What’s the Difference Between a Personal Trainer and Strength Coach?
Both coaches and personal trainers can help set goals, keep you accountable, and provide evidence-based workouts for the best results. Coaches typically have expertise with athletes or athletic teams.
Photo Credit: Becca Heuer
What is a personal trainer?
An experienced personal trainer can provide value to people of any age, fitness level, or athletic background. They can customize workouts to the unique needs of each individual while adding accountability, motivation, and support. Online personal trainers, which have become popular recently, make it more convenient.
What does a personal trainer do?
A personal trainer works with individuals and groups to guide them toward their health, fitness, and wellness goals.
Personal trainers begin by conducting a consultation. If the client decides to train, the next step is an overall assessment. They will consider posture, movement, balance, flexibility, cardio, body composition, lean body mass, power, agility, speed, and coordination.
The assessment determines the fitness program and workout plans. A person new to training should use a resistance training plan that targets the main muscle groups with full-body workouts. This includes a mix of movements using body weight, free weights, and weight machines. A more experienced weight-training client may want to focus on barbells.
What should I look for in a personal trainer?
Working with a personal trainer often comes down to goodness of fit. Here are some of the attributes to consider when hiring a trainer:
• Empathy: The ability to listen to your needs and concerns and help guide you toward your goals.
• Knowledge: An understanding of basic science and an awareness of new or emerging research.
• Experience: A solid base of clients within the last few years.
• Credentials: ISSA, NASM, ACE, and NSCA offer reputable certification exams.
• Ratings: Many popular review sites like Google and Yelp will give you a good sense for the training experience.
• Goal Alignment: The trainer should have skills helpful to your needs or interests.
Do I need a personal trainer or a strength and conditioning coach?
Personal trainers and strength and conditioning coaches are very similar, but there is one big difference.
Personal training serves individuals of all fitness levels and backgrounds. Strength and conditioning training focuses on competitive athletes who are seeking peak performance in their sport.
A strength and conditioning coach will typically use several main principles of sports training. These include:
• Overload - Increasing resistance, time, or intensity to drive adaptations
• Progression – A systematic process for overloading athletes
• Reversibility – The de-conditioning that happens when training stops
• Adaptation – The improvements that take place with training
• Specificity - Choosing the right movements and training based on specific goals.
• Recovery – The time spent actually getting the benefits of training and resting for future sessions.
DO I NEED A TRAINER OR Coach WITH A SPECIALIZATION?
Good trainers and coaches will have a broad base of knowledge. But there are certain advantages to fitness professionals who have a specific expertise:
Different populations may have needs that require more formal training. Post-partum or menopausal people, for example, might want personal trainers with deep learning in hormone science. In addition, training with an expert who has similar life experiences might make sessions more relatable
Exercise science and research are rapidly advancing. It’s very challenging for one person to stay on top of all developments. For example, our understanding of how to build strength is very different from 10 years ago.
General fitness training is different from sports and athletic performance. Athletes at all levels need long-term training plans. That should include specific phases for building an aerobic foundation and strength, developing explosiveness, and staying healthy in-season. Sports with longer seasons or major events during the year will also need peaking and tapering plans.
Strength and conditioning vary significantly by age. Youth athletes recover quickly but need to spend time on skill practice. Masters athletes may have highly advanced skill sets but more challenging training situations. They could be carrying high stress while managing families and careers. Training is one part of their lives, but they have limited mental and physical resources.
How else are masters athletes unique?
Masters athletes are amazingly durable and resilient, but strength needs to be developed systematically. Recovery matters as much as working out. If stress levels from family or work are already intense, overloaded workouts become a risk for injury and burnout. When stress is high, masters athletes should have 2-3 techniques for controlling their nervous systems.
In addition, many masters athletes gain a competitive advantage from strength training exercises. This is particularly true if they're focused mostly sport training during their lives. Many report feeling more energetic and resilient with relatively little training, which makes online coaching an appealing option.
conclusion
People looking to improve their health, fitness, or sport performance have a wealth of options. On the North Shore of Chicago you have an incredible range of gifted personal trainers to work with. As you do your research, make sure to focus on qualities and specializations more important to you. If you’re a masters athlete or powerlifter seeking an experienced strength and conditioning coach, please reach out today.
