What Is The Difference Between A Health Coach vs. a Personal Trainer?

What is a Personal Health Coach?

It’s easy to become overwhelmed when it comes to weight loss, dieting and working out. Having a partner to help you reach your fitness goals while also improving mental health and well-being can make a world of difference. Learn more about what a health coach does and what to expect when you start working with one with this detailed overview.

What is a Personal Trainer?

Knowledgeable personal trainers create customized exercise programs and teach proper mechanics of each exercise all to help you reach your unique health and fitness goals. Often they work at a gym and/or hold in-home training sessions. 

What is the difference between a health coach and a personal trainer?

A health coach goes above and beyond a personal trainer.

While a personal trainer focuses on the physiological side of health such as exercising, muscle growth, and weight loss, a certified health coach focuses on the whole person by looking at a broader, more comprehensive view of one’s life.  A health coach will awaken you to your own unique skills, strengths, abilities and untapped potential by utilizing behavior-change techniques. They can help you optimize your health and well-being so you can truly thrive in life.

Why a health coach offers more than a personal or gym trainer

A health coach has more advanced training, experience, and overall expertise. For example, to become a ACE Certified Health Coach you must first hold their Personal Trainer Certification and/or fulfil a number of prerequisites. Think of it like this. If having a personal training certification is equivalent to an undergraduate degree, then having a health coaching certification is equivalent to holding a masters degree.

Those who choose to become health coaches increase their overall effectiveness which puts them on a higher playing field.

In addition to mastering the personal training knowledge base, health coaches also master:

Current concepts in weight management
Lifestyle changes to elicit long-term success
Discussion of lifestyle modification and behavioral change
Teaching clients about self-reliance, and how that is the only way to ensure long term success