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Choosing a trainer can be difficult with an array of varying 'professional' bodies claiming to confer the best expertise. Ive been a trainer since 1994 and worked in settings including leisure centres and gyms, health centres, hospitals and the uniformed services. Here is my personal opinion.
How do you choose a personal trainer?
My advice is try before you buy, shop around and ask some key questions, when you have a short list try a few trainers and find which one best meets your needs.
Some key questions;
Ask is the trainer qualified?
This is tricky, there is a myriad of pseudo professional registrations out there some legitimate, and others less so.
The largest registration body and that used by most councils and health authorities to authenticate trainers is CIMSPA. CIMSPA is the only registeration body for personal trainers with a Royal charter. Registration with CIMSPA can be checked online. Registration with CIMSPA means that at every level the trainers practical skills as well as theoretical knowledge will have received scrutiny. CIMSPA do not accept 'online only' qualifications as core training qualifications, nor do they accept academic only qualifications, a trainer must be assessed practically.
There are several levels of practice qualification which map to national education standards. All legitimate trainers should also have insurance and resuscitation certificates.
Level 2- Gym instructors (equates to GCSE), these instructors supervise gym areas in hotels and clubs and offer basic advice in the safe use of equipment, they may even offer some basic programming for healthy clients.
Level 3 - Personal trainer, (equates to A level / diploma), these trainers will identify as independent practitioners, they can attend your house or work in studios or gyms. Personal trainers should have better physiological knowledge, they will offer more advanced fitness programming, they will understand the principles of progression and regression.
Level 3 - Exercise on referral or Exercise for long term conditions, these trainers have received broad training in catering for different health conditions in a sports or leisure club setting, this qualification alone is not a specialist qualification for any single medical condition but is a stepping stone towards that.
Level 4 -'Specialist' (equates to 1st year of University). Often described as 'exercise specialists' these trainers should have broad base of practical knowledge but will additionally have specialised in a certain area of physical training, often they may also have a graduate or post graduate academic qualification sitting hand in hand with their practice qualification, for instance in BSc / MSc in sports science, healthcare or rehabilitation. Certain level 4 qualifications are considered the gold standard for certain client groups. For example if you have had cardiac illness, MI or arrest, then you should consider a Level 4 BACPR qualified instructor. If you have COPD or other pulmonary chronic illnesses then look for a Level 4 BLF/Loughborough college qualified instructor. CIMSPA or the relevant charity for your long term health condition may be able to guide you as to what kind of trainer to seek.
Chartered Practitioner or Fellow: CIMSPA have these final levels of accreditation for members who have demonstrated a rounded professional portfolio of expertise, experience and education.
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Clinical Exercise Physiologist : People identifying in this catergory should have aparently undertaken 5-6 years at University. For most this will be a 3 year sports science course followed by an MSc in a clinical related field. Often they will have gained industry qualifications, but as part of their university course, rather than from years of experience on the 'shop floor'. Qualified by certificate but seemingly initially lacking the coaching and training experience that someone who has built a career from within the industy may possess. The awarding bodies are the american college of sports medecine (ACSM) in the US, Acadamy Certified Health Sciences (ACHS) for CEP in the UK.
In the UK I'm yet to be convinced the universities are doing a good job. I wonder how many graduates have the personal skills to form meaningful personal relationships which inspire client change. How they will view, having spent £50,000+ on education, the reality of starting salaries at £25K, a role limited to only a few clinical areas and even fewer senior clinical roles. Additionally, the qualification route for the UK accreditation is muddled and appears to be changing frequently, it is a mess with only two universities able to currently qualifiy people directly everyone else joing the register by demonstrating a portfolio. So few people have joined I understand that the creators are introducing a non graduate entry route, this may dilute the professional status somewhat.
On balance however I've worked with some brilliant Australian, Kiwi and American CEPs. So maybe, in time, the UK system will get there, it is early days .
The creators have done a good marketing job and have somehow pursuaded the NHS to embrace this, perhaps in the absence of other representative bodies pushing for their own members (CSP and CIMSPA). Just my person view.
Finally, its interesting and quite unfair, but almost worldwide clinical exercise physiologists are percieved as the poor relation to physiotherapists and paid accordingly.
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Physiotherapist: Physiotherapist is a professional protected title. A qaulified physiotherapist must be qualified by diploma (the old days), approved BSc (hons) degree or Pre Reg MSc. Physiotherpists should be members of the Chartered Society of Physiopherapists (CSP). Physiotherapists are not gym instructors or personal trainers. Generally they have little or limited experience delivering physical training unless they have sought to develop these aspects. On paper they are qualified to deliver therapy by manual techniques, therapy machines and exercise. In my experience exercise is normally the weakest part of their practice. Generally an excellant anatomy and clinical knowledge. A traditional clinical role with a depth and breadth of practical and academic experience but not coaches or trainers necessarily.
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Strength and conditioning coach
Normally, working for sports teams these professionals can be phenominally knowledgable having completed post grad courses at some of the best universities and worked with top league teams, improving perfomance and reducing injury risk. Or they can be a bloke who has done a certificate online in his underpants. Thorough expeditious background enquiries are required. Not clinical rehab speacialists.
Does the trainers experience fit your needs?
A criticism levelled at trainers is they are often overly focussed on their own preferred "training method". For example, a trainer with a background in Zumba might gravitate towards work outs being dance focussed, conversely a trainer with a strength and conditioning background might be always encouraging you to use free weights. This might not be a problem, but it might. If you are very overweight and you are looking for someone to help you get fitter a trainer that specialises in high impact training may dishearten you, cause you discomfort, or worse, put your body under unecessary stress. To combat this my advice would be find a trainer that can adapt their practice to be centred to your needs and interests. Ask them where have they worked before and what have they done? Choose a trainer that offers a broad diverse base of experience and some knowledge within specialist interests that align to your interests or needs. However, be a little open minded , after all you are paying a trainer to develop you.
Is the trainer recognised and vetted?
This is a little more controversial, but it is likely you will be meeting with the trainer on your own in a gym, studio or house. Are you comfortable with them? A professional trainer with a genuine interest in maintaining their own professional development should be a member of a professional organisation. The trainer may be able to advise you of such memberships and they may also be able to produce a DBS no conviction certificate. I am a firm believer that if you've nothing to hide you can be a very open person. Obviously past behaviour doesn't guarantee a person’s future behaviour, but it may help inform your choice. I have met personal trainers working for large corporate gyms with recent convictions for violent crime who were not nice people at all!
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