6 reasons Why should you hire a personal trainer

"I don't want to be paying for something that I can do for myself already."

"If you can do it yourself, then why are we having this conversation?" I thought to myself.

What this person said to me, and what I thought to myself, are both 100% acceptable. I wholeheartedly agree with what she said. If you can do something for yourself, without paying for help, go right ahead and do it. Because let's face it, you'd only be taking up my time, wasting your hard earned money, and preventing me from helping someone who truly does need my help. I don't want to train someone who doesn't need my help. It's pointless!

The reason why we were having this conversation, is because she felt limited. Further conversation revealed that. Despite her having knowledge of the human body and how it works, she really needed help with practical steps and advice to help her achieve her goals. She needed help with putting her knowledge into something easy, understandable, and doable.

Have you asked yourself that same question? Why should you hire and pay for a trainer? well, let's discuss the reasons!

1) Squats, push ups... what else should I do??
This folks, is the most straight forward answer you'll ever get, for anything! If you don't know what to do, get help from someone who does.

2) You know what to do, even though you've done bootcamps / group exercise before. You just don't know where to start outside of that setting.
Fair enough! Just because you know what to do, it doesn't mean that you understand everything about it. Did you know that you can hire a trainer simply to help create a plan for you? That plan can consist of what you'll do each day of the week. It can be creating fresh workouts for you to do as well as creating a workout schedule. It can be sitting down periodically with your trainer to discuss your goals and figuring out which group classes at your gym would be best suited to get you closer to achieving those goals. We're not just someone to make you sweat lots and count your reps. There's more to us than that!

3) You need accountability.
Let's face it. If something is difficult or requires more effort than we'd like to give, and we can get away with putting it off, as humans we will put it off! We've all done it, and there's no point in denying it. You might have the means and the ability to exercise under your own steam, but are you actually going to follow through with it? Genuine, non-judgey question! Because it's all well and good saying you can do it for yourself, but will you? Why not hire a PT to be your accountability partner? None of us like to waste money, so hiring someone is good incentive to help you to create a habit, and where necessary, keep that habit going strong. For example, instead of doing a full program complete with twice weekly training sessions, you can pay your trainer for a monthly program, and then tell them each week when you are planning to hit the gym. They can remind you to do your workout on the day, they can be there to high five you as you arrive and again when you leave the gym, or they can follow up with you afterwards via message. There are heaps of ways to do this and it can be really fun figuring out away that suits you best! Throw them $20 (or whatever their rate is) per week for their effort. Hey, buy them a weekly box or three of organic free range eggs if you like! Then when the next month comes around, get a program update, and repeat! What did I say before? "We're not just someone to make you sweat lots and count your reps." We are able to help you in so many different ways!!

4) You're busy, and you don't have the time to think about it all.
All you want to do is turn up and train. You work. You have kids. Maybe you work two jobs and have three needy cats. What you want is someone who knows their stuff, who understands your goals, and can help you. Why should you exhaust your already tired and stressed brain over exercise when all you want is some "me time"? The solution - pay someone to do the thinking for you! You can do in-person sessions, or have an online program. Either way works well!

5) We keep things simple for you in a personalised way.
Did you know that for general health and fitness, regular brisk walking is all you need to do to start off with? Of course you did! The frustrating thing is, we are marketed to believe that exercise (and nutrition) needs to be fancy, complex, and come complete with it's own DJ to actually get results. Newsflash - not true! All you need to do is:

• Give yourself a decent timeframe (3-12 months depending on your current physical condition)
• Start with walking three times per week if you're a true beginner. Do this until it's a solid habit (i.e.: longer than 21 days. Think 60 days).
• Are you getting bored? Are you getting fitter? Cool! Hire someone to give you a new workout plan to do by yourself or with their supervision. From there, you can create as much variety as you want. Weights, cardio, HIIT, whatever!

​I like to train people for three months at a time. When that three months is nearing completion, we have a good chat about our progress and whether we need to keep working together or not. If my help is still needed (or wanted), we continue. If not, that's okay!

6) You'll learn things.
It's true. Everyone knows how to exercise. If you can walk, ride a bike, swim or run, you can exercise. But do you know the intricacies of how your body works? Do you know what muscles control different movements? Do you know how to best target a certain muscle in just the right way, to get just the right results? When you're working together, a good trainer will teach you those things. For two reasons:

• A good trainer will want to empower you. You shouldn't be dependent on someone for the rest of your life. You're not just paying for time, sweat, and rep counting. You're paying for their knowledge of exercise prescription in different situations, you're paying for a personalised experience, and that means you're paying to learn, whether you realise it or not.
• Being dependent on someone for the rest of your days is bad for everyone. It's really draining when you train someone long-term who isn't willing to learn. And it's actually quite sad, because that person isn't willing to reach their full potential.

You can train with someone for as long or as short as you want, but make the most of it! I have no doubt that any good trainer will be more than happy to share their knowledge on different subjects with you. It will probably be quite exciting for them, and you'll be the one reaping the benefits and getting even more value for your money.

to summarise...

You can think of any reason you want to hire or not to hire a trainer. It's completely up to you, because you are in control of how you spend your time and money. Just remember that all Fit Pro's are different, and you can definitely approach us and see if we are willing to try a non-traditional way to support you in your fitness journey :)