Most people who hire a personal trainer don't really need one. Having said that, it's rare that you'll find the client of a good trainer who thinks he could go it alone. If you have the money to spend on the luxury of a trainer, then by all means, hire away! But, if like everyone else, you are feeling the drain of a sagging economy and find yourself reevaluating every monthly expense, then keep reading. You might find that you don't really need to shell out the extra clams to keep fit.
There are some situations where a trainer is a necessity rather than a luxury. Injury rehabilitation or chronic medical conditions are both cases which warrant the watchful eye of a qualified trainer. In these situations, a trained professional will make recommendations for appropriate activities and the pace at which a client can progress to the next level. Sport specific training is another good reason to hire a coach or personal trainer. An advanced level athlete not only needs a personalized program that is tailored to his specific strengths and weaknesses, but also has the awareness and ability to maximize time and money spent with a coach and turn it into peak performance on game day.
For better or worse, most of us don't fall into any of those categories. Typically, a trainer's client is a beginning to intermediate level exerciser who needs extra motivation in the health club to lose weight or maintain a desired level of fitness. Americans pay an average of $58/hour for motivation, structure and accountability. But when a client provides these factors for themselves they boost self confidence and increase their personal investment and commitment to the program. While the trainer's input is essential in the early stages, eventually going it alone can improve chances of long term adherence. Self motivation paves the way. According to exercise physiologist Elizabeth Quinn, "if you ultimately want to learn all the facets of designing your own routines so you don't need to use a personal trainer, going for a few months may be all you need." She continues, " all good personal trainers will teach you the basics of building and modifying a fitness program to achieve maximum results"
Personal trainers are a great resource for sound exercise advice, program design, feedback, and evaluation. But if you need to cut back on expenses, consider learning the basics and training solo to maximize results. If going it alone seems impossible, many trainers are willing to train friends two at a time or even a small group if it means not losing a client. Consider your options and work with your trainer to get the most out of your training dollars.
Comments
Great little article! You see an awful lot of writing about why you should hire a PT, but none about the very important reasons not to. I am a trainer and I generally recommend people NOT hire a personal trainer, chiefly because the quality of instruction presented by most PT's is so universally bad. My advice is be an involved client. Research sports science, read articles by the best world class coaches, and cross reference what you learn with what potential trainers are telling you. My students use me the same way I use my coaches. I see my clients mainly when they need some focused guidance or they are developing new goals for themselves. I don't just count reps for them on the pec-dec three times a week. I teach my students to run their own training. Group training sessions are a good deal for students and instructors in this tight economy, and a excellent way to meet and learn about different trainers and their methods.
Hi all
Great article. I agree with many of the points you make, especially about the financial sustainability of doing group training instead of one on one training. At my studio we only do small group training. This has made training available to many people that wouldn't be able to afford one on one training. It has also increased my client retention rate tremendously over when I did one on one training at much higher prices. This has enabled many clients to keep training for however long it takes them to build their fitness foundation.
While I agree that clients need to develop self discipline and adherence, and empower themselves to work their own program, I disagree with your statements that most people don't need a trainer at all, or that they will be fine on their own after only a few months with a trainer, or that going solo gets maximum results. I think those statements perpetuate the oversimplification of the road to true health and fitness, as well as belittle our profession. Truly being fit and healthy is a lot more than just losing a few pounds and fitting into smaller jeans. Knowing what it means to be truly healthy and fit, and how to accomplish that is more than just learning how to use the equipment in the gym and put together a few routines. You wouldn't send someone to school for 3 months, and then tell them to just go to the library and finish getting their diploma or degree by themselves. There are reasons that most people that join gyms don't get results and quit going within their first 3 months, or many people that buy infomercial products or home equipment end up using them as coat racks and paper weights. Surveys and statistics prove that most people that diet and exercise on their own either don't get results, or they don't maintain them. People that can get and maintain average results on their own, let alone excellent results are a very small percentage of the population. Of the people that can get and maintain results on their own, I would venture to guess that most of them are either former athletes or dancers, or current athletes or dancers, so they have a passion for physical activity, surround themselves with other fitness minded people and have already built a foundation of discipline and basic exercise knowledge. Most people that have never been in shape or worked out in their lives, hate physical activity, are surrounded by other out of shape people, and need much more than 3 months of guidance, education, motivation, and accountability to see them get significant results and have a solid foundation to continue on their own. Your examples of injured/rehab populations and elite athletes are just 2 extreme ends of the same spectrum that everyone else falls into as well. I would argue that all the people in the middle of the spectrum have a higher probability of ending up in the injured and chronically sick end of the spectrum if they don't have a mentor, coach, teacher or trainer in their life. On the other hand I would argue that people that utilize a coach or trainer are more likely to move up to the elite fitness level eventually. Being in the middle might be average, but I certainly wouldn't consider it healthy or fit.
I treat my personal training clients the same way I would treat my martial arts students. If you want to truly empower yourself, and master your own fitness you need a proper foundation which is a long term goal which can take at least 1-3 years. Even as a trainer myself, I don't workout as hard or always do the exercises I don't enjoy if i'm by myself. I work harder and will do the stuff I don't like as well as the stuff I do like if I have a coach or teacher standing there pushing me, inspiring me, and showing me my flaws that I might not see on my own.
Instead of making clients adapt to the tough economy and sacrifice their fitness guidance, I believe that we as fitness professionals need to adapt our industry to fit the needs of our clients. Even before the economy tanked, there were already signs of a paradigm shift in our industry starting. Look at the increased popularity of more affordable fitness programs in group settings, such as Crossfit, Bikram Yoga, Bootcamps, kettlebell classes, etc. I believe small to large group training is going to start to take a lot of market share away from expensive one on one training. As long as it is affordable and sustainable, I think anyone and everyone should take advantage of a fitness expert as often as possible, because it will just bring them that much closer to their full potential that much faster.
Darren
Define Fitness Studio
www.DefineFitnessStudio.com
not everyone can do it on they own.some need someone on they side.
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