It is common practice within the personal training industry to offer a complimentary session to trial the services of a personal trainer. Whilst this may sound like a good deal to enable you to try the services of the personal trainer without a financial outlay, there are a few things you should be aware of when accepting these types of offers.

Before I explain, I have already mentioned that exercise physiologists are unlikely to provide you with a complimentary or low-cost trial offer. Why? Because an exercise physiologist is considered to be an allied health professional, similar to a podiatrist, physiotherapist or dietician. Consultations with accredited exercise physiologists can attract MediCare rebates for people that have chronic medical conditions, private health fund rebates (depending on the type of policy) and Department of Veterans’ Affairs rebates. To an exercise physiologist, a special offer is like going to the doctor and expecting to receive a free consultation so you can test their diagnosis to see if you like it, or like going to a physiotherapist and expecting a free initial consultation to see if you agree with their diagnosis of your injury.

So, if a personal trainer offers you a complimentary session, why should you be aware? Primarily because it only gives you a small snapshot of the personal trainer’s personality, type of training, interpersonal skills and attitude. The trainer is using this one session to sell you on how beneficial they will be for you. Are they going to try and impress you during this session? Absolutely. Will it give you a clear understanding of your personal trainer’s personality and how every session will be? Well, maybe and maybe not.

Be aware that when a personal trainer offers you a complimentary session, they often consider that they have one opportunity to impress you and sell you their services. As such, there is an ingrained attitude within many personal trainers that they need to ‘smash’ you to show you their worth. Whilst it is understandable that a personal trainer is expected to challenge you physically and push you to your limits, there is a difference between providing a physical challenge and ‘smashing’ you. Communication is critical – make your trainer aware of what you expect and speak up during the session if you feel things are getting beyond you. On the flip-side, if you feel the session is not really pushing you enough, speak up. Trust is a crucial element of the trainer-client relationship – speaking up gives you the opportunity to see how your trainer is able to adjust their training session to suit your needs and gives you an insight as to how the trainer values, and responds to, your input, expectations and feedback.

Many personal trainers are now offering an introductory package – a small number of sessions for a small fee. Yes, this may cost you a small amount of money upfront, but it gives you the ability to determine whether a personal trainer is suitable for you over a period of time. Try and space the package out at the rate at which you think you will see your trainer (ie. weekly, fortnightly, twice a week etc) so you can get an idea of how this feels for you and how your trainer approaches this type of training frequency. For example, how does your trainer approach each session? Do they review your physical activity patterns since your last appointment? Do they set you a physical activity program to follow until your next session? It’s all very well having a personal trainer, but if they’re only interested in the time that you spend exercising with them, it’s unlikely that they’ll assist you to achieve long-lasting success. Personal trainers that actively revise your physical activity each and every session and provide exercise recommendations for the intervals in between sessions are more likely to help you achieve and maintain your fitness goals.

Like exercise physiologists, not all personal trainers will provide you with the opportunity to take up a trial offer. This doesn’t mean that the personal trainer is any better or any worse than a personal trainer that does present you with an introductory offer. It just means that the personal trainer doesn’t use an introductory offer as part of their sales process (let’s face it – the personal training industry is very competitive and an introductory offer is simply just a sales technique to sample the product before you buy). This may be for any number of reasons, but the most common reason is that more experienced or more specialised personal trainers feel that discounting services to entice clients can appear to be unprofessional, undermines the integrity of the fitness industry and/or increases the gap between a fitness professional and an allied health professional. Feel free to ask the personal trainer why they don’t offer an introductory offer – it can provide you with valuable information about how the personal trainer conducts themselves, their training approach, their professionalism and how they value their clients, their work and their industry.

Don’t rule out a personal trainer just because they don’t present you with an introductory offer. In this case, purchase a small number of sessions so that you can sample the personal trainer prior to making a longer term commitment.

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