Has anyone reached better resoluts working with a personal trainer vs. on your own?

Question

I want to get one but it is quite expenseve. Just wondering if it is worth the money.

I shoudl probabllt have mentioned that I'm not that fat, and go to the gym regularlly, but just don't see the wanted results and not sure what I'm doing wrong

Answer 1

I have found that is indeed better to have a personal trainer. It keeps you from hurting yourself through lazy habits and it challenges you to keep going. It makes it a lot harder to procrastinate because you pay for the service.

Answer 2

I am a personal trainer. And I sincerely believe that it is entirely dependant on the dynamic between the trainer/trained that is significant. Unless, of course, the trainer is an idiot and the trained is too unknowledgeable to know it. I've seen some other trainers do some stupid things with people - like injure them with bad ideas. But mostly, I tell my clients that if they are not on their own after 6 months, then there is something wrong, either a lack of interest on their parts in eductaing themselves or keeping going, or I don't know how to explain how things work with them. The bottom line is that if one needs the constant reassurance and motivation of a personal trainer to keep going, then they are training for the wrong reasons, and further, and this is totally true, vanity or health, pretty much anything except power lifting or sports performance wize, 70% of the results (no joke) have nothing to do with the working out intensity/effectiveness. They are diet (not 3 meals a day), sleep (8.5 hours optimally) and diligence - a person just being active and walking around/building a pet project at home for 2 hours each day will have much better results than most people in the gyms of America, because they only show up when they feel like it. If you need motivation constantly from the person who you are paying, then what started you up at the gym anyway? Also, don't get started for girls/guys - as a bodybuilder, it took me about three years for real results in that department; if that is your reason, then it will take too long and you will lose interest too quick; but after 3 years or so, it makes a huge difference. A trainer, then, is most useful to get you started, and remember - it is in the unethical trainer's best interests to make you feel dependent on them for good. Not yours, or your wallet's. The same goes with nutritionists - believe me, I know. And for what it's worth, anyone wanting a trainer like me is really just paying to be lazy - really, all the info you probably need is available through the web, which I'm sure you have, heh. But do you feel like spending about 90 minutes a day becomming educated and up to date, every day, on different health training related topics? Because getting a personal trainer certification is not hard at all, it's 500 dollars and a weekend seminar, so just being a personal trainer does not make you a good one. Choose wizely, and don't plan to be with a personal trainer for over 6 months - by then, you'll either be seeing results, be motivated sufficiently by this, and be hooked enough to invest that 90 minutes a day researching and 120 minutes a day working out (17 hours working/sleeping leaves a whopping 7 hours with nothing to do - it sounds like a lot if you're not used to it, but it's really reallly just not...) and go on on your own, or the trainer is ineffective or you'll realize that your motivations were not sufficient to upkeep this sort of lifestyle. Just be absolutely sure that the guy/girl has a solid reputation first; "wierd" exercises (i.e. ones they just made up) are a good bellwether for seeing that the person is just using you as a guinea pig/money bag. Good luck on your future health and fitness, and I hope that this keeps you optimally situated in finance and efficiency.

Answer 3

I am a personal trainer and I believe you get better results. The biggest reason is that if you are paying for a personal trainer you will go to the gym because if you don't you would waste that money. Getting to the gym is half the battle.

Answer 4

it depends on :-
a) how much you know about fitness
b) how much the trainer knows about fitness.
Unfortunately in my experience personal trainers generally don`t know very much. Some of the advice I have seen offered is frankly dangerous. Most of them have only a very basic qualification. My advice is to go with a trainer as you will probably get better results - but make sure you check out his/her qualifications & experience. (p.s. I am a high performance gymnastics coach & have been in the sport for nearly 40 years)