Top Five Things That Matter When Hiring a Personal Trainer

By Ron Alterio

It’s that time of the year again, and you can feel it in the air. Millions of Americans will make their New Year’s resolutions and head to their local gyms this January and February to make 2023 “the year” to finally get back into shape. Unfortunately, studies have shown that most exercisers will fail to reach their desired results and will stop coming to the gym within the first six weeks. The top two reasons for this short-lived exercise (pun intended) are:

• Not setting clear and realistic goals
• Not developing an effective how-to-plan to achieve those goals

In short, most people who join a gym, despite their best intentions, don’t understand what it truly takes to reach their goals. Combine that with all the misinformation that’s out there on the “products and services that will be the thing that finally works,” and it can be downright overwhelming. For these reasons, the most effective way to eliminate all the guesswork and finally reach your goals in the shortest amount of time possible this new year is to hire a certified personal trainer.

Yup, we get the healthy dose of apprehension and the questions that follow, like:

• Is personal training just for the wealthy?
• What should I look for in a personal trainer?
• What are the signs of a good personal trainer?
• What does a personal trainer actually do?

Don’t sweat it! We are going to do a ton of the heavy lifting (pun intended, once again) for you by answering those questions and many more with our list of the top five things to look for when hiring a personal trainer.

Credentials Matter

To find the best in the business, seek out credentials and look for a personal trainer that is NCCA accredited. NCCA is the accrediting body of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (ICE). Since 1977, the NCCA has been accrediting certifying programs based on the highest quality standards in professional certifications to ensure the programs adhere to modern standards of practice in the certification industry. This is vital, given how anyone can quickly acquire an online personal trainer certification in just a few short weeks and for such a small cost. At Crunch, we only hire NCCA-accredited personal trainers, which means that each one of our personal trainers has gone through a rigorous certification process that meets and exceeds the industry’s strictest standards to ensure our members’ workouts are both safe and effective. Before hiring any personal trainer, have a conversation and be sure to ask them about their credentials. 

You Matter

You probably have heard of the expression, “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Well, that is certainly true when it comes to hiring a personal trainer. Great personal trainers will not only invest their own time to ask all the right questions, but they will also place an even greater emphasis on listening to your responses. They recognize that your responses are the key to setting S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based) goals, and with these goals, the trainers will help build the proper solutions to create the change you want to see. That’s why Crunch offers a proprietary member discovery process called a CrunchONE Kickoff, which is an opportunity for you to meet with one of our certified personal trainers. Here, you can discuss your current fitness level, establish clear and measurable goals, and create a personalized roadmap for success, which includes a 3-D model of what you will look like once you have achieved your goals. This experience is included in every level of membership. The bottom line is that a personal trainer should be willing to invest his or her time to learn about you and your needs first.

A Holistic Approach Matters

Great personal trainers understand that they are problem solvers, and movement is just one of the many components to solving your problem. In fact, a large percentage of your success is based upon what you do in the rest of the hours that you are away from the gym. Things like nutrition, supplementation, rest, and recovery all play a major role in your success and should be incorporated into your overall program. Our certified personal trainers at Crunch will take a holistic approach when it comes to your goals and will incorporate a variety of solutions to get you where you want to be efficiently and effectively.

Fun Matters

Great personal trainers know that the more you enjoy your workouts, the more likely it is that you will show up. As such, they stay away from prescribing monotonous exercises, such as machines and treadmills, and instead, they incorporate more exercises that are playful, even at times nostalgic, like ball slams, battle ropes, box jumps, and relay races. Great personal trainers will even do the workouts with their clients to make it even more enjoyable. At Crunch, one of our quirky philosophies is, “We make serious fitness fun.” This means we are constantly thinking outside the box and incorporating everything we have inside our four walls, such as our proprietary HIITZone classes and functional training areas to ensure you walk away from every workout with a smile. If not, what’s the point?

Affordability Matters

We know you were thinking it, so let’s get right to it and debunk the myth that personal training is only for the rich and famous. We said earlier that working with a personal trainer is, hands down, the best way to reach your goal. Well, that wouldn’t be effective if only a handful of people could afford it. That’s why great personal trainers make their services more affordable to more people. They do this by offering shorter session lengths, such as 30 minutes rather than insisting on 60 minutes. That one consideration in and of itself can cut the cost of personal training in half! Trainers should also allow you to make monthly payments rather than pay for all the services upfront. At Crunch, we offer both of these options. In fact, we know that the number one excuse for not working out is time, so being able to meet our members halfway at 30 minutes while making the session more affordable is something that we stand by. We also know we are living in a subscription economy, which means we pay for most of what we need on a monthly basis. Why should personal training be any different? That’s why we allow our members to invest in their success by making affordable monthly payments. We understand the value of putting our members’ needs first.

As you can see, a great personal trainer is by far the fastest route to reaching your goals this year. Trainers can help eliminate the guessing game and help you avoid wasting a ton of time. Just be sure to do your homework first to ensure you are hiring the right one. As long as they have the right credentials, put your needs first, offer more than just workouts, and make it both fun and affordable, you’ll be well on your way to making a great choice.

To learn more about working with a certified personal trainer at Crunch, please visit your local Crunch Fitness or visit us at:  www.crunch.com

Ron Alterio is the VP of Personal Training at Crunch Fitness.