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When starting your journey to improve body composition, build muscle, increase strength, eliminating aches and pains, and raising your cardiovascular levels, who should you pick? A fitness instructor vs personal trainer? In this breakdown, we are going to go over the pros and cons of each position, what results you should expect, and what value you can get with your dollar.
Fitness Instructor vs Personal Trainer
Let’s break this comparison down through a few key areas. Experience required, their typical knowledge, your general experience, what “style” each can give, what results you should expect, and the value of your dollar. As a sports performance coach and personal trainer, I see value in both. I enjoy a group pilates class here and there as well as working with another trainer to push myself. This is information that should serve as a guiding light and remove any surprises in your experience.
1. Experience Required
Breaking this down is typically straight forward. To be a fitness instructor for any class structure, you’ll need a certification for that type of fitness. Pilates, yoga, spin, barre, and crossfit are a few examples are areas where either you are required to have a certification through an outside agency or internal education.
This is structured slightly differently for a personal trainer depending on the location. If you’re going to a chain-gym, most accept trainers with any certification (even ones you can cheat online to “pass”) and a high school diploma. There are some high performance gyms that require a bachelor degree and other certifications to be hired.
There is a slight nudge for the instructors here for fitness instructor vs personal trainer. If you’re going to a fitness class, you only care that the instructor is educated on that class format and their technical abilities are sound. If you’re going for personal training, your location and choice might be hindered based off years of experience and formal education.
2. Typical Knowledge
A fitness instructor has a limited scope in most cases with their modality being the primary focus. I have met a lot of fitness instructors in my experience, only a handful have their hands also in other areas of exercise science. It also serves very little purpose to them in regards to their business development.
A personal trainer’s knowledge is a varying and wide as a spectrum as riding the NYC subway system: you’re never going to know who you’re going to meet. There is a lot of educational gaps for new personal trainers and they need to fill that gap of knowledge to give their clients results, raise their training standards, and raise their income. Personally speaking, I saw the value behind my two masters and the value they bring for my clients and my pocket as an investment.
This has a clear winner in fitness instructor vs personal trainer: the latter. As the Shakespear quote goes, “It is better to be a jack of all trades than a master of one.” If you can effectively give a client a world of knowledge rather than a fine scope through a paper straw, you’re going to give them an experience. If you’re looking the fitness instructor vs personal trainer battle and all you want is a yoga instructor, there is huge upside to that yoga instructor knowing the benefits of strength training.
3. What Each Style Can Give
This is a short-sided analysis in the comparison of fitness instructor vs personal trainer. A fitness instructor will typically have a class structure: you will be helped, but you have to share your attention with other participants. A personal trainer can provide a one-on-one private experience or you can look into semi-private or small-group sessions.
This is an even split in fitness instructor vs personal trainer. It’s your preference.
4. What Results You Should Expect
There is a slight nudge in the battle of fitness instructor vs personal trainer. A fitness instructor is again primarily focused on one modality. Their conversations or sometimes even talk during sessions can be generalized or in some cases, even false. It is not their fault. I’m not looking to go to a spin class and ask the instructor a question on my ankle tendonopathy.
The nudge has to go to the personal trainer – with a grain of salt. Results can vary very wide here. The minimal requirements as a barrier for employment mean you might get someone who isn’t as smart as you think.
This also comes down to you: the consumer/client. As hard as a fitness instructor or persona trainer might push you in that hour, you are responsible for your effort. This includes in the training session, your nutrition, your stress management, recovery, mobility, hydration, and sleep to help you achieve your goals. Don’t blame either party for your lack of weight loss (if that’s your goal). You drinking and eating wrecklessly on the weekends cause that.
5. The Value of Your Dollar
This is a criteria where there is no winner in fitness instructor vs personal trainer. Yes you will save money per visit with a fitness instructor, but they are not working directly with your goals or your personal experience (strengths & weaknesses). It’s their class, their structure, and you’re paying for the experience. A personal trainer can be more expensive, but will make their sessions with you all about your goals.* (Hopefully)
Your budget is what dictates your decision here for fitness instructor vs personal trainer.
Conclusion: Fitness Instructor vs Personal Trianer
The personal trainer wins with one category, two draws, and one nudge to cancel out the fitness instructor nudge. This is still close and the two areas where there were “draws”, is up to personal preference. I think a lot of people would benefit from a balanced perspective and approach with a fitness instructor vs personal trainer. Get the private attention you need for your body, but have fun here and their with your fitness. Challenging your body with different exercise here and there is a good thing.
For more insight on training, fitness, and the personal training world (as a client and a trainer/instructor), check out my other blog posts:
- How to Develop Your Bullshit Detector in Strength & Conditioning
- Are You Sticking To Your New Year’s Resolution?