How To Get The Most Out Of Your Personal Training
There are only 168 hours in a week and the external demands and pressures that are placed upon us today mean that we all want the best bang for our buck! So how do you get the most out of your personal training? Having worked in the industry for over 20 years I think there are 3 key ingredients to implement.
1. Time on task! To many people hire the services of a personal trainer and then think that the weight will full off, they will get fitter, stronger, leaner, and healthier without really doing the work required. Your personal trainer is your accountability tool, your motivator and in some cases your mentor, however you have to take
responsibility for your actions. You have heard the saying, ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink it’. The same applies to your training. You can just turn up and go through the motions or you can train with all the intensity during your personal training sessions but does your lifestyle complement your training?
What are you doing outside of the gym that may have an impact on your training
goal/s (nutrition, incidental exercise, sleep, alcohol, time)? I often tell my clients that they wont get any smarter reading the same book everyday and the same applies to your body. You need to constantly change your program whether this be intensity, time, sets, reps, weights, exercises, % cardiovascular vs. resistance etc). When you employ the services of a personal trainer they should make these adaptations for you to guarantee that you are getting some physiological overload during your session which will then force an adaptation to occur allowing you to reach your goal/s.
However, if you can’t dedicate sufficient time to your training and at the correct
intensity then consider your payment to your trainer as a donation.
2. The second key ingredient is nutrition! Many people value nutrition as the number 1 ingredient to how you look and feel, so can you answer the following questions.
What are you fuelling your body on?
Are you getting adequate nutritional requirements to complement your
training goals (weight lose, building lean muscle)?
What is your daily hydration plan?
How many colours do you consume a day (3 fruits, 5 vegies)?
Do you snack frequently?
Do you know the energy value of certain foods?
Can you read food labels, as 100% fat free might be full of sugar?
There is an old saying that a six-pack isn’t made in the gym; it is created in the
kitchen. Where is yours created?
3. The third key component is consistency. The National standards for exercise are 30 minutes a day, 7 days a week. Personally, I think this is still very demanding so I employ my personal formula, ‘be better than average’. If there are 52 weeks in a year make sure you do 45 weeks of ‘structured’ exercise. If there are 60 minutes in an hour, make sure you do 45 minutes of ‘structured’ exercise. If there are 7 days in a week make sure you at least exercise for 4 days! This will give you a solid foundation for success and most of all consistency.
If you apply these 3 key ingredients 90% of the time to your personal training sessions then you will be both healthier and happier knowing your investment in your health is your biggest wealth.