the Cost of Multiple Personal Training Sessions

The price is for one month's membership (no annual contract available) at a local athletic-performance focused barbell/freeweight type gym with unlimited use of their scheduled group personal training (no more than 10 people per trainer, every trainer of the dozen or so trainers who work there, more or less, runs a class at some point during each day), full use of the facilities, as well as individual nutritional consultation. The trainers are well able to

A day's use of the gym's facilities or a group workout costs $15 without the monthly membership. Individual personal training is also available at a price that varies depending on the demand on the trainer's time ($40-$80 for an hour is usually the range).

The gym also hosts one or two multi-day clinics with focused exercise technique instruction, nutritional seminars, sports clinics, etc. Attendance is at extra costs. These tend to be held once a month on weekends and close the gym to people not registered to the clinic.

It's completely unlike any other gym I've been to. Rather than spending gobs of money on a commercially-obvious location and a bunch of very expensive machines, the gym is located in a medium-small building -- maybe 2000 square feet -- in an industrial park (cheap lease); loads it with barbells, olympic lifting platforms, climbing ropes, pull-up bars, and some gymnastics equipment (all cheap compared to a full set of machines). Instead they spend all their money on quality trainers and continued education for the trainers -- several of whom are grad students in various physiology, nutrition, and biochemistry disciplines.

I'd have to say I'm completely happy with the service. I've gotten leaner and stronger and feel more coordinated since I started working out. The trainers are varied in their teaching styles and experience, and though none is perfect at everything, they are all at least proficient at what they teach.

Being skinny isn't a guarantee someone is a good personal trainer, nor is being very strong, or even being a capable athlete. I've heard it said that the people who make the best personal trainers are the genetically untalented with moderate athletic accomplishment, because they've had to learn how to work both smart and hard.

Finding a competent personal trainer is a bit of a pain as certifications are a bit of a crap shoot. The CSCS certification, which used to be the gold standard, has shifted its focus from athletic performance to physical therapy and rehabilitation. The NSCA remains a decent certification, though they focus on the physiology of pure strength training, rather than general athletic performance. A USAW cert is a sport-specific coaching certification for Olympic weightlifting, and one that isn't commonly seen at most commercial health and fitness clubs. Other certs are pretty much nonsense that exchange a title for a few dollars and a few hours of classroom time (if any).

I've heard the quality of the professional journal the certifying organization publishes to be the "ultimate" test of the quality of the certification. If the journal contains peer-reviewed scientific research on athletic performance, great. If it contains the latest company news and vague fitness tips, or doesn't even exist, beware.

Now, aside from the usual professionalism of being polite, enthusiastic -- or at least not bored or condescending -- and on time, a decent personal trainer will offer a free trial session -- it shows confidence in their own competence. Use that to judge the trainer. If they spend time teaching you the basic barbell movements (full squat, deadlift, bench press, overhead press; or their remedial versions only if you lack full range of motion) and maybe go over the rudiments of Olympic lifting technique, excellent. If they discourage you from watching your form in a mirror while you exercise, good, because if you're watching yourself, you're not using correct form. Bonus if they talk about good nutrition in terms of lots of vegetables, plenty of meat, some fruit, and limited refined sugars and starches and other processed food.

If the trainer insists on spending a lot of time trying to teach you exercises on artificially-unstable surfaces like exercise balls, or hyper-stable exercise machines, run away. Do the same if the trainer sets up a hyper complicated workout program for you when you're just starting out, or insists that you change programs frequently for the sake of "freshness" (a program should continue to be used until it stops producing results like strength gains). Do the same if the trainer tries to sell you on joining the gym (especially if they insist you meet them at a specific gym) or pushes supplements (any at all, but especially those they sell at that gym) on you, both suggest the trainer isn't a trainer, but the gym's salesperson in disguise.