What makes a certified personal trainer a certified personal trainer

Certified personal trainers are generally regarded as the personal trainers who have done the necessary official course to be a personal trainer and passed.  Alot of personal trainers call themselves certified personal trainers when they have actually only done a basic online course that can be done from home.  What you need to know when you get a personal trainer is what the qualifications mean.  I am not going to give you an in depth look at the courses as this will probably bore you instead I am going to give you a brief run down on the courses.

YMCA Personal trainer- A complete personal training course that if you pass you can call your self a certified personal trainer.  This course is made up of lost of modules and is what you want your personal trainer to have, Premier offer another course very similar to this which is equally as good.  The modules can be completed separately as gym instructor level 1,2,3 but if you only have one or two of these although good qualifications to have I don’t think you can really call yourself a certified personal trainer.

Chek- these are the personal training courses started by Paul Chek the majority of people who take these are personal trainers who want to become more advanced.  Personal trainers with these as well as the YMCA are quite highly qualified trainers.

Exercise to music, Body-balance etc- these are basic courses run by the YMCA and other course providers. some of these courses can be completed in 2 days and if a personal trainer has only this qualification I would avoid them.