by R. Renee Bembry

Created on: April 10, 2009

What you get from a personal trainer may be directly related to how much you pay for a trainer and where your trainer works. For these reasons, knowing what to look for in a personal trainer can help you decide whom to choose and how much you are willing to spend.

Becoming a personal trainer doesn't require much training. The training is so minuscule, in fact, most people could probably train to become their own personal trainers. This is because acquiring personal trainer certification can be accomplished simply by paying fees or taking short online courses.

Inadequately informed personal trainers could cause clients to engage in exercise routines that are harmful to their well being. This is because the "trainers" may not know that certain physical conditions should be treated with certain types of exercises to aid in improving those conditions or preventing said conditions from worsening.

As far as credentials go, the National Strength Conditioning Association, the American College of Sports Medicine, the National Academy of Sports Medicine, the American Council on Exercise, and the Aerobics and fitness Association of America certification organizations are positioned to supply adequate credentials. Of these five groups, the American College of Sports Medicine insists potential trainers attain Associates Degrees before certifying them.

When seeking a personal trainer, clients-to-be should interview potential prospects and find out what credentials, if any, they have. If the prospects cannot show proof of credentials, clients-to-be may want to move on to other prospects. In addition to any certificates prospects are able to produce clients-to-be should require prospects to have credentials in physical education, sports medicine, or some other fitness related program.

Another thing about training certificates is that they don't all mean the same thing. There is no "standard" for training certificates. Twelve trainers working in one location could have certificates meaning they are supposedly qualified for twelve different degrees or aspects or whatever one wants to label it training abilities. For this reason an agency called International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association is trying to put together a system in which the five previously mentioned certification companies can work with the National Organization for Competency Assurance to begin resolving this problem.

In the mean time, however, people want or need personal trainers; and there are good reasons

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