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Getting a personal trainer

There are a number of reasons you might decide it’s worth your while to get a personal trainer. It’s a great idea if you’re new to the gym and want to get your head around proper technique, it’s also really beneficial if you’re recovering from injury or have other contra-indicated conditions. It’s also really good to do if you have a specific goal in mind – like getting wedding ready (we have trained quite a few people who fit into this catagory)!

So how do you chose the right personal trainer? Here’s 6 things to consider when making your choice.

1. Experience: Do you really want someone fresh out of personal training school? Of course some of these trainers will be really good and certainly know their theory, but as with most professions, experience in the field counts for a lot. Experienced trainers will be better able to assess your needs and training style and know how  to push you just to the right level. Less experienced trainers might come up with a great training plan that simply doesn’t fit your training style, or push you too little, or too hard.

2. Personality: You are going to be spending 30-60 mins one-on-one with this person a couple of times a week. You need to like them, or at the very least, love to hate them! It’s very difficult to train flat out for 30mins, there’s going to be some recovery time, when you’ll have a chat – make sure you find someone you want to spend time with.

3. Availability: So you think you’ve found the right guy or gal but they are fully booked at the times you really need to train. If you make appointments that are too early, too late, on weekends (when you usually have other plans) you’ll just end up cancelling them, and then you won’t get the results you’re after. Make you training appointments at times you know you can get to and stick to them! Consistency will get you results.

4. Philosophy: Sounds a little bit wanky, but you need someone who shares your ideas about where fitness and health fit into your lifestyle. If you find a trainer who wants you to make it to the gym 5 days a week and eat a steady diet of poached chicken and broccoli, it might not be the best match! Unless of course you’re really into chicken and broccoli…

6. Speciality: If you’re looking to get ready for a triathlon – maybe you should get a triathlete (or ex-triathlete) to help you prepare. It’s all well and good to know the theory but someone who can speak from experience is always going to be a better option. Eg. someone who has actually been through childbirth themselves might be the best one to help you with your pre/post-natal program.

7. Cost: It’s important to consider cost, the going rate for a personal trainer in Sydney is about $100 per hour, do you want to spend the $$$? At Hiscoes we book 30 min sessions with our trainers (people can rarely maintain intensity for much longer anyway) to help keep costs down. You might also consider Small Group Training as an option – where you share the session (and the cost) with a few others, but still get similar benefits to one-on-one PT

Find out more about starting personal training at Hiscoes today!