As a personal trainer, one of the biggest realizations in the training industry when working with clients is that it isn't just about throwing weights around and HIIT training. A good personal trainer will understand that with each client, you're also training their minds, motivations, differences, and similarities.
Personal trainers have likely seen every form of explanation, complaint, and body type. This is an important reason why a personal trainer should remind everyone that each body is as unique as their circumstances and goals, that being said, there are a few core aspects that are universal to everyone's health and fitness journey.
Here are 7 insightful things personal trainers should share with all their personal training clients, or in other words, things that all fitness enthusiasts should know:
1. The More Specific You are With Your Personal Trainer, The Better
Plenty of people want to lose weight or tone up. However, the more specific your goals are communicated to your personal trainer, the better chance you have of succeeding. Maybe it's to look better in your favorite jeans, or to have more energy, to lose a specific amount of weight, or gain muscle in certain areas - regardless of the goal, just keep in mind that the more specific your goal, the easier it is to quantify success.
2. Any Good Personal Trainer Will Advise You To Step Away from The Scale!
If you're currently already trying to lose weight or get more fit, you definitely should not being weighing yourself. And if you need to weigh yourself, any good personal trainer will tell you not to weigh yourself everyday! Unless you're a boxer or a wrestler trying to fit into a specific weight class, then weighing yourself daily will just make you crazy.
Think about this instead - rather than standing on the scale to see if the numbers have changed, try standing in front of the mirror and notice the physical changes happening to your body. Health and fitness has so much more to do with how you feel and how you look (to you) than what the scale reads and is a far better measure of your progress.
3. Nutrition? Personal Trainers will Tell You to Eat Real Food
Your personal trainer will be a good resource for a nutrition plan that matches your fitness goals. A shake from a mix is not real food, nor can it be a meal. It's also important not to reduce your calorie intake when you're increasing exercise.
Your body is a machine and you need fuel to power your body. You do not want to store fat, and that's exactly what will happen if you don't give it the proper nutrition and calories it needs.
4. A Personal Trainer Should Urge You to See Yourself as Whole
Do not pick yourself apart along the way. You are not the little bit of fat that pokes out of the side of your bra or the swinging skin under your arm. You are not the cellulite on your thighs, you are so much more than all these things.
Your personal trainer should tell you that attempting to fix one thing you see as "wrong" on your body is only going to lead to imbalances and more issues down the road. You are a complete person with a whole body, so be sure to train your entire body.
5. Power Comes from Being Strong
A great personal trainer will want you feeling stronger not just physically, but also mentally.
The more you train and the stronger you get, the better you'll feel as a whole. Your personal trainer will set you up for success and there's no better feeling than when your body responds how you want it to. This is a big reason why personal trainers suggest some form of strength training in your fitness routine, because strength equals power.
6. Find Your Own Path with Your Personal Trainer and Accept That It Will Change
Again, your personal trainer has likely worked with a variety of body types and fitness goals and is well aware that what works for some people might not work for you. Make sure your personal trainer is truly taking your specific goals into account when creating your fitness plan, and understand too that as you get stronger or leaner or bulkier (depending on your goals), your fitness plan will evolve and change right along with you.
7. Know That You Can Do It
It's easy to get down on yourself when you aren't seeing results quickly enough, but your personal trainer is there as your support and will be the first one to tell you that a good mental outlook will help tremendously in reaching your goals.
While most of us have ideas of fear or insecurity, it's important that we do not act from that place and do not allow yourself to stay there. If you'd like your body to do something - be more powerful, run with endurance, lean out - you have to want it and KNOW you can do it.
The personal trainer team at SRQ Health and Fitness Studio are experts in custom fitness plans for all skill sets and personal goals. Come try us out today!