1. The Atmosphere

When you walk into the gym/fitness centre, you find that music’s playing, the equipment is banging away, cardio gear is working hard, and the people are sweating up a storm.

 

This atmosphere is what you feel and it helps motivate you and get helps get you into your routine.  The added advantage is this atmosphere also includes a group style of training, so after you’ve to this centre for a bit you’ll find that you will get to make friends and get to know a lot of the regulars like yourself that attend the gym. So you’ll end up working out with more and more people over time, which again helps keep you exercising and the facility.

2. The Equipment

Probably the biggest reason for joining the gym/fitness facility is the equipment and the facilities on offer.

Most gyms will supply a full selection of equipment which usually includes all the cardio equipment:

• Bikes
• Recumbent cycles
• Treadmills
• Cross Trainers/Elliptical Trainer
• Rowing Machines

A full range of machine or cable weights, these can include (plus a lot extra):

• Chest Press
• Shoulder Press
• Leg Press
• Lat Pulldown
• Leg Extensions
• Leg Curls
• Bicep Curls

Also depending on the type of gym they can include a full range of free weight benches and weights, which can include:

• Bench Press
• Squat Racks
• Smith Machines
• Flat and Incline Benches
• Dumb bells
• Ezy-Curl Bars

This range of equipment allows you to enjoy a full range of options within the gym facility itself, with numerous workout options and the variety to keep you interested.

For most people this is why they join, but from a safety and health perspective there are a couple of other reason why as well.

Probably the biggest is the supervision angle. When you in a gym, there is always people around, from trainers, to cleaners, to other people working out. This provides a constant and safe environment for you during the workout in case something happens. Accidents can and do happen when exercising, from simple things from low blood sugar, sudden drop in blood pressure to strains and muscle pulls, so having people around you that can/will help you in this time of need is essential.

Unbelievably this is probably the most overlooked factor for most exercisers, and you find a lot of people don’t even think about the safety angle when it comes to working out. Also don’t forget our streets aren’t as safe as they used to be so things like running and jogging around the parks and roads is nowhere near as safe as they once were especially once the sun goes down, where with the gym doing these types of exercise on a treadmill removes this personal safety stress from you.

So as you can see there is more than the convenience reason for joining a gym or fitness facility and to be honest people will probably have quite a few reasons more to, but this does cover the basics.

We’ll also be covering later how to decide on which facility is right for you as well, so stay tuned for that.

Since this is quite a big article I’ll be breaking this up into 2 or 3 pieces to ensure it is all covered completely.

Motivation

Probably the biggest facility the personal trainer has to offer their clients is motivation. Motivation or the lack of it for most clients is the biggest issue or problem when it comes to exercise.

For most people trying to start exercising, creating that habit of getting to the gym or just performing some exercise is the hardest step. For most newcomers, it is so easy to say:

“I’m too tired today; I’ll do a harder workout tomorrow”

“I don’t have time today, so I’ll make up for it tomorrow”

And then before you know it, your great new start is already finished and you usually stop training and exercising. Unfortunately this is one of the easiest things to happen, even to seasoned trainers.

This is where personal trainers have one of their biggest strengths, in giving you the ability to overcome this major hurdle.

So how do they manage to do this? Well one of easiest ways, is due to you paying for this service. If you’re paying for it, then you are more likely to turn up as most people do not want to lose money or waste it away by not having the training done. The other way is by how the personal trainer actually deals with you once you have arrived for your training session.

Excitement

Once you have arrived for your session, the trick most of the personal trainers will use to motivate you is excitement. Most people don’t actually think of exercising as exciting but boring and tiring, so this is why it is so easy to give up and make excuses not to go.

This is why if the trainer can make it exciting and get you to actually enjoy it, the process of getting into your exercise routine and maintaining it, is so much easier.  But how will or do they go about it. This one isn’t that easy to obtain as everyone is very different in the way the react to exercise depending on the personality.

For a vast majority of people the excitement can be from the personal trainer implementing very quick and obtainable goals for you, so that in the first week or two you have actually attained something that you may have thought was going to take you a long time to achieve. This quick and small goal setting is very easy to get people excited about and can be sustained for quite some time.

Another way is due to the personality of trainer themselves. If you have been around a lot of personal trainers you’ll find that they are extreme extroverts and use this ability to create an atmosphere around the client. This atmosphere is what creates the excitement around the client. This atmosphere is from the personal trainer making everything exciting and challenging and making you feel important, which is fantastic for you own ego and self confidence. This makes you feel better about yourself not just physically from the exercise but from the emotional feeling it also creates.

If you’ve seen personal trainers in action who don’t provide this personal atmosphere, that the clients usually look very uninterested and bored and you’ll find over time that they will lose those clients.

Summary

So as you can see motivation is a key component for the personal trainer and for yourself and without this being given to you, you will struggle to make a new exercise routine work.

Our story will continue in our next article where we talk about routines and how this is another part to the process for personal trainers.

Personality

Most people think that you need to be a big muscle bound guy, or a lean and trim girl to be a great personal trainer. Now don’t get me wrong you do need to be in shape, as you do need to practice what you preach. But the most important thing is your own personality, you need to be good with people, you need to be able to understand them, be able to listen to them, and be able to create a bond with them very quickly to keep them interested. Because if you can ‘t keep them interested, you lose them very quickly as a client, even if you know every skill and training technique.

The bond and trust factor is one of the biggest features of the relationship between the client and the Personal Trainer.

Interest & Dedication

One of the next major requirements is your interest and dedication; personal training might sound like a fun and glamorous job but its long days and weeks, same routines, same people, week after week after week. You really need to enjoy dealing with people and the exercise industry to cope with this continuous cycle.

Everything about it is decided by the client for the first few years at least, so you may have your first client at 6am and your last client at 8pm, you’ll be looking after clients 5 or 6 even sometimes 7 days a week. You’ll have to get used to clients cancelling on you at the last minute, not good if they were your 6am appointment, but not as bad if they are your 8pm client. You have to get used to chasing and asking for money from your clients as well, which for a lot of people is a very difficult thing for them to do. For a lot of people this is enough to put people off the industry all together.

Physical Appearance

And one of the other major points to look at is yourself physically. Due to the image personal training portrays, clients will and do judge on your own appearance. If you don’t look physically fit, then you will struggle to find clients.

You always have to look at it from a client’s point of view, in that they want to achieve a higher level of fitness, and feel like they are looking in better shape and for a lot of clients they will use you as the guide point and the driver for this. If you don’t meet that higher level of expectation then they will look for an instructor who will.

Hygiene

Also don’t forget that personal hygiene, you have to remember every hour of most days you will be moving around and possible exercising along with your client. Deodorant will become your best friend and your clients as well. If you do have average or poor personal hygiene, then start getting into the habit very fast.

So after all of these things, you think you still have what it takes and want to get into it, read our future articles and we’ll guide you through the process.

So what do we actually look for? Since we know the style of fitness we want to do, we can actually look at the facilities that offer this service and see what services are being offered, advertised or recommended. The best option is through personal referral, as the person referring you can give you the complete run down and the ability to understand whether the potential new Personal Trainer will match what you are after.

But what happens if you can find a referral, or the type of training you are looking at doesn’t use a facility. Well this is where it comes down to what you know, and can ask the Personal Trainer themselves and this is where this article is the very important for you.

Some of the easiest things that you need to ask them are:

• How much do they charge – No point asking anything else if they are too expensive.
• What payment options do they offer?
• Do they discount for prepurchasing multiple sessions?
• How long is the average session – some are only 30mins, where normal is 60mins
• What times and days are they available for training – Again no point going past this stage if they can’t train you when you’re available.
• How long have they been training people for?
• Do they have referrals from other clients?
• Can you talk to some of their other clients?
• What is their background, and do the specialise in certain types of fitness (you should already know this otherwise you wouldn’t be talking to them, but no harm in rechecking)
• What are their current qualifications?
• How often do they attend extra training to improve their current qualifications?
• If you currently have a medical issue, are they capable of working with or help to fix it?
• Do they currently hold professional liability insurance and do they have proof of it?
• What sort of updates do they provide to their exercise programs?
• Do they provide how exercise programs to go with the Personal Training Sessions?
• Do they offer nutritional advice – and if not do they have referrals to people can provide this

These questions are the basics that you should be using all the time, when auditioning a new instructor/trainer. But these questions aren’t the only things you should be assessing while you are talking to them; there are 3 more keys things:

1. Are they actually listening to you and are the forth coming with the answers?
2. Are they paying attention to you during this conversation and not looking around and being distracted?
3. Do you think you can actually get on well with this person. Are they a close match to your personality. Without this bond, it will be very hard to get a result from them?

So as you can see there is quite a lot to look at in regards to selecting your first personal trainer and well delve into this more in later posts. But this is the start and the journey is going to be enjoyable.

Some of the main activities that people are used to and have most probably tried are:

• Gyms or Fitness Centers
• Pools and Swimming or Aquatic Centers
• Running and Jogging
• Cycling
• Rowing
• Aerobic Classes
• Boxing and Kick Boxing
• Weight Training

But the list has now lengthened to a much bigger and broader list with activities like:

• Yoga
• Pilates
• Boot Camps
• Kettle Bell
• Spinning Classes

Well be delving into the pro’s and con’s of each of these activities and what you can expect as a result from doing these activities.

But with range of fitness/training activities, the ability to find one that suits your needs is getting easier and easier. Take the time and learn about them as you’ll find some very fun and enjoyable systems out there.

What we mean by assessing yourself is working out exactly what you are trying to achieve, what health concerns do you have, health risks etc.

Without this simple criteria completely understood, it is very hard to find a Personal Trainer that will met and be able to achieve the required results you are looking for and ensure that these can be maintained for an extended period of time.

So what are some of the criteria we should look at in ourselves:

What exactly are we trying to achieve?

• Loose weight – if so how much
• Tone Up – if so how much, what areas
• Strengthen Up
• Build Muscle
• Lean down
• Increase Fitness – aerobically or anaerobically
• Feel healthier
• Attain a certain mark – race time, running distance etc
• Increase flexibility

What are our time frames?

• Is it a short, quick fix
• Are we after a result by a set date
• Is this a life style change

What are our eating habits?

• Are we getting enough nutrients per day?
• Are we eating enough meals per day?
• What is our carbohydrate, protein and fat intake per day
• Do we eat healthy or unhealthy
• Do we snack on high sugar or high fat foods and drinks

What is our commitment?

• How much time are we prepared to commit per week
• How much effort and dedication are we going to commit
• How much money are we prepared to commit

As you can see there is a lot more to the self assessment than most people realise. We’ll be adding more articles and a checklist as time goes by, so please check back regularly.