Do I need a Personal Trainer?
Personal Trainers, what do they actually do? Do they just stand and chat to you while you’re working out and occasionally pass you a set of dumbbells? Are they really worth the money? Do you need a personal trainer? Do I need a personal trainer?
Now, I can’t say that all personal trainers are brilliant and you should definitely get one. But I 100% think a good trainer is definitely worth the investment. Unless of course you are able to do all of the things that they can do for you. If you can do these five things then you don’t need a personal trainer.
You can hold yourself accountable when you don’t feel like training
Human behaviour is fascinating. How many times have you started something full of enthusiasm and good intentions only to wain and fall off the wagon a few weeks down the line? This is natural and happens to all of us. If you’ve got the discipline, drive and internal motivation to keep going even on those days that you don’t feel like training – then you won’t need a PT. For those of us that are human then a trainer will give you that accountability and nudge you back on course when things inevitably drop off.
You have the deep knowledge and understanding developed from years of learning, training and working with clients.
There is more accessible information than ever out there to help you with your training – so you don’t need a personal trainer, right? Just jump on the internet, download a programme and away you go. Or perhaps you’ve been training for sometime and know what you’re doing! But what happens when what you’re doing stops working? Which it invariably will by the way. What now?
Utilising the knowledge and expertise of someone who has been in the industry and learnt the pitfalls and shortcuts will help get you to your goals quicker. I’m not saying they know everything but a good trainer will have seen 99% of what your experiencing in your training before and for the other 1% they will have the contacts to find the right answer quickly.
You can structure a periodized, tailored and detailed programme to work to.
A good trainer can organize and periodize each session in your programme for the next 3, 6 or 24 months. This programme will be grounded in fundamental fitness principles and knowledge. It will create a base of aerobic fitness and movement and layer strength, power and anaerobic conditioning on top. All of this will be packaged in a simple to follow, step by step structure, taking into account your goals, individual movement capabilities, as well as training and injury history. If you can do all that, then you won’t need a personal trainer.
You have the self discipline to not skip any sets, reps, weights, warm ups or cool downs.
Ok so you have the programme, you have the knowledge and somehow you can hold yourself accountable for getting to the gym. What a personal trainer will do for you is make sure you don’t skimp on any of the session itself. It’s easy to kid ourselves when we’re working out… “Oh 4 sets? Maybe just 3 today” or “I don’t need to warm up, I walked here.” A PT won’t let that happen and all those little extra bits could be the difference between making your goals and not.
You don’t suffer from injuries or niggles and don’t have to worry about moving well
Now most of us in this day and age spend way too much time sitting at a desk, in a car or on our phones. Add to this your training history and any injuries you may have accrued over your life and you’ve got a whole lot of complications you need to consider during your workouts. Here’s where a good PT can take all the stresses away and manage the injuries, develop better movement patterns and know what to leave out and/or add in to your sessions.
Now it is possible to achieve your goals without a trainer. But it is infinitely easier, quicker and more reliable to use a good quality personal trainer to help you. Doing things half committed is a sure-fire way to not achieve your goals. My advice is to go all in, fully commit and get someone to guide and help you. At the very least go and have a conversation with a personal trainer about how they can help you.
