Five very important questions to ask your trainer
1. ‘’How will you help me achieve my goals?’’
When you first make the big decision of hiring a trainer, you must have a plan and a few goals in mind. You must be able to share them with your trainer and he or she must have a game plan to get you there.
2. ‘’Do you have some type of screening tests or evaluation to establish my physical and nutritional condition?’’
To know where you are going, you must know the starting point, your actual condition at this very moment.
3. ‘’Will you measure my progress and how?’’
One of the biggest mistakes I see from trainers is that they fail to measure progress regularly. By regularly, I mean every 4 weeks at least. The only way to figure out if you are on the right track and if the plan is getting results is to measure progress. Don’t wait until the session is done to see if it worked.
4. ‘’I have about 6 months to reach my goal, do you have some type of periodization model over the next 6 months?’’
This goes back to measuring progress. They could have the best plan in the world, but it doesn’t mean that it will work. A good trainer will have a plan, he or she should know how the next 6 months will look like, but they must be prepared to adapt. No one lives in the perfect environment. They should have the general outlines and be able to explain them to you, but they should also be prepared for all eventualities. That’s what good trainers do.
5. ‘’What is the purpose of each exercise and why are we doing it?”
If you can’t explain it simply, you can’t understand it. Being able to simplify or to explain exercises and principles in a simple matter is important for a trainer. If you can’t understand what he or she is talking about, your trainer might be failing to do the job.
It has been proven time and time again that when you understand what you are doing as well as the reasons why, you have the edge and you will succeed. So, as a trainer, making your clients understand is of the utmost importance if you want them to achieve their goals.
Coach Eric
