5 Hidden Perks of Hiring a Personal Trainer That No One’s Ever Told You

Photo created by senivpetro – www.freepik.com

Is a personal trainer worth it? Well, I’d argue that hiring a personal trainer might just be the best thing you can do for your health and fitness.

Fitness trainers are so much more than someone you see a couple times a week who puts you through a tough workout.

The ultimate goal of the personal trainer is to help you hit your fitness goals.

That easily makes them the best tool in the gym. While dumbbells and squat racks are great, nothing is as crucial to your fitness goals as KNOWLEDGE.

But enough of my blabbering. You’re here to learn those 5 extra perks – the 5 little-known perks – of hiring a personal trainer. These are the real reasons that trainers are so valuable.

When someone asks me, “Is a personal trainer worth it?” this is the answer I give.

---

Please note: Check with your physician before starting any exercise routine or starting any particular diet. See this Disclaimer for more details. This post may contain affiliate links. For details, please visit my Disclosure page. Thank you!

Why Hiring a Personal Trainer is Worth It

1. Personal trainers design individualized programs to hit your goals

Probably the most well-known reason to hire a personal trainer is because they tell you what workouts to do.

But they actually do so much more than that (you’ll definitely see that later in this post too).

Of the many things personal trainers study, a big part is designing a stellar fitness program that’s aimed at getting clients their specific desired results.

No two workout plans are exactly the same.

Because even if goals are similar, every person is different. While two people may both want to lose weight, one could want to emphasize core work and the other could want to strengthen her arms. One may also love running while the other would ditch me in a second if I suggested a short jog on the treadmill.

Everyone also has different abilities – two clients of the same height, weight, and age may have a very different max plank time.

Clients may also have different equipment at their disposal. And different amounts of time they can devote to fitness. And prior injuries that prevent certain movements.

As you can see, there are so many reasons why training programs may differ, even among people with similar goals.

Now every trainer does have moves they love, whether it’s hip thrusts like Jason Walsh or bear crawls like Da Rulk. Personally, I’m a big fan of the dumbbell push press, a shoulder move that uses the lower body to generate some of the force, decreasing the chance of shoulder injury. It’s also a great total body move that torches calories in the process.

I also have basic workout plan outlines I’ve developed over time. And if two people can use a similar-ish plan, that’s great. The same upper body workout too? Awesome.

RELATED POST: Effective Week-Long Workout Plan for Busy Professionals

After all, my workout programs and individual workouts are written in particular ways for a reason – because they get results.

But since every person is different, no two plans will be the same. Many people’s goals won’t even align with an outline based on the specific needs they have.

With a personal trainer, you really, truly do get a PERSONAL trainer. Someone who looks at you as an individual and says, “Here’s what we have to do FOR YOU.”

2. Personal trainers keep you accountable – like no one else

Photo created by senivpetro – www.freepik.com

This isn’t a perk to shrug off.

Most people don’t achieve their fitness goals for one simple reason: they aren’t held accountable.

It’s the same reason the dishes remain unwashed or you have to bail on a social commitment – life is busy and tiring. Sometimes we fall through on things when we’re overwhelmed and exhausted.

When you hire a personal trainer, you’re also hiring someone to keep you on track no matter what. Not only will you have a hard time skipping a workout you’ve already paid for, you’ll actually have to call someone and explain why you can’t stick with your commitment today.

Talk about obligation!

Many personal trainers also have a last-minute cancellation fee.

All of these factors aren’t to dissuade you from hiring a personal trainer. It’s because of this accountability that personal training is often so successful -and so very worth it.

Photo in pin created by javi_indy – www.freepik.com

3. Personal trainers keep your fitness goals realistic

Many people are great at making big goals for themselves. The trouble is, they’re not at all realistic.

For those who are overweight, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends losing 1-2 lbs per week. This type of slow, steady weight loss is great because it utilizes small, reasonable lifestyle changes you can sustain – rather than yoyo dieting or rigorous exercise programs that lead to burnout or injury.

But so few people take this recommendation to heart. I can’t tell you how many Pinterest pins I see promising things like a 10 lb weight loss in 1 week.

Not only are many of these drastic weight losses just not possible, if you did achieve some of them then you’d likely have other negative effects.

Either you’ll:

1. Mostly have lost water weight, in which case you will quickly gain it back, OR
2. Your body will feel completely out of whack from the dramatic changes: fatigue, moodiness, irregular eating patterns (binge eating), etc. and will also most likely gain it back

Personal trainers can help you keep your goals realistic so you’re way more likely to achieve them and maintain them.

For example, I had a client who wanted to lose 10-15 lbs. We discussed all her life factors and what her training schedule could look like. For her, it was most likely – due to her other commitments – that she could lose 1 lb/week. She was surprised to then see that her goal could easily take her up to 3 months to achieve! (Side note: that ended up being the exact rate of her weight loss.)

Setting realistic fitness goals is a big benefit of hiring a personal trainer.

Photo created by Racool_studio – www.freepik.com

4. Personal trainers help you correct muscle imbalances

This was a concept I hadn’t even heard of prior to starting my personal training certification.

And today I’m just gonna scratch the surface because it’s pretty complex.

But the focus on correcting muscle imbalances is actually the reason I specifically chose NASM’s personal training program. Because it’s SO important.

What does it mean to have a muscle imbalance?

When performing any movement, we have muscle agonists and antagonists. Muscle agonists are the muscles primarily in charge of performing the movement, whereas antagonists oppose the prime movers. For example, when performing a bicep curl, the biceps are the agonists and the triceps are the antagonists.

If you strengthen only one of these, say the biceps, then you create a muscle imbalance because the triceps are substantially weaker than the biceps. A problem can also occur if you only stretch an agonist or the antagonist.

Incorrectly programmed weight lifting is only part of the problem. Pretty much every person has some sort of muscle imbalances from daily life, whether it’s performing repetitive movements, poor posture, or a lack of muscle use.

The whole body is connected; we call it the kinetic chain. And if one part of the kinetic chain is imbalanced, it can create dysfunction in almost any other part of your body. This can lead to a wide variety of body weaknesses and injuries.

Every single body is different.

Personal trainers are trained to assess your movement patterns and take cues from what they see. From this, they specifically write the best program for you.

Simple tweaks in the exercises/stretches you perform can not only get you the specific toning you want, it can prevent an injury you might have had otherwise.

The ability to correct muscle imbalances alone make it worth hiring a personal trainer.

5. Personal trainers save you money down the road

One of the biggest objections to hiring a personal trainer is the expense. Unsurprisingly, “personal trainer cost” is a frequently googled search term.

The cost of a personal trainer varies greatly based on location, freelance vs. gym-based, session duration, how many days a week you meet, how many months you commit to, a personal trainer’s experience/expertise in an area, whether it’s in-person or online, etc.

Personally, I know that in my area $50-65/session is a pretty typical going rate for a standard personal trainer working freelance. Gym trainers often cost upwards of $80-$120/session because of the facilities and the gym’s cut.

You may be absolutely appalled by those numbers – I certainly was at first.

Until I realized that hiring a personal trainer is akin to purchasing preventative medicine.

In a world where an ER visit can easily cost you thousands of dollars – and a hospital stay, thousands more – I’ll ask you this: why is a hospital stay a “necessary” expense, but caring for your health ahead of time with a trained fitness professional not “necessary”?

So many health problems can be prevented and reversed by improved physical fitness and proper nutrition – both things that a personal trainer is trained to help you with.

So why wouldn’t you want to invest in it? There is a very strong likelihood that a personal trainer will save you money down the road: in doctor’s visits, hospital visits, recovery costs, medications, and even physical therapy costs if you were to train on your own and injure yourself.

While a trainer’s program may seem like a large amount at first, it’s FAR less than all of those other things combined. This easily makes a personal trainer worth it.

Photo in pin was created by senivpetro – www.freepik.com

---

Wondering if your goals are realistic and what your individualized workout plan would be? Schedule a free personal training consultation call with me to discuss your goals and get you on the right track!

Your fitness is worth it.