How to choose the best Personal Trainer?

Regardless of whether you want to lose weight or gain muscle mass, whether you want to change your lifestyle and acquire healthier habits or invest in an exercise routine that maximizes your performance in any sport… there is no way around it!

You should look for the best Personal Trainer, just as you already look for the best ophthalmologist, orthopedist, physiatrist, psychologist or dentist. And for that, you should know the main factors to take into account when choosing a really qualified professional to take care of your health and well-being. 

How to choose the best Personal Trainer?

Trial and error? No way!

As in any other selection process in a market with such a vast offer, the best way to arrive at the ideal Personal Trainer is by excluding parts, following this step by step: 

1. Zone

Unless you are interested in the best Personal Trainer online, you should start your search on the Internet or from your acquaintances, gathering only references from PTs who work in your area.You can go to Google and search for “Personal Trainer Vilamoura”, “Personal Trainer Faro”, “Personal Trainer Quarteira” or “best Personal Trainer Algarve”, for example. Now what you can't do is get excited about a professional who works 200 km away and is not available (nor willing) to travel to the area where you live. 

2. Curriculum

As you know, nobody becomes a PT overnight, which is why you should ask for curriculum information from the range of professionals you gather in the first stage of this step-by-step guide.

Although the work of a Personal Trainer is not legally regulated in Portugal, in order to exercise their profession, PT must have a degree in Physical Education or a similar course in the area, and a license from the Regional Council of Physical Education in their region, specific for modality.

3. Methodology

Now that you've managed to make a choice based on the curriculum, it's time to talk about the methodology or work method that the supposedly best Personal Trainer will use during training, to see if it fits your goals and needs.

For example, if you want to gain muscle mass, you should hire a PT who is also knowledgeable about nutrition for a complete hypertrophy workout. 

4. Experience

In addition to the methodology, experience is fundamental and marks the difference between a recently graduated Personal Trainer - with a lot of desire to work, but little capacity to adapt training to the specific needs of the clients - and an experienced Personal Trainer capable of helping quickly achieve the expected results.

Of course, the number of training hours is not synonymous with quality, but it is also true that the more experienced the PT is, the more times he had be wrong, correct and perfect techniques with other people.

Therefore, it has more capacity to guide you towards your training goals. Therefore, if you don't have any reference from a family member or friend, it's best to continue your triage, separating the experienced PTs from the inexperienced ones, agreed?

5. Update

Did you find half a dozen experienced professionals in your area of ​​residence? Perfect, then check if during all these years of training, the PTs updated their curriculum, that is, they invested in training in their area, took additional courses and participated in events to improve techniques and expand their area of ​​knowledge. 

6. References

Now that you have a list of 3 or 4 experienced Personal Trainers with a good working method, you should seek to know the opinion of your students, namely through testimonials from clients published on the website or on social networks.It is clear that even if you manage to talk to some of these students, you run the risk of finding people who will recommend the PT based on affinity and not on the result of the training, which is why you will have to question them about the method, punctuality, kindness and to the price that PT charges for each training session. 

7. Experimental class

Are you in doubt between two Personal Trainers that seem extremely professional to you? Take the test with a trial class to evaluate the work before hiring the services. It's true that in this experimental class, both PTs will go all out to show their competence, but in an hour of work, you have more than enough time to figure out which one best fits your goals. 

8. Availability

Take advantage of the experimental class to also ask about the availability of the Personal Trainers, don't worry that you can only train in the morning and the professionals already have that schedule filled. 

9. Price

In addition to availability, ask about pricing. It is true that your health and well-being is priceless, but the price per hour must be within the average practiced in the market, it being natural that it be slightly higher in the case of an experienced, reputable PT with training in various specialties or modalities.

How much does a Personal Trainer cost on average? Between 20€ and 70€ per hour, depending on the location of training, frequency of training, equipment and materials, individual or group classes, specializations, etc.

Where to find the best Personal Trainer in the Algarve?Did you like this step by step, but do you prefer to shorten the path? No problem! If you're looking for the best Personal Trainer in the Algarve, you've come to the right place! The Graduated Personal Trainer Rui Madeira has a master's degree in Physical Education and Sports, a postgraduate degree in Functional Training and international certification in Club Manager. In addition to being a Physical Education teacher, he is a specialist in sports for the elderly, bodybuilding and cardio-fitness instructor and physical trainer at the Golf - Holmes Place Training Academy. Interested? Just click here and get in touch!