By now you have read our posts about making a plan to start your new healthy lifestyle, pursue your fitness goals and change the way you eat. You have mapped out your weekly exercise routine be it in the gym, talking walks or joining a new class and you have started making new lists for when you go shopping; choosing fresh foods, trying new dishes and getting rid of the junk food by recording it all in your food diary right??
Well it’s January and you haven’t started yet, how many excuses have we found to stop you from starting; the bad weather, I’ll wait for the kids to go back to school or I’ll start tomorrow. I forget the number of people I have spoken to as a trainer who have said that yes, working with a trainer will get me results and improve my health and fitness BUT I’m just not fit enough at present to workout with one as they will kill me, so I will train by myself for a bit before I sign up. Guess what; you will go off and do maybe a couple of exercise sessions (maybe a class or two, go for a long walk) and then ‘something’ will come up and you will stop: back into the old routine that you are currently in, looking at yourself in the mirror and being fed up. There is just no accountability.
Well, here’s the thing; working with a trainer won’t ‘kill you’, its the trainers job to show you how to achieve the goals you want; whether that’s to lose weight, tone up or add some muscle. They are there to explain what you need to be doing; what you should be eating, what types of exercises you should be doing and educating you to the point that you are able to go off by yourself and know how to live and maintain a healthier lifestyle. Yes, the sessions can be tough but a good trainer will show you how much work you need to be doing to drop that dress size; they will help you to change your eating & shopping habits. The key point is that a trainer will SUPPORT you to make changes, good coaches teach!
If you’re just getting started with exercise, or you’ve already been working out but not seeing the results you’d like, you might be surprised at just how much a personal trainer can help you look and feel more in shape—and quite quickly, too! Here are five reasons why hiring a qualified personal trainer could be the best move you’ll ever make toward achieving better health and fitness.
1. You’ll Actually Show Up
Some fitness experts recommend scheduling workouts into your diary like appointments. Now for the truth: If you’re not in the mood to exercise on your own, it’s easy to hit delete on a workout because it’s kind of a fake appointment.
What’s not so easy is cancelling a workout you’ve already paid a personal trainer for. It’s a real appointment that your trainer scheduled into his or her packed workday just for you. Wasting money is painful, and wasting someone else’s time is embarrassing. Hiring a personal trainer puts someone in your court to keep you accountable.
2. You’ll Get More Out of Your Goals
You might hire an accountant to prepare your taxes because you know that a skilled professional helps you achieve the best outcome. It’s a fact that experts (e.g., personal trainers) in a given field (health & fitness) know a bunch of stuff other people don’t. Leveraging their knowledge saves you time and frustration. When you hire a personal trainer, you put yourself on a fast-track to getting more of what you want from fitness, including being able to define and refine your goals in ways you might not have considered. Trainers know the right form of workout, best exercises, correct equipment and best programming for plenty of client goals. It’s what they do for a living.
3. You’ll Sometimes Do What You Didn’t Know You Could Do
Chances are, your personal trainer is going to occasionally, or frequently, suggest an exercise you’re unsure of or hand over a set of weights that are heavier than what you’d ever pick up. You might be surprised to discover that you are capable of what’s being asked of you!
With your abilities and goals in mind, a personal trainer will push you more than you’d push yourself. And it’s enough to make a difference in how fit you look and feel. Worried about it being too intense? A skilled, credentialed personal trainer knows just how far to safely take a client outside his or her comfort zone to achieve the best results.
4. You’ll Gain More Confidence With Working Out
Hiring a personal trainer helps you avoid a big workout blunder: Guessing at how to do an exercise or use a piece of equipment. At best, this wastes your time; at worst, it sets you up for injury. With a trainer by your side, you gain access to “inside information” about how to properly perform exercises and make the most of equipment. When someone’s watching out for you—checking your form and providing personalised feedback—you can feel confident that you’re exercising like the pros.
5. You’ll Lay the Foundation for Lifelong Fitness
If you’ve hired the right personal trainer—one who is attentive to your abilities and goals, and is skilled at his or her job, who’s personality matches—a funny thing happens: You look forward to your training sessions! Hanging out with your trainer during sessions can be quite social, which creates a stronger commitment to exercise for a lot of people. The more motivated you feel to get to the gym, the closer you become to making fitness a lifelong habit.
Think about it; if you believe you can achieve your health & fitness goal without the support and help of a trainer, WHY HAVEN’T YOU?
