by BDurfee

Created on: December 12, 2006   Last Updated: April 18, 2007

I am a member of an online diet community which serves as a great tool for me. It counts my calories, tracks my weight and food intake, tracks nutrition, and can even set up a menu for me. However, the most important area for me are the discussion forums. That's where I have a group of people who support me and who I can support. It makes a huge difference.

I told them about getting a personal trainer to help me with my workouts because nothing else seemed to be working very well. Granted, I was losing weight a little at a time, but during high stress / long work hour weeks, it was hard to get myself to the gym, hard to make myself eat right, etc. With a trainer, I have someone else to worry about the regimen. All I have to do is be there on time. And since I'm paying for the sessions, I'm not gonna miss 'cause that's like throwing money away.

One of the members said that they might get a trainer soon which got me to thinking. There is a lot to selecting a good trainer. However, if you are new to having a personal trainer, here's some suggestions for you in no particular order.

1. Different trainers have different personalities. Don't be afraid to try more than one to find out what type of trainer works best for your personality type. I have a Type A personality, so I need a trainer who is a real go-getter who isn't afraid to go "head-to-head" with me and push me. They need to be friendly, enjoy talking, but their primary focus needs to be to push me beyond what I think I can do to achieve more than I think than I can achieve. That's me. However, other people are more laid back and prefer training that includes a lot of nice encouraging words. It all comes down to finding a trainer who has the personality and training style that matches what you need.

2. Remember that you are paying them. You are paying them for their expertise, attention, and planning your workouts to achieve your goals. If they are not working you hard enough, are talking to other people during your sessions, or are not putting together a real program for you, go on to someone else. Their job as trainer is to put together an exercise program that will help you achieve your fitness goals (provided you do what they say) and keep the program updated and changing to match your own fitness changes.

3. Before you ever start your first session, your trainer should sit down with you and discuss your goals and what you want to achieve. During this meeting, you should be free to ask any questions and tell

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