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Grading Your Trainer: Are You Getting Your Money’s Worth?

Follow this guide to help you tell the difference between a pro and a phony.

Tom Kelso

Written by Last updated on Nov 22, 2021

You opt to hire a personal trainer to help you attain fitness goals.

  • Lose fat
  • Improve endurance
  • Build muscle and strength
  • Feel more confident
  • Become healthier in general

All of the aforementioned are sensible goals. But how do you know if you’ve obtained the right trainer to help you reach one or more of those goals? Does he or she have your back and best interest in mind? How do you know?

Here are some basic tips to know if you have the right person leading you on your fitness journey.

Red Flags: Traits of a Potentially Bad Personal Trainer

  • Doesn’t have a college degree in some type of exercise science or physical education.
  • Obtained his or her certification from an online course.
  • Blindly follows the popular training trends.
  • Trains with you.
  • Socializes with you excessively.
  • Doesn’t push you.
  • Doesn’t document your training progress.
  • Inundates you with popular buzzwords in the industry.
  • At the end of your workout, you’ve expended minimal calories.

Thumbs Up: Traits of a Potentially Good Personal Trainer

  • Formally educated in exercise science.
  • Obtained his or her certification from a reputable organization.
  • Has walked the walk. That is, he or she has personally been through many workout routines, busted his or her ass, and been in your shoes.
  • Trains you with your best interest in mind, but does not train with you.
  • Avoids small talk and concentrates on training you to your maximum potential.
  • Pushes you to your limit. Whatever your 100% is, he or she extracts it from you.
  • Documents your training progress. He or she records it on a workout recording form or some modern-techno device.
  • Employs proven and practical principles of fat loss, muscle gain, cardiovascular endurance, and sensible food intake.
  • At the end of your workout, you’ve expended maximal calories.

trainer, training, coach

The Ultimate Test: Your Results

The magnitude of results you are seeking depend on a number of factors:

  • Training experience. Novice trainees will realize greater changes in their physiques as compared to those who have been training for years.
  • Nutritional intake. Obviously, if you eat a poor diet – especially if you over-consume calories in general – it’s going to impede your goals.
  • Genetics. Tall, short, wide, narrow, naturally strong, naturally weak. You can only do so much with what you were given at birth.

Regardless of your situation, your trainer should be prescribing appropriate exercise and measures as prioritized below for each goal. If not it might be time to seek a new trainer.

Fat Loss:

  • A calorie deficit with a balance of macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and fat).
  • Strength training to build or maintain muscle in the wake of a calorie deficit.
  • The addition of high-intensity interval training at proper intervals.

Endurance:

  • Some type of high-intensity interval training or steady-state endurance if you’re training for a competition such a triathlon, marathon, or obstacle course event.
  • Specific practice and replication of the endurance event in which you will be participating.
  • Appropriate calorie intake to support your training and competition energy needs.

Muscle Gain:

  • Hard-core strength-training prescriptions. Stimulate all muscle groups to promote growth.
  • A balanced macronutrient calorie surplus that offers the proper substrate for muscle tissue growth.
  • A training session frequency that allows for proper muscle growth and size improvements with adequate recovery between sessions.
  • Minimal extra calorie-burning events (i.e. running) that will prohibit muscle growth and size.

muscle, muscle gain, abs

Confidence:

  • Whatever activity makes you feel confident. Hard-core strength training, endurance training, or a combination of each. It must push you to the limit and make you mentally strong.
  • Because looks are important, some type of strength training to fortify your physique.

General Health:

  • Some type of training program that emphasizes muscular strength and endurance. That will take you a long way toward being healthy.
  • A proper diet that lowers body fat levels, blood pressure, the potential for developing type 2 diabetes, and other avoidable health issues.

If you seek a personal trainer to help you achieve your goals, make sure you get the most qualified person to assist you. He or she should be educated, have your best interest in mind, and be well schooled on the ins and outs of result-producing training.

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Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

Tom Kelso

About Tom Kelso

Tom Kelso is currently an Exercise Physiologist with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. He also trains clients through Pinnacle Personal & Performance Training in Chesterfield, Missouri.

For 23 years he was in the collegiate strength and conditioning profession, serving as the Head Coach for Strength and Conditioning at Saint Louis University (2004-2008), the University of Illinois at Chicago (2001-2004), Southeast Missouri State University (1991-2001), and the University of Florida (1988-1990). He got his start in the strength and conditioning field as an Assistant Strength Coach at Florida in 1984 where he was also a weight training instructor for the Department of Physical Education from 1985 to 1988.

In 2006, Tom was named Master Strength and Conditioning Coach by the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association for his years of service in the field. In 1999, he was named NSCA Ohio Valley Conference Strength and Conditioning Professional of the year. In 2001, he received an honorary certification from the International Association of Resistance Trainers (I.A.R.T.).

Tom possesses C.S.C.S. and S.C.C.C. certifications with the NSCA and CSCCA, respectively. Additionally, he is certified by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board in basic instructor development and as a specialist instructor by the Missouri Department of Public Safety. In 2012, he became certified by the IBNFC as a Certified Nutrition Coach.

Tom has worked with athletes at the Olympic and professional levels, presented at various clinics/seminars, and worked several athletic-related camps. He is a strong advocate of safe, practical, and time-efficient training and has published a collection of periodical articles, book chapters, complete books, and user-friendly downloads promoting such.

Tom received a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Iowa in 1981(It's great to be a Hawkeye!) and a Master's Degree in Physical Education from Western Illinois University in 1984. He was a member of the Track and Field team at Iowa and served as a Graduate Assistant Track & Field Coach while at Western Illinois.

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