It’s a new year, and you finally decided to stop talking and take action regarding your health. Exercise is generally the first thing people think of when beginning on the road to good health. But where to begin? Do you join a gym? Head outside for a walk/jog/run? Follow exercise videos? Search for a trainer?
With so much information bombarding us, it can get confusing. Yes, there are many ways to get started. However, some of them are not for you. First, ask yourself a series of questions: 1) What is your level of exercise experience? 2) Are you easily motivated? 3) What is your spending amount? The answers to these questions will get you headed in the right direction. If you have very little exercise experience, guidance is strongly suggested. If you are experienced, but need motivation, again; guidance is strongly suggested. If you have very little money to spend, consider that your health should not have a price tag. Take a look at where your spending priorities are, and verify whether or not this is impacting your health for the positive.
Joining a gym is a nice option when starting out or starting over. The trouble is that most people do not continue attending very long after they join—unless they have a trainer. Why? Trainers are there to safely guide you toward your very specific goals—which they can also help you figure out—and help keep you accountable. Accountability often times leads to success. In fact, working out with a personal trainer increases your fitness goal success rate by over 30%, according to a study found in Journal of Sports and Science Medicine www.ncbi.nim.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3937569/.
Let’s suppose your budget cannot afford a trainer 4 x’s a week. What then? Well, going it alone, in a gym, all by yourself has a very low success rate. So basically, that translates to wasting good money on a little used gym membership. Watching videos doesn’t have any accountability factors, nor is it specifically tailored towards your personal goals. Well, there are options: you could extnay the gym membership all together, and just pay for training. Or, maybe there is an option for group training? Though not exactly one-on-one, at least there’s still the accountability factor, which leads to a higher success rate. Or, the option of checking in periodically with a trainer may suit you, if you are well motivated already on your own.
Any way you look at it, all roads lead back to accountability equals success. So, when is the best time to hire a trainer? The moment you decide to get serious about your health and fitness!
Good luck,
Coach Lord