Coaches vs. Personal Trainers

Many coaches are personal trainers BUT not all personal trainers are coaches. 

Yep, we are in that fuzzy territory of mixed messages again, and I am going to explain about both, so when you need one, you hire the right one!

About Personal Trainers

In the UK, in order to train people at professional gym facilities, have insurance, be a member of the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPS) and meet the minimum requirements; a person would first take the Level 2 Gym Instructor qualification followed by the Level 3 Personal Trainer certification. (Note that in lieu of this, they may have completed a degree programme in sports/exercise science).

What Do Personal Trainers Do?

Personal Trainers are broadly standardised across a wide spectrum of physical activity. They are well placed to help many different people of all ages who in some cases may be taking out a gym membership for the very first time.
They help with everything from stretching, to exercise classes, walk to run programmes and the general use of all the types of gym equipment such as machines, dumbbells, resistance bands and much more. 

About Coaches

Specialise. Coaches have a specific area of interest. A coach is someone who is incredibly interested in a particular field and wants to know everything about it. They are known for being the go to people when you want to do something specific, even if you are a beginner or pro. They may have spent sometime already as a Personal Trainer before going onto specialise.

I am a Strength Coach

I am qualified as a Personal Trainer, but have gone onto focus in this area and help many different people of all abilities to become strong and healthy. In some cases, athletes that want to enhance their power and performance in competition, in many cases ordinary people, mums and dads and busy professionals who have discovered what doctors and the medical community are starting to realise is the way we should now be exercising. 

In particular, I coach using barbells to achieve this because they are the best tool in the gym for doing so. They also demand the greatest amount of learning in order to be able to coach with the properly. This required me to build a great depth of knowledge into this area which has taken years.