What Everyone Should Know about Personal Training

Hiring a personal trainer is, without a doubt, one of the best ways to get fit and healthy – and lose a bit of weight while you’re at it! However, it’s not a quick fix. It takes a lot of dedication as well as time and effort for a personal trainer to work his or her magic on you!

So, before you call up your local personal trainer and make a booking for a couple of sessions, have a read through this article and see what you can expect from personal training.

Not a quick fix

Sadly, we are at a point in time where the rat race firmly controls us. The result of this is that health and fitness have been forced to take a  back seat. Because of this, we are paying the price with our health.

We live in an instant gratification generation. If you can’t have it ‘now’ then you go onto finding something that you can have immediately. People’s health and lifestyles are going backwards. Disease and illness are on the rise.

Don’t believe us? Here are some statistics to back us up:

• Obesity is on the increase not only in adults but also in children. A survey done in 2002, in South Africa with 13 000 people over the age of 12,  showed that 30% of men were obese. A total of 9.2% displayed abdominal obesity. A staggering 57% of women were overweight, with another 42% exhibiting abdominal obesity.
• From 1997 to 2004 in South Africa,  a total of 195 people died – per day – owing to some form of heart and blood vessel disease (CVD).
• Approximately 33 people pass away, per day, from a heart attack. Some 60 die per day as a result of a stroke.

To be – and remain – healthy and fit, you need to be committed. You need to know that you’re going to work out a certain number of times a week and stick to it. If possible, stick to the same days and times. Our brain learns through repetition so, if you always go to the gym at a particular time, it will become a habit.

Here are several other tips to help you stick to your workout schedule.

Make working out part of your routine

The most noticeable distinction between quick results and long-term fitness is that the long term option is far more practical. It’s much easier to make exercise a part of your lifestyle as opposed to spending a week not eating much and spending hours a day in the gym. Of course, quick fixes can spur you on to train harder. However, you need to stick to it by creating a schedule with measurable, easy-to-reach goals that you can trace.

 Switch up your routine

It’s not unusual to hit a patch in your training routine where you don’t make much progress. For example, you may be doing one exercise – every day  – and not seeing signs of change. This means that you should swap out your exercises.

Performing the same exercises repeatedly makes it more difficult to see results. This is because your muscles grow to be familiar with the motions of the exercise. Your body uses half the amount of energy to complete once-challenging tasks. In addition, your brain gets bored and, as a result, you stop pushing yourself.

Mix up your exercise program by implementing a combination of weights and cardio workouts, group fitness classes and gym routines, workouts on your own and group classes.

 Re-set your goals regularly

Nothing beats the feeling of reaching your health and fitness goals – in fact, any goals. However, where do you go after you’ve achieved these?

Avoid negative habits making their way back into your life and undoing all your hard work. Re-set your fitness goals and aim even higher than you did previously. Ensure that your goal is well defined. Write down the date by which you’ll achieve the goal. Develop a thorough plan to achieve it.

 Maximize your workout time

One of the most frequently heard reasons – that personal trainers hear for not exercising is a lack of time. However, slow and steady doesn’t always win the race. Skip the hour-long circuits at easy-to-moderate intensities. Challenge yourself to do half an hour of moderate-to-high intensity physical activity. Go at it at 100% for the entire routine and take 15- to 30-second rest breaks.

Personal training is an excellent method of keeping in shape. However, you need to be aware of the basics above before you start.