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When people want to hire me as a trainer or Pilates instructor, I give them a free session.  It is just the smart thing to do.  My usual sessions are 50 minutes, but I spend up to an hour and a half with new folks.

The first half hour is taken up with conversation and assessments.  I learn the things I need to know to keep people safe:  what medications they take, what injuries they have, what health issues they are facing.  I offer a bunch of measurements:  weight, blood pressure, body fat percentage, circumferences of body parts.  I test cardio fitness and flexibility.  Personal training clients show me how they do squats; Pilates clients have more exercises for me to look at.  We talk about food and work and kids and pets and goals and activities and time.  I learn a lot about the people who trust me with this time.  They learn about me, too.  They get a sense of what kind of person I am and whether they want to work with someone like me.  Before we even get to any equipment, my potential clients get a sense of whether I am the right trainer for them.

When we get to the actual workout, we’re ready for our first date, so to speak.  As we go through the exercises (weights or Pilates), we learn whether I am the right person to steer them through challenges.  I get more details on how their bodies work in more contexts.  I learn about how different people respond to different kinds of cues.

At the end of the workout, I have a pretty good idea whether a person is going to commit to working out with me or not.  I am not everyone’s trainer.  I have personality quirks and strengths and weaknesses.  They mesh better with some people than others.  I take my responsibility as a trainer seriously and if a client doesn’t feel rapport with me, we won’t be very successful together.

I don’t charge for the first workout and the assessment because I want people to make a decision that doesn’t involve a financial calculation.  If our first date doesn’t work, we’ve both invested a small amount of time and that’s all.  If it does work, we have begun our relationship on a good, fair footing.