The Benefits of Personal Training – A Nubodyz Publication

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Seattle, Washington 08/30/2009

Most people have a difficult time getting themselves to workout. Those who are successful at making time to workout with regularity most often have a difficult time getting the results they are looking for. How many people do you talk to who are really satisfied with their progress? Not many. However, this article will be a huge help and provide you with a lot of valuable information. What people often do not realize, is that exercise is nothing short of its own sport and a true science. Every competitive athlete, regardless of what sport they participate in and at what level, has a coach to keep them accountable and to develop their skill. Can you imagine how goofy and chaotic sports would be without a coach present to control and develop their players? It would be a real mess! Why then, should exercise be any different than organized athletics. To answer your question, it’s not. The instruction and accountability that a personal trainer brings to the table will take you to a level you never before thought was possible for many reasons I will now cover. I cannot even begin to emphasize how this approach can change your life and inject a level of confidence and enthusiasm unlike anything you have ever experienced! All that is required of is that you are willing to accept help.

Firstly, let me address a source of exercise information some have felt is an alternative to the one on one attention of a real life fitness professional, because I want you to understand that there simply is no alternative; I’m talking about Fitness Magazines. Yeah, you can grab a fitness magazine off the rack on your next stop to the grocery store and tote it around with you your next trip to the gym as if it were a cute little accessory (please do not do this, it drives me crazy), but you will get a generic approach that is not custom tailored to your body; or even worse an approach tailored to an entirely different fitness goal! Thousands and thousands of people snag these magazines up each day. Does this sea of people coincidently need the same workout routine published in that month’s issue? Of course not. Whether they pick up the September issue, or wait for the next workout routine to come out in October, they are rolling the dice either way. Rolling the dice on improving your figure is not a gamble you want to take! These workouts aren’t tailored to you, the individual. Many people who rely on these sources of information will spend time after time, issue after issue, with a trial and error approach to figure out what works; that is if they don’t give up from the discouragement in the mean time. Sure, you can expect some improvements with this approach, but not enough to sustain you, keep you happy, and ensure that you will get the kind of progress that will keep you coming to the gym. Ask yourself this, how many times have you seen a guy/gal working out in the gym with their fitness magazine by their side for reference and thought to yourself “I want to look like him/her.” Most likely, never.

Ok, now that we have established that flipping through Men’s Fitness or Women’s Health does not suffice, let’s talk about everything personal training has to offer you. It is the job of a personal trainer to personalize your workout around your current condition and what areas you are especially seeking to improve. We are all genetically unique. To supplement this, our lifestyle choices have made our conditions even more unique, complicating matters even further. You need an assessment conducted by a professional. How could a mechanic fix your car without diagnosing the problem first? How could a doctor perform a corrective surgery without assessing and diagnosing the patient’s condition? Well, your body is the exact same way. The same people who don’t heed this advice are the same people driving around with a brand new engine in their car and a cast on their arm when all they needed was an oil change and an aspirin (joking of course). If you are serious about making physical advancements, success will begin with a proper assessment. From this point on you can be accurately guided in the right direction to reach your desired goal, and much more expediently I might add.

After you have been properly assessed, you and your trainer develop a nutritional game plan; you will know what to eat, when to eat it, and in what portion. Dialing in your nutrition is an important component in boosting your metabolism and eating properly can actually assist in melting the fat off of your frame. You need a meal plan based off of your body, your exercise routine, and where you want to go; there is absolutely no guess work. To many people have spent their lives with their foods working against them, when, if harnessed properly, their foods can actually work for them; and I’m not talking about eating stuff that tastes like cardboard, I mean foods that you enjoy. If you don’t like what you are eating, you won’t stick to it. This is why so many “diets” fail. I have never told anyone I’m on a diet, I just eat healthy and that’s the way I live my life; with a little cheat food every now and then of course!

Once you have the correct foods to fuel your program you’re going to want to start sculpting and firming up your figure. As far as strength training exercises are concerned, many people don’t know how to perform various exercises to target different muscle groups, and the great majority of those who do know how to perform them, simply don’t know how to execute the exercises correctly. A strength training exercise is a flat out skill. We have to learn how to isolate certain muscles and take other muscles out of the equation. This is called a “mind to muscle connection” and it is one of the most crucial and most difficult aspects of exercise to develop and master. Pumping your arms and going through the motions is simply not going to get it done. It takes much practice and the instruction of a professional to develop this and get the most out of your work.

After learning this skill, it’s certainly no good if you don’t apply it! No, I’m afraid all your knowledge won’t do you any good if you are sitting on the couch. For many people the accountability of a trainer is just as valuable as the trainer’s knowledge. It’s funny how in my experience people have a much much greater tendency to show up and workout when they have scheduled an appointment and are paying for it! And even if you are only able to see a trainer semi-regularly, say once or twice a month, it is amazing how the knowledge that you will meet with your trainer and that they will assess your progress can teach you to keep yourself accountable.

Additionally, having a trainer will also bring excitement into your workout. They get you fired up, feeling good about yourself, and are your partners in your path to success. I can confidently say that having fun is, without a doubt, a pre-requisite for fitness success. Does this mean you are always going to want to work out; of course not. But, the people you see with great figures genuinely have learned to enjoy working out, and when you start to see regular progress you will begin to enjoy it as well. You will go from “making yourself workout” to “wanting to workout”. I made myself workout in my earlier years until I finally wised-up and accepted the help of other people, now I look forward to working out because I see progress. Years ago, if you told me I would love my workouts I would advise you to seek out a psychologist instead of a trainer, but sure enough it happened to me, and it can happen to you as well! Don’t let yourself even for a second think that you are incapable of experiencing the same thing, because I have seen it happen to many others first hand again, and again, and again. Furthermore, having excitement and fun be a part of your routine has compounding effects; yeah, it makes you show up much more often which is half the battle. Beyond that though, you can give 100% all the time regardless of how you feel, but when you are genuinely enjoying yourself, WOW does your performance skyrocket and as a result so does your progress!

Now, some of you reading this still may feel that personal training is not for you. Perhaps you’re thinking that you have the necessary knowledge and the responsibility level to work out on your own; you are an independent person who doesn’t need a trainer to hold them accountable. However, you still need a professional fitness consultant to tailor, monitor, and amend your exercise and nutrition regimens to ensure you are maximizing your results each time you pick up a weight or step on a treadmill. In this case, the advice of an online fitness consultant would be invaluable to your progress. Whether you are de-conditioned or in decent shape, you will eventually need to learn what your body responds best too. This becomes increasingly important as you advance. It is an easier feat to experience progress when you are out of shape or are just starting to workout. As your figure and health improves, however, experiencing noticeable change becomes more and more difficult. You have to become intensely meticulous and truly develop your knowledge and skill base; the guess and check approach just isn’t going to get it done. This is why top athletes and body builders across the world still have nutritionist and trainers to consult with. If at the pinnacle of athletics, these individuals are still taking advantage of using a personal trainer, than you and I certainly shouldn’t say to ourselves “nah, I don’t need that.”

You really owe it to yourself to at least try seeking out the advice of a professional. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. You can never say working with a fitness professional isn’t for you until you have actually experienced it. It is very seldom that I ever speak to someone who didn’t think working with a trainer was a real asset to their continued improvement. You are more than just physically trained, you are educated, and the benefits of working with that individual last forever as you continue to reapply and reapply all of the information you have absorbed and now understand what your body responds best too. Bottom line, if you are serious about improving your figure and your health you should take the services of a personal trainer under serious consideration. It will take your progress to a whole new level!