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If I come to the trainer's gym do I have to pay a gym fee in addition to the trainers fee? Yes. By "trainers's gym" we are referring to a gym where a trainer in our network regularly trains clients. Our trainers are independent and do not work for a gym. Therefore your fee to the trainer is separate from your gym fee which must be paid directly to the gym. Do I have to join the trainer's gym and what are the gym fees? No, you do not have to join the gym. You can pay a "daily fee" which is usually $15 or $20 each time you come. We encourage this option when you start working with a trainer until you decide whether you want to continue. Often a gym will give you a free guest pass for your first session. If you decide to continue you can discuss directly with the gym options for discount daily packages, or for monthly, quarterly or yearly memberships. These fees are generally quite modest as compared with the high-end health clubs. Where are the trainer's gyms located? At this time, the trainers in our network work with regular clients in gyms located in the Chelsea district of Manhattan. I currently belong to a gym. Can a trainer come to my gym to train me? Yes, if your gym allows private personal trainers. You need to ask your gym if they welcome independent trainers and, if so, how much they charge you for the trainer to come in. Most gyms will charge you for this. The franchise health clubs such as Bally's Total Fitness, New York Sports Clubs, NY Health & Racquet Club, Equinox, and Crunch do not allow private personal trainers. Do your trainers travel to boroughs outside Manhattan? Yes, some of our trainers do travel outside Manhattan, but it depends upon their availability to meet your schedule. The fee is usually higher because of travel time involved. I want to workout at home, but I don't have any equipment. Will I be able to accomplish anything? Yes. Of course, it is always better to have access to quality cardio and resistance equipment. However, it depends upon your condition and goals. A lot can be done with no equipment. Also available by mail order is a range of excellent home equipment, including resistance bands, ankle weights, dumbells, balls and other easily stored and relatively inexpensive, yet effective items. Please check out our links pages for websites offering such equipment. You must remember, the most important ingredient needed to change your body is desire, motivation, hard work and commitment. If you have these, the rest will fall into place. Return to top of page How is a specific trainer selected for me? A specific trainer is recommended to you based upon the information supplied by you including your profile, fitness needs and schedule/logistical requirements. We know our trainers personally and determine who might be best for you. Up to this point our matches have a 99 percent success rate. This method saves precious time for both you and the trainer. What happens if I am not satisfied with the trainer? If for some reason, you are not satisfied with a recommended trainer, we will find another trainer for you. The trainer/client relationship is very important to your success. The chemistry has to be right for communication and motivation. Can you supply me with a list of trainers to choose from? No, we do not supply lists of trainers. These lists are meaningless to you if you don't really know the trainers. There are plenty of individual personal trainers listed on the Internet and elsewhere if you prefer to go that route. I have trained with one of your trainers in the past but I had to stop for a long period of time. I would like to work with the same trainer. Is that possible? Yes. You should contact the trainer directly. Once you have established a relationship with a trainer, it is not necessary to go through our network. The trainers in our network work together cooperatively and we do not charge a referral fee either to the client or to the trainer. Return to top of page What kind of certification and education do your trainers have? Since we are a network and not an organization, we do not require that our trainers be certified by any one particular certification organization. There are a number of highly respected nationally recognized professional fitness and personal trainers certification organizations. Our trainers have certifications from at least one, in many cases more than one. Each of these certification groups offers courses and testing in subjects including anatomy, exercise physiology, kinesiology, biomechanics, range of motion, structural integrity, fitness screening and testing, training principles and techniques, understanding equipment, sport nutrition, sports injury, physician interfacing, sport psychology and motivation, safety and injury prevention. To be certified by these organizations requires rigorous study, participation in courses, hands-on training trials, and passing difficult examinations. The organizations our trainers are certified by include, among others, the American College of Sports Medicine, National Academy of Sports Medicine, American Council on Exercise, International Sports Sciences Association, International Sports Medicine Association/American Aerobic Association International, National Strength and Conditioning Association, Aerobics and Fitness Association of America. For more information about these groups, please check out our links page category Personal Training Certification Organizations. All of these organizations require certification in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by the American Red Cross. Some of our trainers also have graduate or post-graduate degrees in exercise physiology or related sciences. Return to top of page How do I get started? Once you have supplied us with the necessary information about yourself by email or phone, a trainer will be selected for you. The trainer will then contact you directly and from that point on you deal directly with your trainer on all matters. All consultations and sessions are set up by phone only. You then have three options: 1) set up a Free Evaluation/Consultation; 2) schedule to start the Three Session Special Trial Offer; 3) schedule one training session. The Free Evaluation and Three Session Special Trial Offer are only available at the trainer's gym. Because we don't require advance payment for first-time sessions and consultations are free, we ask that you give us the courtesy of an advance call if you are unable to make your appointment. Once you have met with your trainer or had a session (or sessions), you can decide whether to continue, request a different trainer, or stop. Once I begin, am I obligated to continue? No, you are never under any obligation to continue unless you have actually scheduled a session or sessions. In that case, you must adhere to the cancellation policy guidelines addressed below. Return to top of page Do I make payment to Personal Trainers New York City or directly to my trainer? Once you are put in touch with a trainer, all transactions are strictly between you and that trainer. Personal Trainers New York City exists only to facilitate matching clients seeking serious training regimens with dedicated trainers. When must I make payment? For the first two weeks, payment is expected before a session can be scheduled. After that payment can be made the at any time up to and including the end of the session. Payment options vary from paying one session at a time to purchasing session packages. Do your trainers accept credit cards? Most trainers do not accept credit cards. But, you can ask your trainer. Generally cash, checks or money orders are the accepted methods of payment. What if I cancel a session? Once you have scheduled session, you must cancel the session more than 24 hours in advance or you are responsible to pay the trainer fully for that session. What happens if I am late for a session The trainer is not obligated to make up time due to a client's lateness. More than 1/2 hour lateness constitutes a late cancellation and the trainer is not obligated to conduct the session. In some cases a trainer will wait and work with you for the remaining time. But this is solely up to their discretion. In either case you will be charged fully for the session. Return to top of page How many days a week do I need to workout? This question can only be answered effectively after you have talked with a trainer. It depends upon your current conditions, goals, schedule, budget and your trainers availability. You may "need" to workout with a trainer four days a week, but only have the time or budget for two days a week. In these cases, the trainer will work to teach you a program that you can do on your own for the days that you cannot work with a trainer. This, of course, necessitates your willingness and ability to implement such a program. I don't have the discipline to train on my own, but I want to make my fitness a long term commitment. How long a period with a trainer work with me? Some trainer/client relationships extend over many years. How long an extended period of time you work with a trainer depends upon many factors. These include the interrelatonship between you and a trainer, availability, scheduling and logistics. If after a time, your trainer is unable to continue and you want to still work with a trainer, you can either contact us again and we'll find someone for you or your trainer may know someone who he/she thinks is suitable for your needs. I can workout on my own, but I need to learn what to do and how exercise correctly. Will a trainer work with me on this basis? Yes. A trainer will evaluate you, access your needs, develop a diet plan if needed and work with you over a number of sessions to teach you fat loss and toning/building exercises necessary for you to achieve your goals. You will come away with a program tailored to your needs and can workout on your own. The number of sessions needed for this depends upon your fitness needs, how quickly you master the movements and your budget. You can always schedule an additional session or sessions later for a refresher or to upgrade your program. Our trainers are responsive to occasional follow-up phone or email questions for no additional charge. Return to top of page I have done everything, but I still can't loose weight. Is there anything you can do for me? Losing bodyfat effectively is the result of a combination of a specific diet and calorie burning aerobic exercise carried out consistently for a particular duration of time. We usually find that when you think you are doing "everything," one or more elements specified above is either not being carried out correctly or is not being carried out at all. Sometimes folks will try a variety of fad diets one after the other for short periods of time and then give up. Or they may get on the treadmill at the gym for 15 minutes two times a week and wonder why they can't lose fat. Bodyfat reduction or "getting lean" is the single most requested goal of clients who come to us. Our trainers will work with you on an effective diet and fat-burning exercise program and will discuss how long you need to sustain this program to achieve results. They will then help you to attain the discipline and motivation to carry it out. I've have been working out on my own for a long time, but have stopped making any progress in muscle gain. Can you help me? Yes. Most people who have been working out on their own for a long period of time eventually hit a plateau and stop making gains in muscle mass. Often, genetics plays a role in this. That is, when someone comes close to or reaches their "genetic potential," muscle gain slows down and sometimes stops altogether. However, even taking genetic factors into account, we find that in most cases plateauing is due an inability by someone to push themselves to greater heights in their workouts and/or to find new types of routines. Without steady increases in muscle "overload" and varying of types of routines, gains will not be made. Some of our trainers are former competitive bodybuilders and know how to get you out of your rut. I do hundreds of sit-ups but still have no definition in my abs. How do I get a six-pack? Getting abdominal definition is only partially accomplished through specific ab workouts involving crunches or flexion of the abdominal muscles. For the most part "definition" of abs is accomplished the same way that "definition" of any other body part is accomplished: by losing the fat that obscures the muscle and building the muscle. Losing the fat is done through diet and aerobic exercise, not abdominal crunches (or sit ups). But even if you lose the fat, to see a nicely developed six-pack, the ab muscles need to be developed. This is accomplished by intense ab crunches with or without added resistance for about eight to fifteen repetitions, four to eight sets, about three times a week. After I start working with a trainer when will I begin to see results? This is an impossible question to answer without knowing your present condition and training history. There are many variables including your specific starting point, genetics, and metabolism as well as your consistency, commitment and time you are willing to put into training. You will get results commensurately with what you put into your training and diet. Also, we can set up programs that are aimed to work very quickly, but involve exceedingly stringent dieting and training. Generally we like to suggest that, if you are starting from a very low level of fitness, you take it slower at the beginning so you can accustom your body gradually to a training program. We want you to be fit and fabulous for your lifetime. More on Our Programs and Services Return to top of page © 2002 Personal Trainers New York City |