Personal trainers who do house visits?

August 17, 2008 9:34 AM

I want to solicit a personal trainer to come to my father's apartment twice a week and do a session with him in the building's gym. He's too depressed and demotivated to go on his own accord, but he'll comply if someone shows up at his door. How do I do this without paying a fortune? Are there Human Kinetics students around looking for part-time work? How would I go about finding them? There's also a swimming pool, so a swimming instructor would also be possible, but my dad can't swim, so it'd have to be someone patient enough to coach a cranky 57-year-old in swimming.

As I've mentioned above, he's 57, overweight, and thoroughly demotivated. Prone to excusing himself from exercise with bad jokes.

posted by simona to Health & Fitness (3 answers total)

(per the swimming pool, perhaps water aerobics instead of swimming? Less sweaty, more fun, protective of joints and a good way to get fitter when one is not fit to start with.)

Does your local hospital have a fitness center connected with it? (Some do) Perhaps call them and ask for recommendations? Or call your local college's PE dept?
posted by konolia at 10:08 AM on August 17, 2008

Per konolia, I think a lot will depend on whether you have a local university with a phys-ed department, or a local hospital.

Consider calling your city/county rec facilities, or anything off-site that's affordable, and ask whether they know of a senior citizen or reduced rate taxi service that will ferry him to there, where he could join a class. Less convenient, but more social, and if you have someone booked to come to his door and take him at an appointed hour he may be compliant.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 11:15 AM on August 17, 2008

What are your/his standards? Do you need a professional? I'm thinking that, when I was in high school, the school had a team of kids who were interested in the medicine/sports fields who worked with the school's sports teams on athletic training (more from an "injury prevention and recovery" aspect than a coaching standpoint). And of course, you've probably got even more who are college-aged.

So if you don't need someone with a degree or a certified professional, you might be able to get someone who's pretty qualified for $8-10/hour off of Craigslist?
posted by fogster at 12:02 PM on August 17, 2008