Me Trainer. You Client. Part 1 of 3 in a series of posts on finding a quality trainer in todays fitness craze

Me Trainer. You Client.
In today's growing fitness market, people will do almost anything to get into shape. The pressures have moved from purely looking good to feeling good to. Historically magazines and media protray perfect looking people as happy and successful and often create a distorted image of what happens in real life. If we see it on TV or read about it in a magazine, it must be true and correct, right? And people would do anything, including subject themselves to hours in a gym, painful surgery and even poor treatment by a drill instructor to look like the happy people on TV.
While the main reason for working out today is still looking good, we are finding more and more people beginning a fitness routine because of increasingly poor health stats from their doctors. With more people than ever in the overweight and obese catergory, more people than ever are joining the quest to get those people fit and healthy.

Unfortunately, the fitness industry is not set up for this. Doctors, nurses and dietitions go to school for many years, obtaining a 4 year degree then medical school, nursuing school and grueling internships. They have a tried and true training system in place that weeds out those that are not serious and does a fairly good job at creating knowlegable professional capable of living up to their high salaries. People put their lives in their hands, so this should be how it is done.

But what I am seeing every day more and more is that people are putting their lives in the hands of fitness trainers every day as preventative and prescriptive measures to lose weight, get healthy and stay healthy. So why don't ALL trainers have to go through the same type of certification and training that doctors and other health care providers do?

We see trainers with certifications that they got on the internet and many trainers with no certifications. The number of clients that I see that realy stories about how their trainers caused them to have perminant injuries is unacceptable. As a Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Group Instructor and trainer for other fitness professionals in the outdoor fitness arena, I see many trainers with a passion for helping others that know and understand the need to continually educate themselves. But I also see many trainers with little experience, poor customer service skills and little to no knowlege of the body, giving advice to people on nutrition and fitness.

So how do you make sure you have a certified trainer?
Ask. Before giving anyone your money, ask to see a copy of the certification. Ask them where they are certified through and if they are personal trainers, how many hours of actual experience they have training clients with you. Ask for referrals and contact them. If you are joing a group program such as a boot camp, make sure you instructors have a group fitness instructor certification. If the clients begin to hold the trainers to a higher standard, the trainers will be forced to continue to educate themselves.

How do you know which certification is better?
The National Commission for Certifying Agencies or NCCA accredits programs that meet certian standards. Choose a trainer with a certification from a certifying body on this list. The following are the most popular certifications that you will see: NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine), NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association), ACE (American Council on Exercise), ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine). If your trainer doesn't have one of these, make sure to take extra precaution when interviewing them. Don't just believe that because they call themselves a trainer, that they can help you! More on this in Part 2.

Remember that you often get what you pay for. If you are using a trainer that gives you a "free" session at a big box gym, they are not getting paid very much and therefore may not be of the same quality as a trainer that has ventured out on their own.

Finally, look at how your trainer is running their business. If they are using illegal road signs, negative adversiting or are operating without permits, business licenses or insurance they may not be the type of person you want to rely on for your long term health needs.