I wanted to step out of the box a little bit with today’s post. I got this idea from an episode of a podcast I listen to (The Hardcore Self-Help Podcast). In the episode he talked about things that he felt would help people get the most they could out of therapy. I thought I’d do the same thing to help people get the most they can out of personal training. By the way everything I’m writing here is with the assumption that you are working with a good personal trainer. There are certainly bad ones out there just as there are bad lawyers, doctors and U.S. Presidents.
1 – Be consistent!!! Man, is this important! The most important thing to keep in mind when you are starting with personal training is to show up!! That sounds pretty basic but it needs to be said. I’ve never had a client get good results if they were inconsistent. Kind of like everything in life, huh?
2 – A personal trainer may motivate you, but not how you think. Let’s start with what a personal trainer does do to motivate someone:
Cares about your progress.
Provides a positive atmosphere for training.
Takes your goals, condition, likes and dislikes into account when writing your program.
Pushes you appropriately during your sessions. Appropriately is the key word here. It has many different meanings and varies with each and every client.
Here’s what a personal trainer does NOT do to motivate someone:
What I’m trying to say is motivation isn’t necessarily what you think it may be. That leads to number 3.
3 – If you are relying on motivation to carry you through, stop. Motivation doesn’t last. You need proof? How many times in life have you been super excited to start something only to fail on the follow through? Plenty. That’s motivation. What carries you through? Discipline and habits. Put something on our schedule and just do it. No questions. No excuses. Motivation wanes. BE BETTER THAN THAT!!
4 – Understand who the miracle worker really is.
It’s You!!!!
That’s right, it’s not your trainer. It’s you!! Personal training isn’t magic. You will get out of this what you put into it, no matter who your trainer is. You need to own your results. If you want more you need to put the work in. With both your diet and with your workouts! If you don’t know how then ask your trainer.
Also, one other point here. YOU decide how hard you want to work. Everyone has a different level of what they’re willing and able to do and that is up to each and every one of you to decide for yourself. This is the kind of thing that a trainer should understand and work with you on. We all have different things going on in our lives. Just understand that your results are directly connected.
5 – Be engaged. When you are with your trainer be engaged in what you’re doing. Pay attention to what each exercise is, how to do it and how it feels. Do you find that your trainer is giving you the same cues every time you do a particular exercise? Do you not know what an exercise is after doing it for months? You have to be engaged in what you’re doing to get the most out of it.
6 – Ask questions. This relates to our last point. If you don’t know what something is supposed to do or feel like, than ask! Don’t just blindly go through the motions. Oftentimes a small form adjustment can make all the difference in the effectiveness of an exercise. Other times an exercise just might not work for you. You’re not going to know any of this if you don’t ask. Also, if your trainer can’t answer your questions, that may be a red flag. There should be a reason something is in your program.
7 – Follow your program… but feel free to make suggestions. If you’ve hired a trainer to help you reach your goals, don’t pick and choose the things from your program that you do. Unless you don’t really want to reach your goals. If you bought a book on how to fix your brakes you wouldn’t just decide not to do step 4, right?
That being said, feel free to make suggestions on things you want to do and don’t want to do. There are many ways to do things and your trainer should have enough tools in their toolbox to account for that. This all goes back to being engaged and asking questions. After all you started personal training for a reaons, right?
I hope this helps you in your quest for fitness. If you want to talk about how to get the most our of your training, whether it’s with me or anyone else you can click here to schedule a time to do so.
Have a great day everyone!!
Mitch Rothbardt, FMS, PN Level 2 Lean Eating Coach, FMS Castro Valley Fitness 2861 Grove Way 510-755-9191 Mitch@CastroValleyFitness.com
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