How to train your trainer

A personal trainer friend of mine was telling me about a client who, whenever he arrived at her home for a session, would be ready and waiting — with tea and biscuits. A few months later she fired him because she wasn't seeing the results he'd promised.

The moral? If you want your trainer to help you achieve your goals, you need to give them a clear idea about what they should expect from you as a client, whether good, bad or plain idiosyncratic. (It's not called "personal" training for nothing.)
Do it before the first session starts. You need to be totally honest, and you're more likely to be that before anything but your pride is hurting.

1. Goal setting: agree what the training should achieve, how you'll get there and put dates in the diary that you'll use to assess your progress.
2. When your trainer arrives, will you be ready to go? Or will you try delaying tactics — crucial phone calls, perhaps?
3. Do you prefer routine or variety?
4. Do you like to understand what the exercise is doing, and why it's done a certain way, or do you just want to get on and do it?
5. If the trainer suggests exercises to do between sessions, will you do them, or is training something you'll only do when they are standing over you?
6. If you say you can't do another press-up, will you mean it? Or might you manage a few more if encouraged?
By giving your trainer the clearest possible picture, not only will it help them help you to achieve results faster, but it will also grow the relationship between you.
David Higgins is a co-founder and Master Trainer at TenPilates, tenpilates.com