The other day…whilst I warmed up in the gym I overheard two ladies moaning about the effectiveness of personal trainers. The main gist of the conversation was that paying for a personal trainer was a HUMONGOUS expense and a waste of money! 

The conversation got me thinking and inspired me to write this post…

Are Personal Trainers A Waste Of Money???

Some of the best investments i’ve made in my life have been working with private coaches. Paying experts has inspired me to make positive changes to my fitness, life and business. The knowledge i’ve acquired has been invaluable.

On the flip side i’ve also wasted a lot of money, and been left disappointed with my return on investment. Although I believe that some of my bad experiences can be blamed on the coach, I also have to be 100% honest with myself and accept that actually most of the time it was my fault!

Typically my shortcomings were down to me – I didn’t put in the work! I didn’t follow the plan! I didn’t do my research on the coach! It’s a tough pill to swallow as it’s much easier to blame others instead of looking deeply within ourselves.

As you can see hiring an expert can be life changing, but it can also be a total waste. I’d like to help you make the right decision by looking at both sides of the coin, looking at the pro’s and con’s of hiring a personal trainer…

Pro’s of Hiring A Personal Trainer

• You have access to an expert, a qualified professional who can help you learn and progress much more quickly than doing it alone.
• A personal trainer will help you stay on track and keep you motivated.
• When you invest a lot of money into something you are more likely to commit.

Con’s of Hiring A Personal Trainer

• Regardless of how good the coach is, it’s you who has to put in the work.
• You will have to spend time outside of your PT sessions training and practicing.
• A personal trainer is a financial commitment.
• You will have to make changes to your lifestyle, diet, and daily habits.

You Get What You Pay For…

I’ll be the first to admit that i’ve hired coaches in the past based on low price alone. After all, not many of us have the luxury of bringing home a footballers salary of £20,000+ per week!

Most of us have a budget and know what we can afford and that’s fine. That said from my experience… YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! Whenever i’ve tried to cut corners… it’s come around to bite me on the butt!

You may be able to hire a personal trainer for £15 per hour. At the other end of the spectrum you could also pay much more (£40-£100+ per session). You may be able to buy more sessions with a cheaper personal trainer, however the likelihood is that the quality, level of service and overall results are going to be much lower.

In my opinion it would be much better to pay £600 for 10 sessions (£60 per session) with a high quality personal trainer than it would to pay £600 for 40 sessions (£15 per session) with a low quality trainer.

Be Willing To Learn, and Commit to Change…

When hiring a personal trainer it’s important that you are open to learning and willing to change your lifestyle and habits to make progress. The clients that get the best results are the one’s who are constantly practicing, applying, listening, those who ask questions, read up outside of sessions and those who make a commitment to do whatever it takes.

Put In The Work…

Even if you train with your coach 3x per week, for 1 hr each session (3hrs in total per week), there are still 165hrs of the week left! You have to be willing to workout in the gym, or complete workouts at home outside of your personal training sessions.

It’s no use hiring a good coach for 3 days per week but then eating loads of cr*p and not working out for the rest of the week! This would be financial suicide and you’d be better throwing your money down the drain!

Nothing beats hard work and commitment, if you combine that with a great coaches expertise then you’ll create a winning concoction and be on the road to success in no time.

Make-sure you are 100% committed before hiring a coach, there are many advantages but unfortunately there’s no such thing as a magic wand…

YOU HAVE TO PUT IN THE HARD WORK!

If you are willing to do this then hiring a personal trainer could be one of the best investments you’ll ever make, but if you aren’t…. then don’t waste your money!

Nick