When you’re considering your fitness progression, it’s natural you’d look to a personal trainer and the advantages they can bring. But are they as simple as helping you to get fit and make lifestyle changes?
In fact, working with a PT can bring a wide range of unexpected benefits. Below, we outline the 10 biggest advantages of working with a personal trainer.
Table Of Contents:
- What Does A Personal Trainer Do?
- 10 Key Advantages Of Having A Personal Trainer
- #1 – Access to Specialist Knowledge
- #2 – Avoiding Injuries
- #3 – Improved Accountability
- #4 – Customised SMART Goals
- #5 – A Holistic Approach To Fitness
- #6 – Improved Progress Monitoring
- #7 – Greater Variety In Your Training
- #8 – Rehabilitation Support
- #9 – Benefits For Your Mental Health
- #10 – New Career Opportunities
- Before You Go!
What Does A Personal Trainer Do?
A personal trainer is simply a certified fitness professional who works on a 1-to-1 basis with a client to help them achieve their fitness goals.
One of the main roles and responsibilities of a personal trainer is to create and deliver a tailored fitness programme for a client. This is predominantly done through sessions in which the PT guides the client through various exercises. They may also offer advice on nutrition and lifestyle and specialise in particular areas of fitness.
10 Key Advantages Of Having A Personal Trainer
#1 – Access to Specialist Knowledge
Perhaps one of the more common misconceptions when it comes to personal training is that many assume that the knowledge PTs have only relates to exercise. That’s simply untrue.
By signing up with a PT, you can benefit from their extensive knowledge. This can range from anatomy and physiology to more complex aspects of exercise like optimal heart rates and muscular endurance.
To give you a sense of the scope of the fitness knowledge acquired when you become a personal trainer, here’s a complete breakdown of what OriGym’s prestigious personal training diploma covers.
For reference, this diploma includes the Level 3 Gym Instructing qualification and the Level 4 Personal Training qualification. Both of these are necessary to deliver sessions and work in a 1-to-1 capacity.
Level 2
- Motivating Groups and Individuals
- Tailoring Training Sessions
- Basic Human Anatomy & Physiology
- Principles of Exercise and Fitness
- Health, Safety & Welfare
- Learning the Fitness Business
Level 3
- Advanced Anatomy and Physiology for Health & Exercise
- Key Principles of Nutrition
- Personal Training Delivery
- Programming Training Sessions
- Developing & Demonstrating Leadership
- Understanding the Fitness Business
As you can see, the range of knowledge your PT has access to is extensive. That means they’ll be able to tailor an exercise program to your specific needs and provide in-depth guidance as you progress.
#2 – Avoiding Injuries
When you’re training solo, it can be easy to exceed your limits and end up causing yourself an unnecessary and potentially dangerous injury. In fact, a study found that 41% of gym users have injured themselves while working out.
One of the main benefits of a personal trainer is that they can help you integrate injury-avoidance strategies into your training program. These include:
- Planning out when you intend to rest, even mid-session.
- Effectively controlling your workouts to scale up the intensity over time.
- Utilising massage and therapeutic remedies to alleviate joint and muscle pain.
- Identifying opportunities to increase (or lower) the intensity of exercises.
- Shifting strain away from injured or sore areas (e.g. making use of leg workouts when the arms are sore).
- Balancing workouts across the whole body.
- A nutrition plan that focuses on regrowth and effective recovery.
Your trainer isn’t just there to help you get stronger. They’re also there to make sure that your fitness programme is sustainable and that you continually make improvements to your performance without the risk of injury.
#3 – Improved Accountability
Increased accountability is one of the most pivotal personal trainer advantages. It can influence how and when you exercise and therefore how quickly you see the results you’re looking for.
On the one hand, simply having a personal trainer makes you more accountable. When you’re spending money on a PT, you’re obviously not going to waste your allotted hours by cancelling your sessions at the last moment.
There are also a range of ways a personal trainer can help spur you on or adapt your training if your schedule gets disrupted, including:
- Online training options. Many personal trainers allow you to train via video or discuss plans and schedules over Zoom or Skype. This ensures that, even if you’re unable to get to your session, you’ve got options available to you.
- Bootcamps. These are usually intensive, concentrated sessions that utilise high-intensity exercises and movements. These are often an ideal alternative for those who are undertaking rigorous training ahead of a big goal or event.
- Small group personal training. Some personal trainers may offer smaller group sessions to accommodate multiple clients at a time or make up for missed sessions due to injury, illness or holiday.
#4 – Customised SMART Goals
One of the main reasons people turn to fitness trainers is a PT’s ability to structure workouts and ultimately help them reach their fitness goals.
If you’re training on your own, you may see some early progress as your body adjusts to your new routine. But without knowledge of the scalability of workouts and proper training, you’ll soon hit a frustrating plateau when it comes to long-term programme design.
To avoid this, a personal trainer can help you set SMART goals that will be:
- Specific. You should be able to fully define what your goal is.
- Measurable. Your goal should have data attached to it, to prove that you’ve reached the point you want to get to.
- Achievable. This is often a sticking point for creating your own goals, in the sense that we often set ourselves unattainable targets. A SMART goal should always be within reach.
- Relevant. Your goal should always relate to what you’re trying to achieve.
- Time-bound. Setting yourself a time frame to achieve your goals is an ideal motivator, and can be a great way to plan for the future.
By helping you set clear and effective SMART goals, a good personal trainer will always have you aiming for something more on the horizon, something extra that will keep you going.
#5 – A Holistic Approach To Fitness
One of the first things a PT will tell you is that personal training is not just a get-fit-quick scheme, but about making tangible lifestyle changes.
There’s no point altering your fitness schedule if everything else is going to remain the same. But this is a mistake that many make when training alone or without any prior knowledge of the fundamentals of exercise.
In addition to your training sessions, a personal trainer will help you to focus on:
- Nutrition. A PT will encourage you to change what you eat, how much you eat, and when you eat it.
- Routine. This can range from your current sleeping patterns, to how you structure your day to make time for exercise.
- Mindset. A PT will help you to think about how you view yourself, exercise, nutrition, and ultimately the way you feel about yourself
The idea is to supplement your new gym routine with changes to your everyday schedule. This will help you capitalise on some of that adrenaline and optimism at the start of your personal training journey to make some sustainable, meaningful changes to your lifestyle.
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If you’re enjoying this article on the advantages of having a personal trainer, you should check out these OriGym articles:
- Progression Opportunities For Personal Trainers
- Pros and Cons of Being a Personal Trainer
- How to Become a Master Personal Trainer
#6 – Improved Progress Monitoring
While exercise may not necessarily be the first thing you associate with facts, figures and data, these all play a pivotal role in fitness. In fact, they are one of the best advantages a personal trainer can offer.
A PT will use data to not only create meaningful and impactful training experiences but also to put into perspective how far you’ve come. They can help you track key metrics, such as:
- Key measurements, including chest, waist, hip, and bust measurements (particularly for clients looking to lose weight), and measurements for the main muscle groups (like biceps, quads and shoulders).
- BMI (Body Mass Index)
- Heart rate
- Calorie intake
- Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) which measures how intense the exercise you complete is.
- Daily Step Total
Each of these data points combines to give your personal trainer a much clearer picture of your overall fitness levels. This won’t just help them create a schedule that works for both you and your lifestyle, but it will also give you a clear picture of your progress.
#7 – Rehabilitation Support
Rehabilitation is a huge part of fitness. It forms a key component of effective recovery and ensures you’ll be able to pursue your goals even after you’ve suffered an injury that might’ve otherwise stopped you.
However, this is tricky to get right when you’re training alone. You can even risk aggravating or worsening an injury if any rehabilitation exercises are done incorrectly.
This is where the advantages of a personal trainer shine through. They’ll help you to recover effectively while still ensuring that you can continue to progress and develop.
Rehabilitation is learnt as part of any good personal training diploma and ties together key aspects of the course, including advanced anatomy and physiology, the components of exercise, and how best to keep clients safe and healthy.
Great trainers will also be able to structure workouts and routines to better accommodate any pre-existing injuries or complaints that could potentially impact how a client exercises.
#8 – Greater Variety In Your Training
It’s natural that, when we train without the help of a trained professional, we’ll start to reach a plateau or begin to get bored with the same, stagnant routines.
That’s where a personal trainer comes in.
One of the biggest personal trainer advantages is that, using their encyclopaedic knowledge of exercise and fitness, they can provide new and exciting ways to progress or push past some of the monotony you might experience with your training routines.
They’ll draw from more unorthodox training methods (like sandbag training), as well as more traditional exercises, like squats and deadlifts, to create a routine that doesn’t feel stale or monotonous.
#9 – Benefits Your Mental Health
Most people may think of personal trainers as helping you achieve physical or aesthetic results, such as weight loss or muscle toning. But in fact, personal training benefits your mental health too!
There are countless proven mental health benefits of exercise, such as boosting your mood, promoting sleep and improving concentration.
A good personal trainer is not only a fitness coach, but also a positive role model who will encourage and motivate you. This is a huge benefit of personal training as it can help boost your mood and improve your self-confidence!
Personal training can also help those who are stuck in a rut or lacking structure in their lives. The regularity of sessions can help you form a routine, which can be extremely beneficial for your mental health.
#10 – New Career Opportunities
Here at OriGym, we have a direct view of the kind of people entering the industry as new personal trainers.
Many of our students often cite their own personal trainers as a key inspiration for pursuing a career change and opting for fitness as the ideal way to do that. This is one of the key personal trainer advantages – and one that often goes unnoticed.
Once you start training with a trainer, you’ll start to use more equipment, gain more knowledge, and attend more classes than you ever would have if you were just training alone. For many, this translates as a newfound desire to change career paths and start a fitness business of their own.
Ultimately, seeing your personal trainer as happy and fulfilled in their role can help you make the decision to change your career for one that’s more suited to you and your newfound hobby.
Before You Go!
Personal trainers offer the complete skillset you’ll need to be able to accomplish your fitness goals, implement meaningful lifestyle changes, and ultimately become a healthier individual.
If you’d prefer to be self-sufficient, take that step yourself and qualify as a PT with OriGym’s exceptional personal training diploma. You’ll learn everything you need to know to be a prosperous personal trainer in as little as 4 weeks.
