Whether you’re new to exercise or you’ve been doing it for years, a personal trainer can offer expertise in several areas to help you reach your health and fitness goals. From strength and conditioning workouts to flexibility, mobility, and stability training, an experienced personal trainer knows how to create a safe, individualized program based around your needs and goals.
Curious whether you should take the plunge and hire one? Read on for a few things to consider.
You Have No Idea Where to Start
If you’re just beginning your health and fitness journey, working with a personal trainer can be a huge benefit. None of us are born knowing how to exercise or eat according to our goals. It’s something we have to learn, and who better to learn it from than an expert?
For a lot of people who are new to working out and eating healthier, the immense amount of contradictory fitness and nutrition information out there can feel overwhelming. It’s tough to know what’s true, what’s marketing hype, and what’s well-suited to your needs, goals, and experience level when you’re just starting out. A personal trainer can help.
Personal trainers are experts at creating complete, individualized programs, strengthening, cardio, and flexibility programs. They monitor your intensity, training frequency, and overall performance to periodically adjust your program so you’re continually progressing.
Plus, many trainers also specialize in nutrition coaching, so if you need help developing healthier eating patterns, your personal trainer can be an excellent resource.
Proper Form and Injury Prevention
The best way to work out is the right way. Many exercises and routines require activating specific muscles in order to prevent injury. If you’re new to fitness, a personal trainer can teach and guide you through the proper way to perform an exercise. This is particularly important when working with heavy weights.
Injuries will interrupt your fitness goals and make it more difficult to progress, so let your personal trainer teach you to stay safe while exercising.
You Need Accountability
Even if you’re not new to exercise and healthy eating, sometimes, holding yourself accountable can be tough. Defining your intrinsic motivation for exercise and healthy eating will certainly help keep you on track, but extrinsic motivators can be super helpful too.
A personal trainer can provide additional motivation and accountability when the going gets tough. Simply knowing that you have to report to a trainer can be the push you need to squeeze in a workout before the sun is up or at the end of a long day.
You Have an Existing Condition or Previous Injury You Must Work Around
Exercising with a pre-existing condition or a previous injury can be dangerous if you’re not well-versed in proper program design. That’s where an experienced personal trainer comes in.
As part of their education, personal trainers learn how to design safe, effective, and balanced training programs for several populations, including those with health conditions and physical limitations. A trainer can help you:
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Improve back or neck pain
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Strengthen old injuries while avoiding re-injury
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Exercise safely when you live with a chronic condition like arthritis, diabetes, or heart disease
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Improve your flexibility, mobility, stability, balance, and core strength to help prevent future injuries
Before you hire a trainer, don’t hesitate to ask about their experience working with people who have medical conditions or injuries. And of course, it’s always a good idea to get clearance from your doctor before you begin a new exercise program.
You’re Training for Something Specific
Are you training to get better at a specific sport? Are you competing in an upcoming event? Then, you need to train like an athlete. Athletic performance training requires specialized conditioning, strengthening, mobility, and recovery knowledge.
If your goal is to properly, safely, and sustainably build your athletic prowess, it’s pretty tough to get there without expert-level knowledge of how to set up an appropriate program. That’s where a personal trainer can be a huge help.
A trainer can assess your existing weaknesses, design the right workouts to improve them, help you avoid injury, and develop an appropriate training and recovery schedule. Even the most experienced athletes in the world work with personal trainers. Why? Because they’re serious about getting better at what they do!
Maintain Your Nutrition Plan
If you have a specific nutrition plan you’re trying to follow but need a little help, a personal trainer can help. Your personal trainer can keep you motivated and on target with your fitness goals, which are partially a result of your nutrition.
Nutrition is vital for losing weight and staying healthy. Personal trainers can help you tweak your plan based on your fitness goals, providing guidance about which food and how much you should be consuming.
If you need a little help sticking to healthy eating, turn to your personal trainer.
You’ve Hit a Plateau
Plateaus can happen during weight loss and fitness journeys. You are putting in the work, but your body has stopped changing, or you don’t feel like you’re getting stronger. This is normal, but sometimes you need an extra push or some additional help to get over your plateau. A personal trainer can help you figure out where you’re stuck and give you exercises or weights to get over that plateau. Sometimes, it’s as simple as changing your diet slightly or switching up your workout routine.
You’re Pressed for Time
If you maintain a busy schedule with work, family, and other activities, a personal trainer can create a workout routine that fits into your life. Rather than slogging on an elliptical for an hour, a personal trainer can give you specific, targeted workouts to help you reach your fitness goals.
If you know you are free at certain times and want to fill that time with a workout, you can always consider a monthly health coaching plan. These plans will help you stay on target and progress in the gym.
Ready to Work With a Personal Trainer? Check Out Envision Fitness!
At Envision Fitness, our goal is to help you change the trajectory of your life, not just the way you look. We’re a community of people who work together to support, encourage, and lift one another up. Join us, and we won’t just help you reach your goals; we’ll help you exceed them. Whether you’re looking for individualized personal training, group exercise classes, boot camps, or nutrition coaching, we’re here to help!
To learn more or get started, go ahead and schedule a free consultation or call our Hopkins, MN location at 952-444-2791. You can also send us a message with any questions, and we’ll be in touch!