This is a surprisingly tricky question to answer as the health and fitness industry is notoriously unregulated. This means that there is a massive difference in the quality of training that you could receive when you use the services of a St Albans personal trainer personal trainer.
It used to be that it would take a long time to become qualified in a way that allowed you to get the insurance necessary to personally train clients in a one to one, small group or bootcamp setting. Courses would be full time and take months to complete, with exams that actually tested you on anatomy and physiology, as well as how to train clients and get results. The leader of this type of course was probably Premier Global.
Over the years there has been an increase in training providers entering the health and fitness space, driving down the costs and barrier to entry. Whilst at the same time shortening the length of time it takes to become qualified. It is now possible to become qualified in two weekends.
What Does This Mean For You?
This devaluing of the initial course that is needed to become a personal trainer, means that you cannot rely on these courses as your deciding factor when choosing a personal trainer. The ability for a trainer to get insurance (www.exerciseregister.org is one of the most popular) is now the most basic of requirements.
Your personal trainer/bootcamp instructor must show that they have taken, what they have learnt in their initial personal training course, and continued to add knowledge to it daily. Whether that be by taking extra courses of which there are plenty (www.Poliquingroup.com have some excellent ones). Or as is the case at The DVCC by going through a very strong internal education process.
At The DVCC all team members go through 200 hours of continued education every year, taking quarterly exams on all aspects of nutrition, training and behavior change.
A quick and easy question you could ask your potential trainer is “what book are you reading at the moment?” and if they say “Lord Of The Rings" and don’t mention anything to do with exercise or nutrition you know that trainer or organization is not going to be able to give you the level of service that you deserve.
