The beauty of a personal training session is that it’s just that, ‘personal’. Forget cookie cutter workouts and generic exercise plans: what better way to get fit than have your very own fitness guru at hand? With this type of workout gaining popularity, the number of Personal Trainers has increased. What you need to ensure is that the care, attention and exercise expertise you’re paying for is being targeted toward you and your needs, rather than diluted in sessions that purport to be personal but are in fact anything but.

A Personal Trainer should be able to get you to where you want to be, fitness-wise, more quickly and effectively, than you might otherwise be able to do alone or as part of a general class. It’s this efficiency that has made many people do the math and understand that hiring a Personal Trainer, while seemingly more expensive than joining a fitness class, can actually be a money-saver. Personalised sessions also help you to save time by fitting around your timetable.

To ensure your PT is giving you the right level of personal attention in your fitness plan, use this list to check you’re getting what you’re supposed to be:

1. Initial assessment: While a Personal Trainer might be able to take one look at you and make some assumptions from looking at your body and chatting to you about your fitness routines, this is not the same as an assessment. The less thorough an initial analysis is, means the less personal a fitness plan will turn out to be. A Personal Trainer has to know who you are right from the get-go.
2. Customized workout plan: If a Personal Trainer is a little vague about why certain exercises and regimes are part of your fitness plan, then you need to question this. There is certainly a crossover with what people need to get them fit. So trainers may introduce you to a tried and tested fitness formula that is balanced and used by others. However, if you feel that a generic exercise plan is being thrown in your direction without any personal input on the part of the trainer,  then you might not be getting the customized care you are paying for. .
3. Holistic approach: Fitness isn’t just about exercise, but other lifestyle factors too, including your diet and nutrition. A Personal Trainer cannot really offer personal training if they don’t take a wider, holistic approach, assessing you as a whole person. Fitness needs focus but if a trainer zones in and blanks out other important health and fitness indicators, then this could make your road to a fitter you that much longer.
4. Understanding what you want: An experienced Personal Trainer should be able to assess you and work out what you need to improve your fitness levels. They can decide  whether you need to work on your body shape and size. However, while fitness is an objective assessment, how you want to improve yourself is a personal one. You might not yearn to be body beautiful or to create the perfect abs, but you might want to tone what you see as flabby thighs and wobbly arm muscles.

Find out in the second part of this article other ways to ensure you are getting personalized personal training, and not a generalized fit-all plan of action instead.