Episode 7 – How to choose the best Health and Fitness Coach
Let’s find the best partner for your health and fitness needs.
Over the years, I’ve worked and mentored with a lot of health and fitness professionals. This has been a golden journey to give me experience on both the good AND bad practices of health and fitness professionals. In this article, you will learn what to look for in a health and fitness coach, and more importantly, how to pick one that will keep you on the right track in your health and fitness journey.
So let’s get to it!
Tip #1: Ask About Qualifications
Knowing the qualifications of your next health and fitness professional is one of the best ways to gauge expertise and gain confidence in their services. A health and fitness professional that has a solid background in a specific field will be an even better indicator that they’ve dedicated time in improving their craft and mastery. As John Maxwell said, “you can’t give what you don’t have.” In other words, if you don’t know it, you can’t teach it.
What to do:
Ask simple questions to explore their qualifications. Try these:
- When and where did you study?
- What were the top 3 key learnings from your course(s)?
- How has your practice improved after completing this course?
Tip #2: Enquire About Experience
You can’t beat experience! Industry experience speaks volumes about how much your next health and fitness coach will be able to help you in your own health and fitness journey. Are they all theory or have they actually done what you need to do? If they haven’t done it themselves, have they coached someone through the process?
What to do:
A good way to determine if your next health and fitness coach is for you is to:
- Find out what population groups your next health and fitness coach has worked with, and what types of scenarios. Have they worked with athletes? Pregnant women? People seeking weight loss?
- It’s also useful to ask if they work full time in the industry and for how long?
What about new grads with “no experience”?
New grads can be great options to consider! They are usually more enthusiastic and willing to go the extra mile for you. They are generally more coachable as well. The only downside may be speed and practicality – they may be a bit slower in returning information to you as they won’t have a solid top of mind answer and they may have answers that are impractical for your real life (nb. doesn’t mean these solutions don’t work though).
What to do:
If your next health and fitness coach has just graduated, simply ask about their internships, and on-the-job-trainings. Find out about their life experience as well. Did they play in team or individual sports? What about voluntary work? Maybe they have some tips and tricks to help you on your health and fitness journey.
For the other two tips to consider for choosing your next health and fitness coach, read on below!
3. Do Your Own Research
Your next health and fitness coach will ultimately be the best guide and support for you but make sure to help yourself as well. Health and fitness coaches are human after all.
What to do:
Do a background check on the priorities and focus of the health and fitness journey. Know what you’re committing to and that way when you are being coached, the information and habits you engage in will not only make sense, but will also be appropriate for your needs as well. You’ll also be able to save time by knowing what strategies may and may not work ahead of time.
4. Find Personality & Professionalism
You will be spending quite a bit of time with your health and fitness professional. Make sure you choose someone you not only respect but they respect you as well. Relationships are a two-way street.
What to do:
- Find someone who will go the extra mile to give you a customised and individualised program that’s made for you or with you as opposed to something generic given to everyone else.
- It’s also important to find someone who speaks to you on the same level.
Make your choice!
There you have it! The top 4 tips to get you started in choosing the best health and fitness coach for your new healthy lifestyle.
By following these tips you’ll come out better equipped to make an informed and better decision when choosing your next health and fitness coach. Simply ask about their qualifications, enquire about experience, do your own research and find that unicorn health and fitness coach that balances personality with professionalism. To summarize the tips again, here are the top four (4) tips to keep in mind:
Tip #1. Ask about their Qualifications
Tip #2. Enquire about Experience
Tip #3. Do your Research
Tip #4. Choose someone that can balance personality and professionalism
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Need extra help?
- My PURITY Protocol is an amazing resource packed with 6 secrets to detox your life and supercharge your energy. It’s my personal wellbeing philosophy. Check it out here.
- The First Five Fitness program is a complete 35 day guide to nutrition, mindset, and fitness for beginners and intermediates AND it only takes five minutes blocks to start. Click here for details.
- Don’t know what or how to cook and prepare food?! Check out My Meals & Recipes book here. It’s packed with loads of practical, healthy and simple to make breakfast, lunch, dinner options as well as snacks and drinks.
- Want live coaching? Click here to contact me. I look forward to working with you soon.
Feel free to watch the video
Bibliography
- Levitin, D. (2014) The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload. Plume Printing
- McKeown, G. (2014) Essentialism: The disciplined pursuit of less. Crown Business.
- Cosgrove, F. (2007) Coach Yourself to Wellness: Living the Intentional Life. Messenger Publishing.
- Gladwell, M. (2000) The Tipping Point: How little things can make a big difference. Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Co.
- Maxwell, J. (2010) Everyone communicates, few connect: What the most effective people do differently. Thomas Nelson
- Kausman, R. (2004). If not dieting, then what? Allen & Unwin
- Germov, J., Williams, L. (2004) A Sociology of Food & Nutrition: The Social Appetite (2nd Ed.) Oxford.
Chris Everingham lives and breathes health & fitness.
Hi, I’m Chris Everingham.
I’m sharing the holistic performance secrets that I both personally used to overcome racial scrutiny, escape poverty and depression, AND taught others so that they too could bring proven success and happiness into their lives.
Learn more about my time competing in international sports, in front of media and speaking with live audiences of thousands of people to discover my high performance secrets. Click here to grow your mindset, rewire your habits and transform your life.
