Is there a need for personal trainer?
These days personal training is a big business and is not just for top level athletes. Many people start training by fist buying a some sort of personall trainer service, was it either included with their gym membership or just finds one by theirselves. Does a everyday trainer really need a personal trainer? Yes and no. When somebody who knows nothing about exercising starts going to gym, then good odds are that this person is totally lost what to do when going to gym first time. In this case, it would be nice if a personal trainer where there to help and see if exercises are executed correctly and making a workout program. Then again, if you have a friend who knows something about exercising, the you would get the same results with small advices from your friend and this wouldn’t even cost a thing. The same thing can be done with your workout, a normal personal trainer don’t know any secrets that your friend wouldn’t know.
So, who is the personal trainers for? For busy people or those who don’t want to find out things by theirselves. Everything you need to know to make out a great workout program for yourself can be found from the internet. Some study found out that women with personal trainers have 11-16% more strength than those who don’t have one. Don’t know much about that study and how reliable it is, but there is one answer which migth explain this difference: workout program and how strictly it is followed. Since results come from good workout programs and heavy workouts, it might be that when someone is watching or following how you are doing with your exercises motivates you to work harder. Definetly for regular exerciser there is no need for PT, read exercising information from internet and ask from your friends who know about fitness and you have got information enought to do your own good workout program.
If you still want to have a personal trainer and think what are the criterias for one to be a good PT. I would say the body is one good sign of how good a PT is. If a personal trainer has much less muscle mass than some regular experienced gym go’er and he is going to make a workout program for you, you might ask your self whether he is reliable or not, the information from the books doesn’t make up for experience from first hand knowledge of weightlifting.