Personal Trainer: Yes or No?

Personal Trainer: Yes or No?

Hiring a personal trainer might seem like the ultimate extravagance, like something only Oprah or Madonna can afford, not you as a beginning exerciser. Beginners and perennial fitness dropouts, however, might need a trainer’s help more than experienced exercisers who already are in tune with their bodies and have made a commitment to staying in shape. In addition to offering encouragement, a trainer can make sure you don’t overdo the beginning stages in your zeal to get fit and show you proper techniques so you’ll remain injury-free.
Such one-on-one training isn’t necessary every time you work out. Sure, some people do turn it into a long-term relationship, but more likely, you’ll derive sufficient benefits from an occasional session. You can schedule two or three sessions to assess your fitness, to design a program, and to get you started. Then sign up for another session after you’ve been working out for a few weeks to monitor your progress. You can meet with your trainer again two or three times when you’ve hit a plateau. If you hit a mental wall because you’re bored, the trainer can remotivate you and can suggest another program that will pique your interest again. If you’ve reached a maintenance level with your routine, your trainer can ratchet it up to an appropriate higher level. Your trainer also can determine whether just one or a combination of these elements built the plateau.
A personal trainer provides one-on-one guidance for your fitness program. In addition to expertise in designing a program and tweaking it as you progress, a trainer can fulfill other roles that are important to keeping you on track. It’s like having a coach, a guru, and a confessor all in one. One Boulder, Colorado, training studio elegantly refers to its services as “personally guided exercise.” Your trainer will do initial and follow-up fitness assessments, help you focus your goals, motivate you when you are flagging,cheer your resolve and hard work, and redesign your program when the time comes.
For many people, the bottom line that makes it worthwhile to pay between $25 and $100 for an hour of a personal trainer’s time is that a good trainer will figure out what it takes to push you to work harder and more efficiently than you could on your own. He or she also will make sure you have a balanced program to help all aspects of fitness—not just the ones you enjoy most. With knowledge of both the psychology and physiology of exercise, a good trainer will set reasonable limits for you that also are effective in helping you reach your goals—then, he or she will set higher ones.