How to long to have a Personal Trainer

This post is simply my opinion. there may be some arguments here, but hey guess what? its my blog not yours! haha!

So, I get asked this quite a bit, and I usually always breath in big, breath out big, and say with a smile "It depends"

on what?

1) level the client is at
2) skill level of the client
3) motivation of the client
4) financial situation of the client
5) schedule of the client
6) goals of the client

There are probably more I'm leaving out, but lets go with that.

So, level?
as in, are they BRAND new in the gym, or is this a bodybuilder looking for a bit of optimization?

obviously the first needs much more "personal training"
I do not offer "introductory 3 sessions" anymore. i have found that the success/come back to the gym on their own rate is very poor. I have looked every way I can to make sure its not me not being able to teach the exercise correct. However, I am looking into other mediums such as a video series and a book, so stay tuned.

Because, if you are a decent trainer at ALL, you are attempting to train the client to be able to train themselves. so, in essence you are training them to be a trainer.

did i learn everything i know in 3 hours? haha! some may think so, but no, no it wasn't 3 hours.

2) skill level. how good are they grasping concepts? breathing? posture? remembering what a "bench press" is? do they need repeated instruction every time? these are all massive factors. I ask myself "would I feel comfortable letting this person go off on their own?"

3) Is this person looking for the magic bullet? or can i convince them that yes, it does boil down to lots I have talked about in this blog, such as genetics, effort, meal planning, direction, commitment, scheduling, everything.

4) I'm just going to be someone who says it. personal training is a luxury service. not everyone can afford it. I know of some people that pay in excess of 1000$ per person (for JUST TRAINING) a month, whom i wouldn't pay that specific trainer more than 50$/month. This is the part that sucks. If anyone has met me, they hopefully know that its not about the money for me. at all. yes, it pays the bills, but I LOVE what I do. this goes back to the how to pick a trainer article that Lyle McDonald went over in one of my earlier posts.

5) this is where we run into fun. what do most people do? work. so, obviously when is popular? 5:30 am - 8:00am ish... then 4:30 pm - on. so, once that is filled, and you have someone that wants a slot for full time training... you have to kind of scratch your head and try to make it work. this is sometimes very hard to get done. the more steady you can have someones fitness schedule, the better. this gets them into a "workout time" per say and makes things much easier, instead of calls saying "when were we working out again?" or things along those lines. especially for people that want to put guarantees onto their services, are you talking pure training? training and nutrition? supplements? cardio? yep...

6) are they coming in for something to do? or does this person want to run a marathon? massively different goals. and this goes back to skill and level of client. an obese client with a goal of a marathon will need much more personal training than the fit, previously marathoned seasoned client.

SO WHATS THE ANSWER MARTY????

I told you already. It depends.

I now do not train clients for anything less than a month. at this moment in time, I feel anything less is going to fail the client, and therefore I am failing. This is assuming they are a first time client, fresh in the gym.

every other type of client, it depends. it really does. maybe ask your trainer some of these questions? how long do i NEED to be with you? or maybe you just flat out want to be with them, which is more than fine.
I have clients that could definitely do it on their own, but they remain with me for the motivation and wanting everything perfect and laid out for them.