how to become a certified personal trainer

How to choose a personal trainer

The right trainer will work with you to achieve your goals

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Whatever your goals when you're working out, a personal trainer can give you the guidance and support you need to get there. Whether you want to lose weight, build muscle, run a marathon, set a new personal record or just improve your overall fitness, the right trainer can help you achieve it, factoring in your personal lifestyle, time commitments and needs.

We spoke to Tommy Owen, head of personal training at Starks Fitness, to find out how you should go about finding a personal trainer, and the questions you should ask to find the right one for you.

Where's the best place to find a personal trainer?

The obvious route is to jump on to social media and start to look at coaches that work in a local gym to start checking them out to see what they do. The next route would be to head to the gyms website to see the coaches that they have on offer.

What are the most important things to look for when choosing a personal trainer

Results! Its that simple! Never look to work with a coach based on the way they look, as their goals are sometimes different to the goals that you want to achieve. When picking a coach almost treat it as a interview and have at least three in the running.

How can you get the most out of your PT sessions?

Ask question after question! Listen to the coach if they think you can add more weight or do one more rep then take it on board. You are investing you time and money in the coach so make them work for it.

Is there any other advice you can offer someone thinking of working with a personal trainer?

Don't be cheap! As the old saying goes buy cheap buy twice! Look to invest in the coach as they always invest in their learnings to achieve the best results for their clients.

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Cat Ellis (@CatEllisTech) is the fitness and wellbeing editor at TechRadar. She's been a technology journalist for 11 years, and cut her teeth on magazines including PC Plus and PC Format before joining TechRadar. She's a trained run leader, and enjoys nothing more than lacing up her shoes and hitting the pavement. If you have a story about fitness trackers, treadmills, running shoes, e-bikes, or any other fitness tech, drop her a line at catherine.ellis@futurenet.com.