

So get fit and stay fit with your own weekly training program.