Reasons to Hire an Online Personal Trainer & What to Consider When Selecting Your Trainer

There are many reasons why working with a personal trainer may benefit you. From starting out exercising, to wanting to lose weight, we highlight some of the main reasons to hire a coach here.

You’re starting out

A trainer can help assess your goals, identify what type of exercise may suit you best, create an achievable plan given your goals, schedule and interests, and teach you how to weight train and do the exercises.

You want to learn to exercise at home

Even if your goal is to workout alone, a personal trainer can help set you up so you’re more likely to achieve your goals. They can teach you how to weight train, tell you what equipment to get, give you specific exercises that are suitable for your home gym, show you exercise that can target specific muscles, keep you accountable and be an available resource when questions arise.

You want to lose weight

Losing weight can be hard, especially as you get older. Trainers can come up with very specific weight training plans and diets, keep you accountable and motivated, which will in turn ensure you are better placed to achieve your goals.

You’re training for a sporting event like a marathon

Running a marathon or participating in a new sporting even for the first time can be overwhelming. Trainers can tell you the right exercises to do to train, help you come up with an achievable training schedule and diet, avoid injury in training and on the big day, and provide a stretching plan.

You have a specific illness or condition

Experienced trainers will know what exercises to do given the constraints of your condition or illness and also guide you on whether you should push through the pain or take it easy. Make sure to check with your doctor whether you can exercise or not and check if the trainer has dealt with the specific condition or illness.

Some examples of things your trainer can help with:

• Helping you overcome back or neck pain

• Exercising with adrenal fatigue

• Plan for if you’re pregnant or trying to get pregnant

You’re not seeing results

A good trainer can do the following things:

• Teach you how to lift weights effectively: People often focus on cardio to lose weight, but you need strength and core training as well. Trainers can teach you how to lift weights and do other core training effectively.

• Look at your existing exercise program and find ways to adjust your workouts to make them more effective or introduce new ones that are better suited for the purpose

• Push you: In a lot of cases, people don't see results because they're not working hard enough. Having someone around to challenge you will likely help ensure you work harder.

• Examine your goals: They can have a thorough look at your goals and help determine if they are achievable.

• Hold you accountable: They will likely set monthly and weekly goals and consistently check in to see how you're doing against the set goals.

• Keep you motivated: Knowing you have weekly appointments will help you stay on track. You’re less likely to skip a workout when you’ve committed to an appointment.

What to look for when selecting a trainer

With the increasing number of people looking to get fit, lose weight, and manage stress, the number of personal trainers has grown to match the demand. As a result, there are a lot of average coaches out there, so it’s important to find the best one for you. At Wonder Source, we vet all our coaches to ensure they have the right credentials, they are positive, passionate, motivated, and knowledgeable and we feel they are well placed to add value to our community. We think all our trainers are great, but our rating system helps to ensure that there is accountability and our trainers are working to provide the best service.

Look for the following credentials and qualities when selecting a personal trainer:

• Qualifications and certifications: A personal trainer should be certified through a reputable personal training organization, such as ACSM, ACE, IDEA, YMCA, or NSCA. Your trainer should also be certified in CPR and/or first aid.

• Business policies: The trainer should have liability insurance and provide a copy of policies and procedures for services, costs, cancellations, and refunds (at Wonder Source they comply with our business policies).

• Success: Make sure your trainer has experience, especially in relation to your goals. For example, if you're planning to run a marathon a trainer with prior experience in that area would be beneficial.

• Specific conditions: If you have a specific medical problem, injury or condition (such as being pregnant, difficulty getting pregnant, heart problems, diabetes, etc.) check if your trainer has education in these areas and can work with your doctor.

• Structured program with progress tracking: A good trainer will regularly assess your progress and adjust the plan as you go if necessary.

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