Personal Training

Personal Training

There are so many reasons why a Personal Trainer is essential to achieving your fitness goals, whether they be weight loss-based, sports-driven or for athletic purposes. Here, we’ve put together the most critical reasons why you should have a Personal Trainer, as well as the benefits that you are likely to achieve.

One of the primary reasons that someone should have a Personal Trainer is that they are trained in teaching others how to exercise. And while exercise in itself is only a part of fitness, with nutrition and lifestyle playing an essential role in the overall picture if you don’t get exercise right then you will never achieve your goals.

The importance of education when exercising is important for two primary reasons:

1) If you don’t know which exercises are most effective for the goals you have, you are unlikely to achieve those goals. For example, if your goal is to build core strength but you spend all your time on cardio exercises, then you are unlikely to hit your goal.

2) Education when performing exercises is essential in reducing the risk of injury. Many people every year are seriously injured by performing exercises they have not received training for, and this can impact their health and fitness for a long time. Having someone trained in how to execute certain tasks will greatly reduce the level of risk and increase the effectiveness of your fitness routine.

Having a Personal Trainer beside you to demonstrate the correct posture and technique is invaluable. A Personal Trainer will ensure clients are performing exercises correctly and efficiently, in order to maximise results. If your form when exercising is not correct, then you are at increased risk of injury as well as not achieving your goals (because nothing kills a dream like 10 weeks of prescribed bed rest!).

Everybody is different, and that means everyone’s abilities and requirements are different when it comes to exercise. This could be anything from having an old injury that requires special exercises to having a phobia that may impact on where or how you workout.

For example, if you have an old knee injury that required surgery, but since then you haven’t done anything to rebuild the muscles or improve mobility, then you are going to need different exercises and goals than an athlete who is training to run a marathon. This is where a Personal Trainers experience can make a huge difference to your training program.

Everyone wants to achieve their goals straight away, whether they be weight loss, cheese grater abs or Hulk-like strength. But these are not always achievable, and if you don’t hit them then you may be discouraged and backslide.

A Personal Trainer will not only help you set realistic goals that you will be able to achieve - if you put in the effort, of course - but they will also be able to keep you on track to hit those goals. For example, if your goal is to achieve a ‘bikini body’ for summer, it’s not just about doing 100 crunches a day for a month to work your abs. It’s about altering your diet to eat the correct foods, mixing cardio and weights to work the right muscles, and setting a timeframe in which this can be achieved.

As well as helping their clients set realistic goals, Personal Trainers are the perfect tool to help you achieve a specific goal. This is ideal for those who are training for a specific event, or need to achieve a certain level of fitness before they are able to do something they really want.

For example, if you have a bucket list with ‘Skydiving’ on it but are over the maximum weight, then hiring a Personal Trainer to assist with helping you lose weight is a great start to achieving this goal. Or if your goal is to be able to run a marathon in six months, then hiring a Personal Trainer to put you on the right track could be all you need to complete a marathon.

How many times have you gone to bed and said to yourself, ‘Tomorrow I’m going to wake up, go to the gym, and do an hour workout before I get ready for work’, and then woken up and decided to sleep for another hour instead of exercising?

This is where a Personal Trainer is critical to ensuring that you commit and stick to your fitness goals. If you’ve made an appointment to meet you trainer for a session, then you are far more likely to still go than if you are just telling yourself you should go to the gym.

There are two types of people who go to the gym:

1) Those who wander in, spend 10 minutes on one machine and then drift slowly over to another, before half-heartedly trying bicep curls for five reps and then walking out.

2) Those who have a plan in mind, and hit the machines with a purpose. They generally have a set amount of reps they do in sets of two or three, and they’ll know exactly what they’re doing on each machine.

It’s fairly obvious that the first group will not be achieving their fitness goals unless they get some help and have someone to direct them, so if you know that you’re one of those people then you should be enlisting the help of a Personal Trainer ASAP.

When completing their Certificate III in Fitness, every student is required to complete a module on nutrition and how it can affect fitness. Personal Trainers who complete their Certificate IV in Fitness have to then complete additional work on nutrition, and a number of Personal Trainers also add on additional education to their program by completing a Nutrition course such as those offered by the Australian Institute of Fitness.

By choosing a Personal Trainer who has undergone specific nutrition education, you know that they will be providing the right nutritional advice to achieve your goals.

It has long been known that physical exercise can help with mental health issues such as depression, and that it is a recommended part of treatment by many medical health professionals. Having a Personal Trainer to help with your exercise plan when you suffer from mental health problems can help with motivation, with choosing the right exercises to release the most endorphins, and also just to have another shoulder to lean on.

Which leads us to our next point...

Let’s be honest, most of the time when exercising with your Personal Trainer you will be telling them about your week, how work is going, and what’s wrong with your life at the time. This is normal!

A Personal Trainer is there to help with your fitness goals, yes, but they’re also there to help improve your overall wellbeing. They care about how stressed you are, because that will impact how motivated you are in your sessions. They care if you’re unhappy in a relationship, as this could result in eating unhealthily.

There are myriad ways in which having a Personal Trainer can be like having an unofficial therapist.

It can take weeks to form good habits, and even longer to break bad ones - and trying to do it on your own is hard work. Having a Personal Trainer is like having a good angel on your shoulder encouraging you in the right direction. They can help to argue with the bad angel in your head, and keep you on track to achieve your fitness goals.

There are always going to be some exercises that you enjoy more than others, beyond simple capability. For example, just because you can physically do burpees doesn’t mean that you always want to, but you might really like doing squat jumps and sit ups instead.

A Personal Trainer will be able to tailor your training plan to suit you and what you enjoy, as well as encourage you to do the exercises that are best to achieve your goals.

As well as this, there are always going to be some days when the last thing you feel like doing is a hard workout, and so having a Personal Trainer means that they can tailor your exercise for that day to both accommodate your mood while still making the session helpful.

Regardless of whether the only time you have available to train is at a ridiculously early hour before work, or on your lunch break, or mid-afternoon before the kids come home from school - a Personal Trainer is one of the most versatile professions in terms of hours. They understand that different people have different availabilities, and so they will tailor appointment times to suit you.

Not everyone enjoys the atmosphere of a crowded gym, or having to wait for the machine you want to use to become available. The benefit of having a Personal Trainer is that you aren’t limited to working out where equipment is available - not only will your PT have some equipment that they can bring with them, but you can also choose the location in which you exercise.

Whether it’s in the comfort of your own home or in your neighbourhood park, with a Personal Trainer you have the flexibility to workout wherever suits you best.

Are you getting bored with your fitness routine? Have you progressed beyond the exercises you know and have plateaued in your fitness? A Personal Trainer is what you need to take you to the next level, and continuously challenge your abilities.

Don’t think you can lift that medicine ball?

Positive you won’t fit back into your favourite dress?

Doubt you’ll be able to compete in a charity run next year?

A Personal Trainer is your life coach, nutrition guide and encourager all in one, and without them your fitness goals are that much harder to achieve. So what are you waiting for? Find a professional Personal Trainer today to help achieve your fitness goals.