When Should You Be Using a Personal Trainer?

Personal trainers are at pretty much every gym these days in addition to being totally freelance, but should you be utilizing their services? Here are things to consider if you’re wondering if you might be better off using one.

One thing that can be a bonus about using a personal trainer is simply that they provide for you a bit of accountability and commitment. If you have a habit of skipping workouts or not pushing yourself very hard when you do workout you might benefit from the teacher/student relationship. Not to mention you usually pay in advance and that can be a lot of motivation to get your body in gear even when you would rather be sitting on the couch.

Even if you know how to do a lot of workouts on your own, it’s the job of a personal trainer to be up on all the latest trends and they might be able to introduce you to some new workouts or ways to use the machines you are already familiar with. You might be surprised by some small tweaks that can make huge differences to your performance and results.

A good trainer will be listening to how you live in general and be able to suggest things like when it’s time to see a massage therapist for a pesky pain that won’t quit or whether you’ve just been working the muscle wrong.

A personal trainer is in the position to be completely honest with you, whether you want to hear it or not. If you have a tendency to trick yourself into thinking that you’re eating healthy or taking care of yourself when you aren’t they can be a helpful person to have in the corner to remind you where you’re falling off and keep you on track with what your goals were to begin with. A trainer is not going to let you slack off as long as you keep seeing them.

For some people one of the plus sides to using a trainer is that they can come to you. If you have the space in your home or yard to workout and you have any reason why going to a gym is not appealing to you, then that can be a good option.

For a lot of people the only downside to using a trainer is that it costs more money than a gym membership, however there are some ways to break up the cost. Getting a group of friends together to share a trainer is one option that can actually be a lot of fun.

Plus, you don’t necessarily have to keep a trainer forever, if you are self motivated you can use a trainer to pick up a bunch of good moves and then continue doing them on your own even after you’re done working with the trainer. Being knowledgeable about your body and what works best for it is one very important aspect of staying fit.