10 Essentials for an Effective Personal Trainer

A great personal trainer will help you improve your health, burn fat, and build muscle without injuries. They’ll supervise you throughout each workout, correct every mistake, and create sensible programs that’ll avoid plateaus and develop good movement abilities.

Yet for every good fitness coach, there are many poor coaches that will limit your progress, confuse you, and even cause serious injuries. Worse, because you might initially see some fat loss or muscle gain, you might start thinking they’re better than they really are. So what’s the best way to tell if your trainer is a dud or stud?

Here are the 10 things that separate the good fitness coaches from the mediocre. Check with your trainer to see how he or she measures up to our list—if you have a great trainer, chances are they’ll enjoy your questions and happily elaborate on what they do. 

Anyone can beat you with exercises and make you sore, but it takes an intelligent professional to build a program that plans ahead; develops aspects of fitness like strength, conditioning, and mobility; and gets people great results, safely. A good trainer will already know what they want you to accomplish this week, next week, and even as far as next month as well as the exact steps to get there. 

A great personal trainer will analyze your body and abilities before designing you a program because your assessment reveals your capabilities. Things like a movement screen or postural assessment detect your weak links and problem areas so that a trainer can build a program that (1) addresses those issues and (2) uses the appropriate exercises for your current level. 

Every client is different with a unique goal, movement ability, and training history. Thus, a smart trainer crafts each program to meet their client’s specific needs. For example, a client with significant knee pain will get lower-body exercises that minimize knee bend and target the posterior chain.

Poor trainers, however, give inappropriate exercises. For example, they’ll give an obese client dozens of box jumps and burpees, which will crush their joints, or they’ll give all their clients the same workout, which will limit some and hurt others.

In the short-term, their client might lose some weight; in the long-term, however, they’re risking lousy results and a serious injury. Unfortunately, it’s tough for novices to know what exercises are appropriate—in this situation, get a second opinion from a respected fitness coach. 

As the old cliché goes: “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.” A great personal trainer will always learn and improve no matter how long they’ve trained. They’ll immerse themselves in the latest fitness literature (perhaps this article as well), read studies, watch DVDs, and attend hands-on seminars where they can learn more about new exercises, techniques, and philosophies. Heck, the best trainers will grab lunch with other coaches and discuss fitness and anatomy. But what if your trainer doesn’t read fitness books or attend events?

That means you have a mediocre trainer. And if you’re spending $100 per session (or more), why settle for mediocre? Always ask your trainer what they’re currently reading or studying in the fitness industry—if they answer with silence and a perplexed look, that’s a red flag. 

No cell phones, no side conversations, and no staring at other guys or gals—great trainers are focused on you. They’re watching every rep, making sure you drink enough water, and even giving you extra rest when you need it. They’re standing and pacing around you when you exercise to see your technique from every angle.

That’s their responsibility. 

Good trainers have a library of cues for every single exercise. But good cues go beyond barking obvious commands like “breathe!” or “stay tall!”—a great trainer also knows how to manually position your body, cue the minute details, and even use tools like bands and tape to create the right mechanics. 

A personal trainer needs to be in good shape. Sure, they don’t need to look like a Greek god, they certainly need to “walk the talk” and possess a good amount of strength, muscle, conditioning, movement abilities, and leanness—in other words, they need to look like they workout.

A lot of trainers, however, look like they never lift weights or eat a ton of junk food. If they struggle with their own body fat, repeatedly get injured, or can’t demonstrate the exercises correctly, they’re a dud. 

Be wary of the trainer who gives you a treadmill warmup: chances are they’re either lazy or don’t know any better. Instead, a great trainer will give you a smart dynamic warmup filled with movements to increase the mobility of common problem areas (shoulders, hips, ankles, etc.), activate chronically weak muscles (glutes, shoulder stabilizers, etc.), and prime your nervous system to lift weight and move efficiently.

Usually, if they can design a good warmup, they can design a good program, too. 

On the days you’re feeling sick or tired, a good trainer will alter the program. You’ll still get a great workout, but perhaps they’ll reduce the intensity, increase your rest period, or change the exercises.

A bad trainer, however, doesn’t understand or care—they’ll continue to push you despite your ailments. Worse, if you get injured, they might even insist you “push through the pain,” which will only worsen the issue. 

Avoid trainers who think they can cure injuries and ailments themselves—they’re especially dangerous because although they have great intentions, they lack the knowledge as well as the legal qualifications to diagnose and correct problems.

If you’re sick, a great trainer will never recommend anything more than rest and fluids; if you’re tired, they’ll never suggest you drink a slew of supplements; and, if you’re hurt, they’ll never try to diagnose your injury.