I think this is a well written article by Dr. Jim Bell on “What To Look For When Hiring A Personal Trainer:”

When you go shopping for food you have a pretty good idea of what you want to buy. You have years and/or decades of experience on what you like, your favorite brands, where you like to shop, when you like to shop, what quantities you want to buy, even how much youll pay for a particular product. What Im going to attempt to do in the space available is try to give you the knowledge to answer the same: who, what, where, when, why, how and how much questions you should have when shopping for a Personal Fitness Trainer (PFT).

The first question people have is always about certification. There are three certifications you should look for in a professional Personal Fitness Trainer. First Aid, Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and a certification from a reputable certification body. These three certification do not necessarily mean the PFT is a great trainer, but they do indicate a satisfactory level of professionalism, that the PFT meets the minimum requirements to be hired by a gym and get liability insurance and that they have met the competency requirements of the certifying body for the performance of their profession.

Since certification bodies differ greatly in testing standards the following information can be used as a guideline for the certification that best fits your needs.

ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) Is specifically designed to help people who have had cardiac-events: heart attack, stroke, etcThe ACSMs governing body are accomplished doctors and exercise physiologists that have put together a rigorous testing protocol to insure that PFT has successfully completed this demanding program and can handle heart patients safely and effectively.

AEA (Aquatic Exercise Association) is specifically designed to train fitness professionals to train people in swimming pools.

NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) is designed for professional and elite amateur strength and conditioning coaches. The training requirements for professional elite level athletes are extremely demanding. The training programs and techniques of NSCA are designed to help these athletes maximize their potential utilizing maximum intensity.

IFPA (International Fitness Professionals Association) is designed for the relatively healthy (no major medical problems or controlled medical problems) children, adults and seniors to achieve their fitness goals. The IFPA PFT is educated to train people safely and effectively. Keep in mind that children and seniors have specific needs beyond that of healthy adults. Therefore the IFPA recommends when an IFPA-PFT is training children and/or seniors that they have additional specialized certifications (Certified Youth Fitness Instructors or Certified Senior Fitness Instructor) Additional information on this and other specialized needs can be found here.

After certifications you should look closely at the PFTs personality. Is this someone you like? You are going to be working together closely, for quite sometime on a very intimate project Your Body! It helps to like the person you are planning to hire to get the job done. Do you trust them? Are they friendly, professional, polite, firm yet fair, customer oriented, sincere, etc.? Do you comfortable around them? Are they open and honest? Do they have character and integrity? Are they articulate? Do you have a sense they can teach? Do they appear to like people? Like you? Are they fit (it is very difficult for most people to work their buns-off for someone whos in worse shape than they are? Do they smoke (yes you might be a smoker yourself, but do you want that in a Fitness Professional)?

Next ask some questions on a professional level about what you can expect from the PFTs program.

How do we begin? The PFT should describe an information gathering session that include a medical history and health questionnaire (the IFPA has standard forms for this purpose). This is critically important. Many IFPA-PFTs have uncovered severe health problems that have sent people quickly to their doctor for life-saving treatment! DO NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO SKIP THIS STEP!

Equally important in the information gathering step is a Fitness Assessment. Any problems missed on the Medical History will be uncovered during the Fitness Assessment. IFPA-PFTs look at all 10 components of fitness (strength, speed, power, anaerobic endurance, aerobic endurance, balance, agility, coordination, flexibility and body composition).

All 10 components are important but the cardio-vascular testing (aerobic endurance) is essential.

Next the PFT should go through a thorough interview to determine your exacts goals and needs for customizing your training program.

After all information has been gathered the PFT should now design a program and exercise prescription to ensure you achieve your goals in a timely manner.

Query your potential PFT on how they handle Periodization (vary the program: exercise, sets, resps, training volume and intensity, number of training session and types of training programs (there are well over 50: super sets, giant sets, pyramids, super slow, etc).

Biomechanics (the safe way to perform exercises) the emergency plan (accidents do happen) and how much is he insured for and what does his insurance cover.

Last, but certainly not least is how much will it cost? This varies greatly across the USA and the world for that matter. The best way to determine a fair price is to do what any of us do, when considering a major purchase Shop around. Plan on getting 3 5 bids from 3 5 different PFTs, but dont forget: quality matters! You would not pick a heart surgeon for your spouse based on the cheapest bid would you (well maybe you would, but you get the message, you are looking for VALUE if you can determine the best PFT is charging the most then that is probably fair-value.