How to choose a personal trainer, and what personal training should include
Choose a personal trainer on seven things: whether the plan starts with a real intake, who writes the program, how often somebody reads your numbers, what happens when something hurts, whether food is part of it, what the price includes, and how you leave. Credentials come after all of that. Here is how I answer each one, so you can hold anyone else to the same list.
Part of personal training with Sam, online from $149 and in person in Morton Grove from $68. Prices and how to start, or call or text (847) 387-0244.
Does it start with an intake?
Health history, injuries, equipment, schedule, the food you actually eat. If a trainer starts you on a workout before asking those, the program cannot have been built for you. Mine starts with a ten-minute application and a health screen, and a yes on the screen does not disqualify you; it tells me what to work around.
Who writes the program, and does it change?
The coach should write it and the coach should change it, one or two things at a time, when your life changes. A plan that looks the same in week nine as it did in week one has stopped being coaching. Every exercise on mine links to an animated form guide so you can check the movement at home.
How often does somebody read your numbers?
Weekly, if you are paying monthly. That is the whole reason Monthly Coaching costs more than a one-time plan: someone is looking at what you did, and what you skipped, every week. Ask a trainer what happens between sessions. If the answer is nothing, you are buying hours, not coaching.
What happens when something hurts?
The plan works around it, never through it, and pain that does not settle goes to a professional. A trainer who says push through is a trainer to leave. None of us are doctors, and the good ones say so on the first day.
Ask what happened the last time a client turned up hurt. The answer tells you everything about the next six months.
Is food part of it?
It should be, and it should not be a meal plan handed down. Real food first, a protein target you can hit, label literacy over brand names. And no dosing of anything, ever. The nutrition coaching page explains how that runs inside every plan.
What does the price include, and how do you leave?
$149 once for the Custom Plan, $199 a month for coaching, $68 a session in person in Morton Grove. No sign-up fee, no contract, cancel from the subscription any time. The full list is in how much personal training costs. If a price needs a phone call to find out, that is an answer too.
Then the credentials, briefly: coaching since 2003, more than a thousand people, most of it on commercial gym floors. That is where the judgement comes from, but judge the intake first. Compare the cheaper routes in personal training against apps, then use the application. The personal training page has the three ways in.
Common questions
Online or in person, which should I choose first?
In person for the first block if you are near Morton Grove and new to the barbell. Online if you already move well, or if the drive would be the reason you quit.
How long before I know whether a trainer is working?
Give it eight weeks with the sessions actually done. The lifts should be moving and the plan should have changed at least once. If neither happened, ask why.
Should I pick the cheapest?
Pick the one whose answers to the questions above you liked. Then check that the price includes the intake and the follow-up. Cheap hours with no program are the most expensive kind.