6 Questions That Helped Me Hire The Perfect Coach For Me
By: Juha Juppi
Tags: Personal Training, Hiring Tips, Fitness, Strength Training, Coaching

Accountability; What’s Their Approach?

What kind of coach are you looking for? Are you the self motivated type? Do you need check-ins during the week? Every coach should be open about the level of accoutability they provide. Find out exactly what they offer. Some coaches may only offer email/text support but you may want video calls or a Facebook Community Group. Don’t assume every coach offers the same services about this. emails?

Goal Setting; Is The Road Map Specific To YOU?

You’re perfectly in your right to ask them to show you how they’ve approached goal setting with previous clients. This is perfect because it may take a coach out of the mind of ‘selling’ and simply sharing what they’ve done in the past. Their goal setting might paint a picture into the kind of training they specalize in. Maybe it’s in 12 week fat loss, or 6 month strength gaining, or prepping for your first bodybuilding contest.

I’m not saying that you should chose a coach that only deals with your exact goals. However, proof that they’ve already helped someone along a similar journey can help boost trust in them. This will also show you how involved they are in the clients they coach. They may offer already created workout routines vs individualized training programs. Each has their own pros’ & cons that are worth asking about!

Training Philosophy; How Will They Structure Your Workouts & Why?

Sometimes training boils down to one simple thing. You’re more likely to keep doing something if you enjoy it. Does this mean you should hire a coach that is a ‘yes man’ who will only ask you to do things you find fun? Absolutely not. A coach with integrity will find the balance between programming things you want vs the things you need to be doing. This includes commonly ignored qualities like stretching, mobility, cardio, cool down methods, etc.

Find someone who will help you with what you might otherwise ignore doing because it’s ‘not fun’. For me personally, I wouldn’t trust working with a coach that didn’t place a big importance on mobility. Having healthy joints is so important to moving and feeling better. I couldn’t see eye to eye with someone that felt like that wasn’t important to prioritize.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Injury; What Happens If We Run Into Problems?

Nobody wants to get injured. However, you should absolutely ask them how they deal with this. Obviously every injury is different so you shouldn’t expect them to unload an encyclopedia of knowing off the top of their head. However, they should have a plan of pain management. Maybe they have access to a good physio or massage therapist when things get beyond their scope. Wether they can personally help you through symptoms of pain, they should have a plan of action towards how to get you past it. Injuries can derail progress — so it’s imperative you understand how they would plan on getting you back on track!

Diet; Do Your Values Align?

This one should be simple enough to get behind. Personally as a vegan I wouldn’t think to persue a coach that considers soy as the devil. Regardless of what your diet it — find someone that is on the same page as you. It’s not impossible to find someone who can provide value when they have opposite viewpoints — but it’s worth asking how important that is for you. Some coaches don’t even offer nutrition based services and focus only on the fitness routine. Find what works for YOU!

Understanding; Do They Have The Heart Of A Teacher Or Are They Lecturing To You?

I think we can all agree that sometimes fitness terms can be kinda difficult to digest. If you’re not actively involved in the community, there can be a lot of words that will sound like straight pig latin. You want someone who can understand complicated topics and explain them simply. I’ve heard of coaches that relate fitness topics to their clients hobbies; ie. cars, investing, travel, etc.

Let’s use me as an example; which of these sentences do you think would resonate more with me as someone who commutes everywhere via bike or train.

Option 1: This last week you biked over 50km. That’s a lot of time your hips & knees spent going into partial flexion & extension. Let’s spend some time stretching and getting stronger in the ranges your knees and hips never get challenged in during your ride. We want to make sure your strength & control is in a large range of motion and not just in a few select ‘zones’.

Option 2: This last week you biked over 50km. Let’s stretch you out cause you must be feeling tight and then jump into our killer glute workout today.

Every client will want a different level of explanation to their training. If a coach can’t explain WHY you’re doing something in a way you understand — move on!

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Which above question resonated most with you? What questions would YOU ask that I did not list above? Let me know in the comments! :)