Are you trying to decide whether or not to hire a personal trainer?  I believe you should really consider it, and I’ll explain why.

The job of a personal trainer is to help others become healthier, with emphasis on the exercise side of things.  Personal Trainers study and practice on how to enhance the physical fitness of their clients.  And for most trainers that I know (including myself), they see personal training not only as a job, but as a passion.  In other words, they love to do it, and even sometimes feel called to it.

Therefore, if you’ve been struggling to reach health goals for an extended period of time and know that you need help, it could be a great thing for you to hire your own personal trainer.  Consider the following points:

1. Personal Trainers will provide you with motivation and encouragement.  When you have a trainer on your team who is excited about fitness and knows how to get people in shape, you can know that he or she is going to be serious about motivating you to press on.  The road to losing weight, for example, can be (and usually is) filled with the challenges that come from learning how to eat and being sore from exercise, as well as disappointments like unexpected plateaus and weight increases.  A personal trainer has seen these things before and is knowledgeable on how to help you through those types of obstacles.
2. Personal Trainers will hold you accountable.  Trust me; you need accountability for your journey.  If you really desire to meet your health goals, whatever they are, you need someone to hold you to whatever commitments you’ve made to reach those goals.  A personal trainer will regularly check with you after providing you with a plan to ensure that you are sticking with it, and will remind you of your commitments when you’re tempted to fall off.
3. Personal Trainers provide you with expertise.  As I stated before, personal trainers are educated in what to do to help you achieve better fitness.  Most trainers are certified through a reputable certification agency (I’m certified through ACE, for example), and certification requires that you study a variety of topics, from human anatomy and movement to exercise programming.  Also, most trainers have already learned much on their own from other reading and studying, as well as their own personal exercise routines.  If you’re new to the exercise world, a trainer can aid you tremendously.  If you’re experienced, a trainer can usually help you take it to the next level.

What Personal Trainers Cannot Do

As a personal trainer, I sincerely want the best outcomes for my clients.  When new clients tell me about the goals they’d like to reach, those goals become my goals.  I believe that I can honestly say that I want to reach my clients’ goals at least as much as they want to, and I’m sure it’s the same with multitudes of trainers out there.

However, I find that if a particular client has not resolved beforehand to do whatever they have to do to meet their goals, they often will not reach them.  At best, they will see a little improvement…a few pounds lost, a few sizes dropped.  At the worst, they don’t progress at all.

My point is this.  If you are trying to decide on whether you should hire a trainer, know that beforehand you must have decided that you are committed to doing whatever hard work is necessary to get your health right.  I encourage you to take whatever time you need before hiring a trainer to make sure that you’re ready to do what they recommend.  At the end of the day, all that a trainer can do for a client is show him/her what actions to take, but the client is responsible for taking those actions.

I hope this post helps you decide on whether or not you should hire a trainer.  On that note, trainers aren’t for everyone.  Whereas some people need the hands-on direction that a personal trainer provides, others may only need a personalized workout plan to follow on their own.  If you’re interested in either, feel free to check my personal training page to see what I provide (in-person training is only for Warner Robins/Byron/Centerville areas right now).