Personal Training

Per my previous post - time to talk about program structure and design.  Everyone who enters a gym has their own unique goals based on their body type, lifestyle and work schedule.  While conducting the initial evaluation, the personal trainer (PT) should be talking to you to understand how you’ve been training, any areas of concern, any injuries, certain things you can’t do, etc…  All of these details will help the PT when designing your program.  It’s much better to know that type of information up front instead of learning about it after the program is designed and you’re getting ready to do the exercise for the first time.

What you should understand is you’re paying a PT to design a program custom made for your specific needs – that’s the point/purpose of hiring a personal trainer and essentially what personal training means.

Probably one of the most sought after goals clients have is to tone up, lose body fat and drop weight – those 3 goals essentially go hand-in-hand.  The various types of training that exist to meet those goals are limitless; a good personal trainer can be pretty creative with exercise in maximizing results.  Since a client will generally have a one hour session 2-3 times per week, it’s incumbent upon the PT to provide the client with the best program that will maximize results in that rather short period of time.  In order to make that possible, the PT should have knowledge with regard to the human body (physiological effects, biomechanics, kinesiology, etc…) and how it works relative to the client’s lifestyle.  You can’t just take cookie-cutter workouts and expect them to work for everyone.

Here’s a general example of what I’m referring to when I talk about custom made program designs; I’ll use 3 of my clients as an example.

• 3 clients, 3 different body types, 3 different lifestyles but the SAME goal; all 3 of their programs are different and use a variety of different types of exercise.  One client does more cardio than the others.  Once client lifts heavier weights and has less rest in between sets.  One client has an injury and can’t do many of the traditional exercises that most people take for granted.  Some of the training that is incorporated into their program designs are interval training, supersets, drop sets and core conditioning, to name a few.  I can’t take one workout and make it work for all three, even though they all have the same goal.  Having just described all of this too, more than likely this will change very quickly as they become more conditioned and their endurance increases.

In the next few posts we can discuss some of the methods of training I mentioned above: supersets, interval training and core conditioning.  Some of you are probably wondering what those are.

Here are a couple of tips:

• If you have a good trainer, he or she will explain the importance of diet & nutrition as they will work in synergy with your training program.  You can work as hard as you possibly can in the gym but when and what you eat will make or break all the hard work.
• Don’t be afraid to ask the personal trainer questions.  Make he or she answer your questions in a manner you understand.  Too many times, I see personal trainers try to talk around the questions and use big words to make you think they know what they’re talking about.  Chances are, if they can’t explain it to you in a way you can understand it then they probably don’t really understand it themselves.

It’s getting to be that time of the year, Spring and Summer, when everyone wants to be in better shape, or a little healthier.  The New Year’s resolution is over and some have fallen off the initial “push” to start the new year off right.  It’s tough to join a gym and have a goal in mind only to realize you’re not sure how to achieve it.  For example: losing body fat, gaining muscle, improving endurance, etc…  Well, there’s a lot to understand when it comes to the human anatomy.  You’ve got to know how it works in order to achieve maximum results.

For those of you who may be discouraged about your results so far, or haven’t taken that first step in joining a gym because you might be a little intimidated – there is hope!  It’s still a new year and there’s plenty of time…the hot weather might pretty much be here already in New Orleans but you can still look and feel better by summer! You can still join a gym and most gyms offer a free initial evaluation with a certified personal trainer (PT) when you sign up for  a membership.  If you weren’t told about that, you may want to ask.

An initial evaluation is a one-on-one session with a PT and usually takes about an hour to complete.  The evaluation will cover a basic overview of your lifestyle, health, diet and a couple of tests to gauge your current strength and endurance.  Generally, the personal trainer will take your blood pressure, your weight, ask you to perform a sit & reach test (for flexibility), and measure your body composition (lean mass & fat).  The strength test may include an exercise to determine muscular strength and sit-ups (or crunches) to measure muscular endurance.

Once that’s all complete, the PT will give you the results of all that information.  What kind of results?  You’ll find out where you are at on a health scale of “Poor, Fair, Average, Good or Excellent”.  You’ll be able to hear the recommendations for training the PT may have in mind for you based on those results.  At that time, the PT may be able to explain a couple of tips about a creating a balanced program that may help in achieving the results you want.  Then it’s time to decide.

At this point, some people feel comfortable enough to move on by themselves; they may have just needed to get some extra motivation by seeing where they stood from a health perspective.  If you’re thinking about going solo, always remember, if you have any questions about an exercise or how to use a machine, don’t hesitate to ask a PT – they should have no problem helping you.   Others may be ready to take the step in having a PT train them.  If you select to work with a personal trainer – he or she will use your evaluation to establish a structured program to guide you towards your goals.  We’ll get into program structure and design in the next post.