The top two objections I hear from people who are interested in joining a gym or hiring a personal trainer are: “It’s too expensive” and “I don’t have time”. Both statements are a result of the choice to not prioritize fitness. People spend money on and allocate time for people, experiences, and things that are important to them. Someone willing to take responsibility for their health and fitness level will spend both money and time to realize necessary improvements.
When buying guidance in the fitness industry, it is wise to ensure any monetary investment is carefully allocated. Marketers work hard to convince customers to buy programs, supplements, and gimmicks that won’t lead to any lasting body changes. Spending money to hire an experienced, well-intentioned personal trainer or coach holds immense value. Some of the perks of hiring a quality coach include their tested experience, ongoing education, support, guidance, and accountability.
An experienced personal trainer has practiced coaching clients to reach and surpass goals. They have helped clients break through strength or weight loss plateaus. Their experience gives them the tools to address problems with solutions that have already been tested with other clients. Even if your case presents a new problem, an experienced trainer will be able to utilize their education and experience to find a resolution for your fitness problem.
Quality personal trainers also have education to back up their experience. Not only have they already earned a degree or certification(s) to teach others how to train and to write effective workout programs, but certified coaches and personal trainers are required to complete ongoing educational courses to maintain their certifications. This requirement ensures your trainer is learning new best practices as they are studied and presented to the fitness world.
Popular media and social media can be a good place to learn some training help, but a knowledgeable trainer can do a much better job deciphering between a “new” fitness trend that is a waste of your time versus a new, researched and tested training exercise, tool, or programming method. They know the human body, why specific training methods work, and many can even use exercise as a means to address pain or mobility issues, along with helping you achieve your strength or fat loss goals.
Trainers and coaches can provide the support, guidance, and accountability necessary when a person is struggling with workouts or training consistency. Do you get easily discouraged when you don’t immediately notice your weight decrease or see those muscles you’re working so hard to build? Do you switch from online program to program but can’t figure out why you aren’t making progress? Do you work out hard for a few weeks, only to fall off and have to start all over? A coach or trainer is there to guide and support a person through issues that inhibit them from reaching body composition or strength goals.
Properly learning how to strength train and improve cardiovascular fitness levels also has far reaching implications for preventing disease and higher healthcare costs in the future. Investing money and time into a trainer and learning how to workout safely will set someone up to live more life at a healthy bodyweight and activity level, decreasing the likelihood they experience chronic diseases. Mcleod, Stokes, & Phillips (2019) found that strength training reduces the risk of chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and mobility disability. Research by Mcleod et al. (2019) and others has shown that regularly engaging in strength training can have direct effects on preventing chronic diseases as people age. Less disease means lower healthcare costs as people age.
Investing in a personal trainer will provide tested experience, education, support, guidance, accountability, and prevention of disease. Spending money on a coach will result in reaching goals faster, ensure solutions when fitness progress stalls, and allows people to have less personal responsibility in figuring out how to reach goals like gaining muscle, losing fat, or adding 50 pounds on their squat. Put some skin in the game of fitness and see for yourself how much more committed you become.
Check out my Services page for more information on personal training (Austin, TX) and online personal training or customized training programs.
References
Mcleod, J. C., Stokes, T., & Phillips, S. M. (2019). Resistance Exercise Training as a Primary Countermeasure to Age-Related Chronic Disease. Frontiers in physiology, 10, 645. doi:10.3389/fphys.2019.00645