Do you workout with a personal trainer?
There’s a reason why the personal training industry is thriving in this country with over 20,000 personal trainers working in the UK at present. Working with a personal trainer is one of the fastest, easiest and most successful ways to improve your health and fitness. If you’re trying to lose weight or keep fit but keep falling off the wagon, it’s worth knowing why a personal trainer could make the difference.
But are the myths around using a personal trainer putting you off?
Here are some of the most common myths and the truth behind them according to Andy McGylnn, Director of Lifestyle Fitness Personal Training, www.lsfpt.co.uk who has trained and mentored over a thousand personal trainers.
1. “Personal training isn’t worth it and I can just set my own programme at the gym”
Of course you can do your own programme, just like you can go to a golf driving range and swing one ball after another down the range, all the while, setting up bad habits in your swing and never really improving after a certain point. 98% of people I have tested are moving less than 50% efficiently as they could be when they exercise; possibly using the wrong muscles and with deficiencies in their diet that aren’t helping the process.
Exercise and nutrition are an art and a science, information is changing and being updated all the time. Personal trainers provide you with the most up to date and cutting edge information to ensure that any time you do spend setting up your own programme will be maximised. Many people don’t realise that they might only need a couple of appointments with a personal trainer to correct or address a few points.
2. “It’s expensive”
It’s about value and perceived value. Nothing is expensive it’s just a question of whether the value stacks up for you. To correct your posture, improve your sleep, relieve the ache in your lower back, get you the fitness results you desire in half the time and get you feeling and looking better than you have done in years - along with the knowledge that everything you take from the session you can keep forever – I’d say that’s value.
3. “It’s only for celebrities”
Personal training is certainly popular with celebrities, as they tend to be quite image conscious, living in the public eye. They are also often photographed training in public in order to promote a particular fitness drive they are on etc. However, anyone looking to improve their lifestyle and appearance can benefit from working with a personal trainer. It certainly isn’t a celebrity-only activity.
4. “Personal trainers are strict”
Good Personal Trainers have a duty of care to their clients to ensure the results and changes are agreed. Sometimes old habits may need to be gently challenged or changed. I’ve never really bought into a coaching style that forces people through shouting or fear, it’s just not a long term strategy for change. Understanding the client and why certain behaviours are adopted or repeated is the best starting point - for good trainers.
5. “Personal trainers make you do weights”
Any good trainer should show you how resistance and weight bearing activity yields benefits to your body extending far beyond simply ‘toning’ the muscle. Resistance training comes in many forms and a good trainer will have you doing a free weight routine that you enjoy and recognise the benefits from. Resistance training can in fact improve bone density, metabolic rate, range of motion of joints, as well as some far deeper and health related benefits such as enhancing your body’s ability to manage sugars effectively.
6. “Personal trainers can only help me with my fitness needs”
For the first 2 years of my career, I was all about fitness as a trainer - now my lead product is health related issues and lifestyle factors. So much so, that I actually don’t have any clients with a primary goal of fitness any more. Personal training has taken a very interesting turn over the past decade. Personal training qualifications and certifications are much more relevant now and go into a great deal of depth learning about specific health related issues and how to provide naturopathic solutions to support or recover the client.
7. “Personal trainers are flirts”
It is true that the personal training industry can have its fair share of unprofessional behaviour but the same could be said for any profession and any individual in a workplace. Perhaps the whole subject of the ‘body’ is more at the forefront of discussion and therefore perhaps nearer to the line of what is acceptable and what is not. You really should do some reference checks when hiring a personal trainer just as you would with any tradesman or professional.
8. “You can’t work with a personal trainer when you’re pregnant”
Some of the best personal trainers I have known have worked with have a specialisation in pre and post natal training. If anything these types of trainers will take the guess work, conjecture and hearsay completely out of your regime and give you the facts on what you can and cannot do to ensure an even healthier birth.
9. “Working with a personal trainer is time consuming”
Personal trainers tend to be prepared to work sessions around your life, whether that be in the morning before work or later in the evening. Time is no pre-requisite of a good workout or session. What constitutes an effective workout is the plan and the progression from one session to the next. An effective workout can be as short as 30 - 40 minutes. In fact with the right preparation and layout, it would be possible to make gains in a 20 minute workout.
10. “Having a personal trainer guarantees results with no effort”
There are certainly tips, advice and protocols that you may be able to integrate into your diet or training regime that may appear to expedite results or kick start the weight loss, such as protocols for activating lipolysis (fat burning), but as with anything worth having in life, a bit of effort and application is required. I’ve always preferred knowing ‘why’ I am doing something and I tend to pass this assumption onto my clients, it results in me explaining the reasoning or research behind each decision or process I carry out with them or why we may perhaps do 5 reps as opposed to 10 or squats as opposed to leg extensions, etc.
Tagged in fitness tips