How Qualified is Your Certified Personal Trainer?

        Walk into any chain gym and you’re sure to find a couple certified personal trainers on hand claiming to “get you in shape fast” or “help you drop that extra 10 pounds”. Certified personal trainers are not hard to find. However, while they may have “CPT” after their name, how can you really tell if they’re qualified to train you? Many of the personal trainers that box gyms provide you with are young college kids who “love to lift.” They paid a couple hundred bucks for a certification but don’t really know much about putting together a personalized program, teaching the right technique/form, or being an effective coach. So how can you know if YOUR trainer actually knows what he or she is doing?

        While there are many qualified and experienced certified personal trainers in the industry, there are just as many under qualified and inexperienced ones that you have to look out for. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to avoid the latter type:

         First, check their resume for experience with coaching and training. Internships under reputable coaches at competent facilities or schools are a good indicator of valuable experience.  This experience can make a difference in terms of a safe, effective training session versus a dangerous, unsuccessful training session. Certification exam textbooks would be more effective if they included more information on how to asses a client’s strengths, weaknesses, and needs and furthermore, design a program based off of that assessment. A good place to learn this is in a hands on setting with a practiced trainer/coach teaching them along the way. If a trainer doesn't have good experience under their belt, you become their first experience and a guinea pig for them to practice on.
       
         Next, research the organization or association that your trainer is certified through. A simple Google search will do the trick. Many certifications simply require CPR/AED & first aid training, a high school diploma, and a written test that takes a couple hours tops to finish, some you can even take online. All this proves is that they happened to memorize a majority of the manual that is paired with that particular certification. If you can be tested on everything you know on how to properly train a client in a couple hours, then you don’t know enough. I’m not saying that no one with these certifications is qualified, but don’t hesitate to look into it what OTHER, more worthwhile certifications they may have. Often times, it’s good to have certifications like these as a supplement to a trainer’s other education (bachelors/masters degrees, internships) but the certification alone makes for a questionable coach. Look for nationally accredited certifications that take more than a quick memorization of a manual to earn and include a hands-on skills test with their written exam.

        Bottom line, look into a personal trainer’s education, experience, and certification before jumping into a training session with them – not only to get your money’s worth but also for your safety. Certified does not always mean qualified.