Personal training is a common practice in 2015. Many seek
the advice of someone they believe has spent time and energy researching the
topic. Lawyers and doctors have spent decades learning their craft. Personal
training should be scrutinized as firmly as these professions. Trainers are
dealing with your health and safety as much as your six pack (appearances). Get
moving and find the help of experienced, caring, professionals who help you
follow the correct path.
I have watched personal training develop since 1987. I was
young and only had two years of education under my belt regarding fitness. I
wanted to be Mr. Olympia then. I realized I was not gaining the size required
to compete in bodybuilding. I am 5 feet 8 inches tall, with 15 and ½ inch
knees, 7 and ½ inch wrists, and this is not the requisite skeletal makeup for
high level bodybuilding. I read muscle magazines endlessly. The internet was
not as easy as it is now. I bought books and read them incessantly as well. I
learned a lot. Being type 1 diabetic I needed different information than the
appearance based information offered in these formats. I was lucky. Many
successful people will never admit they were. I met the best people in the
field of strength and conditioning and sports sciences. They taught me well. I
have studied under Olympic athletes, world record holders, world champions, and
many high level athletes from the national level in various sports. Personal
training has grown up for me.
People are busy in 2015. They schedule a lot of activities
to get things they want done, done. My recommendation is to schedule your
training with a professional trainer in addition to the kid’s soccer games,
dinner with colleagues, date-night, and whatever you fit into your lives.
Unless you want to be a world class athlete time is not as much of a factor as
you may believe. Five hours per week one week, three the next, and maybe eight
the following week is not that much time. I know people who spend this much
time driving to and from work. The investment will reward you when you have a
cold to fight at age eighty, I guarantee that. Do you want to lift your
grand-children when you are old? Do you want to avoid that cold altogether? I
did not have a cold for more than twenty-five years. I stopped training hard
for competitions and the next year I had walking pneumonia. I see the
correlation. I removed a eustress and experienced distress as a direct result.
Medical doctors spend 12 years getting through high school.
Four years earning a bachelor degree. Four years in medical school. Three to
seven years in a residency. Then, another one to three years in a fellowship.
This a lot of time, and money, to spend for a job. They also start practicing
medicine at some point in this continuum.
Lawyers spend twelve years qualifying for college also. Four
year undergraduate work. Law school lasts roughly three years. This is also a
lot of time and money earning the right to practice law.
Personal trainer’s jobs are just as weighty in my humble
view. We hold your health in our hands. I have watched inexperienced “trainers”
break their client’s leg. My stance is simple; personal training should require
a formalized certification process every bit as stringent as practicing law or
medicine.
I have written this many time in the past. Personal training
should be performance and health related more than appearance based.
Appearances are fleeting. I was better looking when I was twenty-three just
like many of us. Some people get better looking with age but they are few and
far between. These folks are regularly the healthiest of the gang nonetheless.
Make your personal trainer show you his or her professionalism. They must care
to be a great trainer. While considering advice make certain the advisor
possesses the acquaintance.
Personal training information proliferates these days and
most of it is delivered by internet aficionados. We need to make certain
personal training is a true profession since we hold client’s well-being in our
hand’s sometimes quite literally. A great coach must have been a good athlete,
continue to love their sport, take risks win or lose, love helping others advance, and be an
outstanding leader.
Get stronger in every way possible!