Most, if not all PTs that belong to commercial clubs are
worthless. To determine if a PT is good or not, there are several
criteria to consider
1) His background - was he a previous athlete? If so what? How many
years of training experience? How many years of coaching
experience? What's his specialty/niche? Fat loss? Hypertrophy?
Sports performance? Training women?
2) His portfolio - previous client testimonials and
results(before/after pictures, etc)
3) His training style - does he just go through the machines and
count reps for you and/or stand by your side while he watches you
run on the treadmill? If so, fire him. A good PT will teach you
free weight compound exercises with barbells and dumbbells. Any PT
that doesn't do this, and says that they are somehow dangerous or
will make you "bulky" deserve to be fired.
4) Physical assessment - this should take up 1-2 sessions by
itself, and will access your current physical level, including
strength, flexibility, mobility, muscular balance, postural
distortions, address existing pains, etc. With these information a
PT will then be able to formulate an initial workout plan for you.
After this, physical assessments should be taken at fixed
intervals(e.g. every 6 weeks) to measure progress.
5) Nutrition - Obviously a big factor especially if you're training
for physique. He will probably require you to keep a food log for a
while, and educate you on healthy nutritional choices.
6) Goal setting - without a goal you're going nowhere, so a good PT
will assess your goals, and together with the physical assessment,
put together a training program that works for you. Specific goals
may be to go from 20% body fat to 10% body fat in 6 months, or to
increase all major lifts by 20% in 3 months, stuff like this. There
needs to be a timeline for accountability.
7) Coaching skills - how good of a teacher is he/she? Since the
bulk of your interaction will be him/her teaching you how to
perform the lifts, he/she needs to be good at it. This means having
intimate knowledge of the various lifts, as well as a good eye in
spotting form problems and how to correct them. This only comes
with experience.
Motivation - how
motivational is he? There are some clients who just simply can't be
motivated, but most people who are willing to spend the money for a
good PT(good PTs usually price themselves beyond the price range of
lazy, unmotivated people) will probably want it bad enough such
that some motivation will work.
9) Money back guarantee - this one's a big one, because it shows
the PT's confidence in his/her skills and knowledge. Not a lot of
people do this, but the ones that do are usually great.