If you were looking to start your own business, would you take the risk of doing it all yourself?  No, at least I hope not.  You would seek out the advice of someone who has a successful business, and possibly an attorney, banker, and maybe even a contractor.  Why should your approach to your personal health and fitness goals be any different?

The point of seeking out a good coach or mentor is to gain from their knowledge and experience in order to help you be more successful with your goals.  You will learn from their mistakes, saving you the time of figuring it out yourself, accelerating your progress.  Here are a few more reasons that you should seek out a good coach:

Passion for what they do:

Most of the trainers and coaches that I know never stop learning.  The day you stop learning is the day you lost your passion.  The live what they preach.  A quality coach is constantly pushing themselves to improve whether it be with their knowledge, skill-set, and their own personal fitness.  You will benefit from all of the extra hours that a quality coach puts into his or her craft.  Honing their craft is a high priority of good coach.

Different from your training partner:

An argument could be made that a good training partner would suffice in place of a coach.  A good training partner is important but there are additional benefits to hiring a coach as well.  A training partner can be great for accountability, pushing the intensity, spotting your lifts, etc. but more than likely you and your training partner train together because you train similarly.  It can benefit you both to seek out guidance on your training, technique, exercise programming, etc.

People of all skill levels can benefit:

Have you ever noticed that even in individual sports such as MMA, the fighter will have an entire coaching staff behind them?  Anyone from beginner to elite athletes can benefit from coaching.  An additional set of eyes that can spot holes in your game or technique is valuable to anyone.  Depending on your goals, you should seek out a coach than can elevate you to that next level, whatever that may be.

-Dan

As seen on The Alpha Project titled \”Why you Should Hire a Great Coach\”