What is the difference in hiring a trainer with limited experience & a trainer with lots of experience?
Philosophy or approach to their training programs.
Experience. Background in what they’ve worked with client wise. Pushing people to failure or exhaustion.
Hiring a trainer with more experience may mean they’re better at stand alone procedures and wont need to be brought into a programs for sales, they may have their own magic. But they may also have a harder time adapting. Visa Versa a trainer with less experience may need help with sales, but they may be able to learn programs in place.
Hello Keegan,
As with many people we meet in our lives we tend to learn the most from the more experienced. Whether it be our college professor, a mechanic, our physician and even our parents.
Experience equates to age as well and how one applies themselves in their field with continued education and the desire to learn.
Along with experience a higher price can be expected (paid) for their expertise and knowledge.
We were once less experienced (“newbees”-“green”) at one point or another and we sought insight to questions we may have had from and experienced person.
Then comes “respect” …we tend to respect the “experienced” from what we have learned from them.
All this can be applied when seeking a personal trainer.
Sincerely,
Michael
I agree with both Michael and Bryant. It depends why you want to hire a trainer. If you want someone to follow your philosophy and guide him/her the way you think fits best your company, then an inexperienced trainer might be a better choice. If you want someone who has a proven record and can bring new ideas and experience to your team and needs little or no supervision, then a trainer with more experience will be the way to go. With an experienced trainer you pretty much know what you are getting, but with an inexperienced trainer it can go both ways (more likely towards the unknown). You will have to devote more of your time to train and educate this trainer and then he/she will need to be supervised to make sure things are going the way you want. Getting an experienced trainer can help with the promotion of your club/business and you can take advantage of the experience and knowledge this trainer brings. There are pros and cons in both choices and it’s up to you to decide what is best for your business.
Best,
Harris
That would depend on if the either trainer was proactive with continuing his education.
I would hire a personal trainer who didn’t have a lot of experience over a personal trainer who has loads of experience if the trainer with less experience demonstrated dedication to his craft by continually growing and learning.
Years of experience don’t always translate into a trainer who is growing and adapting with the industry.
Take advantage of portals like IDEAFit to determine whether the trainer in question is current with scientific advancements in the field of exercise science and physiology and make your decision based upon knowledge and experience.
Hi Keegan and Dawn,
as I look at your profile, you own a personal training company that has several trainers, and I assume that your questions pertains to that scenario.
As the others have pointed out, if you look for a company-wide consistent approach to personal training, then you should hire a rather novice trainer who would probably willing to adapt to any personal training approach that you want to have adhered to. On one hand, that can be of benefit to a trainer because novices rarely have a ‘training philosophy’. On the other hand, you may stunt his/her growth because they become exchangeable cookie-cutter personal trainers. That, however, would not be your problem as the person running the company.
A trainer with more years of experience will likely already have a training approach. This is of value if your company philosophy is outlined in broader terms and if you have room for many different training philosophies as long as the customers are happy.
Karin Singleton
www.meltnc.com