How often/personal trainer

eowynmn

I'm doing my trainer evaluation tomorrow (you know the one they give you when you join the gym to try to get you going) and I've already decided I want to do training, and I want this particular guy to be my trainer, because I know he's good and I know he can push me. That is what I want. I want someone that can give me a routine, and push me the first time, but then I can push myself after that. I have a buttload of motivation right now, and I'm not afraid to push myself. So how often should I have a session to mix it up and check in. I was originally thinking once every 3-4 weeks, but maybe that's long. I am currently strength training 3x a week and doing straight cardio (like Zumba/5Ktraining) 3-4 times a week. So if I had a routine, ideally I would use it 3 times a week. Money is somewhat of an issue of course, I just want to make sure I'm making a good investment.

So I know the answer, and that is that my trainer and I need to decide for ourselves what works best.
However, I also know that it's a trainers job partially to get me to want to use his services more often. So I want to come prepared with an idea of 'what is a normal/practical' amount to see a trainer before I invest in a package.

Any advice/ideas would be great. Thank you.

Azdak

There are lots of good plans. Here is one (one plan--you have to decide if it's a good one):

If you are starting a routine, then it is going to take a few sessions before you know how and how much to be "pushed". If you get a trainer that feels compelled to impress you and show off from day one, you could be asking for a couple of weeks of misery from doing too much too soon.

My advice--take a session or two to learn the basics. Take some time on your own (4-6 sessions) to make the initial adaptation and improve your form, etc. Hook back up with the trainer THEN have him push you for 2-3 sessions, then set up a "maintenance" plan (not doing the same routine over and over, but progressively working) for how often you want to check in with the trainer.

Basically, you would be using the trainer to push you to a new level, then "consolidate" the gains on your own.

JoshuaElement

I suggest seeing him weekly for a month (4 weeks) then scaling it back to about once a fortnight.

This will give you the initial boost at the beginning and fine-tune your technique and will allow for semi-regular check-ins to mix up your program.

Tuala42

Hopefully you have a choice about how often and how long of a period of time you see the trainer---at my gym you have to sign up for at least once a week,for a year! Needless to say I didn't go beyond the free first session. I don't have the budget for that (and lost 35 lbs anyway!) I would've loved just a handful of sessions just to get some ideas.