I have worked with or taught more than 1,000 personal trainers over the past 20 years, so I have seen some of the best and worst in the business. Based on this experience, I have compiled a list of what the best trainers are doing:

. Constantly learning new things. This may come in the form of informal education like reading books, magazines, journals and websites. It should also include at least one conference or workshop per year. Top trainers easily spend more than $1,000 per year to keep themselves educated.

. They are role models. Trainers should be exercising regularly, should not be overweight and should generally follow a healthy diet. The goal is not perfection. Everyone should be able to splurge occasionally. In my opinion, this is an integral part of a healthy diet. If you are depriving yourself you will not follow the plan for long.

. They should be constantly challenging their clients. This may be in the form of new workouts, setting new goals for clients or addressing issues that their clients are ignoring, like poor eating and not doing what they need to do to accomplish their goals.

. They should be doing things for their clients outside of exercise sessions, like sending emails, making phone calls, handing out recipes and passing along good articles. The easiest part of a trainers job is the exercise session. Keeping someone motivated is the biggest challenge.

. An extreme focus on technique and proper form. Trainers are not rep counters and aren’t there to take notes for you. Their job is to coach you. They do this by exercise modifications, proper teaching cues and helping clients progress from one exercise to the next.

. They are motivating. At the end of the day, a good trainer will get clients to do more than they ever could on their own.

. They are able to adapt their style to clients’ personalities and needs.

. They are fun to exercise with – most of the time. There will be occasions when clients dislike a trainer for pushing them to do things they are capable of but don’t want to do. The best trainers have their clients smiling and laughing at some point during a session, not the whole session.

. They keep an unwavering focus on their clients’ goals. People work with trainers to see results. It’s a team effort, but the trainer should constantly be reviewing goals and tracking progress toward those goals.

. They love their job. This should show in everything they do.

Now that you know what it takes to be a successful personal trainer, use this information to evaluate your own trainer or to find one. You are worth it. Mike Bates is a certified personal trainer and teaches kinesiology at the University of Windsor. He owns Refine Fitness Studio in Windsor, blogs at refinefitness.ca and can be reached at