Benefits of Personal Training
There are more benefits of personal training than you might think. From physical health and physical results such as muscle gain and fat loss, to mental health benefits and an improved overall mood, hiring a personal trainer is undeniably one of the healthiest decisions you can make for yourself.
If you’re interested in improving your health with fitness, and improving your mental health, then hiring a personal trainer might be the perfect next chapter on your health and fitness journey.
Many benefits of personal training come with hiring these professional trainers. While it may be tempting to try to achieve your fitness goals on your own to cut costs, by working with an experienced trainer, you are likely significantly cutting down on the time it takes to get the results you’ve always wanted.
Through personal training, you’ll also learn enough to create and achieve even greater goals. This is because one of the benefits of personal training is the expertise and education about health and fitness that your trainer passes along to you during your sessions.
Benefits of Personal Training: An Overview
There are many different benefits of personal training. Below is an overview of some of the many benefits of hiring a personal trainer:
- Accountability and significantly increased odds that you’ll actually work out
- Increase in muscle mass and bone density
- Reduction in body fat
- Improvements in flexibility, range-of-motion and functionality
- Increased energy
- Boost in mood
- Boos in confidence
- Increase in libido
- Education about health, fitness, and functionality
- Better performance in sports, hobbies or activities
- Improved strength and mobility
- Reduced injury risk and a safer workout with proper form
- Access to a fitness professional and their expertise
- Motivation and support
- Faster fitness results
We’ll be expanding on some of these benefits of personal training in more detail below, but first, remember that a fitness program created for you by a personal trainer should be holistic.
This means that the program your trainer creates for you helps you workout when you are on your own as well, not just while you are with your trainer in person.
For example, at Ad Iron Fitness, our programs include a fully individualized workout plan spread over a certain number of days that the client commits to execute weekly. The client’s personalized program is accessible anytime they want to work out on their own, through an app that we use to create the programs, track statistics and meet client’s goals.
If we work with a client twice per week, but they commit to a 4 day per week fitness program, we make sure to include those workouts for them, too. Another important component of making a holistic program is that we do help support our clients with some nutrition guidance. Now, it’s important to note that personal trainers are not legally allowed to write specific nutrition plans or daily meal plans, as this is the job of a certified dietician or nutritionist. However, our nutritional guidance and recommendations is an important key to achieving your fitness goals. What we offer our clients, when it comes to their nutrition, is complete support, guidance, and accountability without the specific daily meal plan. Based on the client’s goals, together, we create a daily goal of calorie intake and percentages of macronutrients (fats, carbs and proteins). I ask my clients to log what they eat in a food diary or on an app, and advise how they can make adjustments based on their current intake to improve not only for their health but to reach their specific goals. Education is also a big part of the guidance, so we discuss what types of foods do what, and why we should eat carbs at a certain time, etc.
When it comes to all of the different benefits of personal training, below we’ll expand on some of these key benefits in more detail:
Accountability as a Top Benefit of Having a Personal Trainer
Don’t underestimate the power of accountability when you’re trying to stick to your fitness goals and get the results you’ve always wanted.
Sure, you could make plans with yourself to exercise or make a plan to go to the gym, but are you good at being self-motivated and accountable to yourself? Or, will you potentially cancel those workout plans because nobody’s around to hold you accountable?
The fact that being accountable to someone (such as your trainer) significantly increases your odds of achieving your goals is a concept that is proven and backed by research.
In fact, one study from the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) discovered that people have a 65% chance of reaching a goal if they have an accountability partner, compared to a 10% chance if you don’t have anyone to be accountable to.
People with scheduled personal training sessions are accountable to someone. They have an appointment, they have someone holding them accountable, and they’re much more likely to show up and work hard. Accountability is extremely powerful, and it’s one of the top benefits of personal training sessions.
Self-Confidence Benefits of Personal Training
As your body becomes more fit and you start to look and feel healthier through personal training, you’ll naturally start to feel more confident. This confidence boost happens not only because you’re starting to look better, but also because you’re starting to feel better and your body is functioning better as it gets stronger.
Faster Fitness Gains and Physical Results
There are many reasons why people tend to get results faster when they work with a qualified personal trainer. For one thing, when you have scheduled personal training sessions that are paid for, you’re much more likely to show up for your workout and be accountable. What’s more, however, is that through a personal trainer’s expertise, your fat loss, muscle gain and fitness goals are achieved faster as the right muscles are being targeted at the right intensity for optimal fat-burning mode and muscle strengthening. Furthermore, your personal trainer will also give you nutrition and diet advice to help you achieve results faster, acting as a supportive ally who helps you reach your fitness goals faster than you would on your own.
What Type of Personal Trainer Should You Hire?
Your fitness level, along with your experience in sports and fitness, will likely dictate the type of trainer you want to work with.
There are many personal trainers out there, including many entry level trainers who don’t have much experience, and many extremely experienced trainers with over a decade of experience in this field.
Something to keep in mind is to be honest with yourself and your level of experience with training. The most important thing when you start a new fitness program is functionality and body awareness.
For example, if you are quite flexible, mobile, and you have a good sense of body awareness, you may benefit from a trainer who has plenty of experience with bodybuilding, performance training, and/or has worked with athletes.
However, if you have poor mobility, haven’t ever lifted weights before, have no idea what you are doing, or you’re recovering from a bodily injury, it may be best to work with a personal trainer who specializes in functional training, and athletic rehab. This type of personal trainer may even hold a kinesiology degree.
When it comes to the benefits of personal training, the list goes on, really. Personal trainers understand that everyone needs a different program due to their unique genetic body composition, their fitness level, and their specific fitness goals.
It’s important to commit to the program if you do decide to work with a personal trainer, and the results will speak for themselves. Just remember to ask the trainer how they will help you achieve their goals. Find out how experienced they are, what is included in the program, how they will support you, and what type of results you can expect to see in a few months’ time.
Hiring a personal trainer is the type of decision that could change your life, as it’s one of the smartest and healthiest decisions you can make on your journey of self-improvement.
If you’re ready to give yourself the advantage of a personal trainer dedicated to helping you achieve your fitness goals, sign up for a consultation with Ad Iron Fitness today.