Is it time to get a personal trainer?

When you first start out trying to get fit, one of the first questions you may ask yourself is whether or not you should get a personal trainer. Especially when it comes to weight loss if you’ve decided that becoming fit and healthy is a top priority you may have wondered whether you need some extra support.

Maybe you don’t have the knowledge of how to workout, what exercises you should or shouldn’t be doing, or how often. Maybe you don’t feel confident walking into a gym solo. You might even have been exercising on your own for quite a while, but you just aren’t getting the results you want.

Whatever your reason for considering a personal trainer, it could be incredibly helpful to sign up for some personal training sessions if you are experiencing any of the following…

You keep getting injured

One week you put your back out. A few weeks later you have a knee that plays up and leaves you hobbling around. A few weeks later it’s tendinitis. You keep ending up having to stop your training so that you can recover from an injury.

What you may not know is that injuries from exercise are often the result of incorrect technique, pushing yourself to exercise at higher intensities than you should be, or training too frequently or for too long.

A personal trainer will be able to assess your current fitness level and tailor a program appropriate for you. They will be able to check your body position to make sure that your joints are aligned correctly during exercise. They can make sure that you are in fact working out the correct muscle groups.

You keep giving up part way through a workout

If you find that you are aiming for 30 minutes and find yourself throwing in the towel after 15 it could be that you just need a bit of extra encouragement to keep you motivated and get the most out of a workout. A personal trainer can ensure the pace of the workout is right for you, with adequate rest breaks in between so that you don’t burn out too quickly.

One common reason for stopping exercise is simple boredom! Having someone to talk to about your goals, your struggles, even just your everyday life can make a workout so much more enjoyable.

You need someone to be accountable to

If you’ve ever made a promise to yourself and then broken it, you might be better off telling your goal to someone else who can keep you accountable. It’s very easy to justify to yourself how you’ll start your diet again tomorrow, or make up for a workout later in the week, but if you actually have to explain that to another person whose job it is to help you get to that goal… not so easy.

Whether or not your personal trainer is tough on you or not, there’s something about the act of having to tell someone else we are cancelling or going off plan is often enough to make us just stop and think. That can be enough to nudge us towards a better choice.

Working out is too cheap

People hate losing money. And this is great because most PT’s will still charge you if you cancel your session at the last minute. So if you know that you are going to have to fork out cash anyway, might as well get your moneys worth right?

For whatever reason, when you make a decent financial contribution to something you are far more likely to actually follow through with it and get the results you want. The simple fact is that having a personal trainer costs more than a simple gym membership, so if you get as far as booking PT sessions, chances are you are pretty serious about losing weight and getting fit and will make the most of it.