Blog: what to expect from getting a Personal Trainer

First and foremost great job on gathering the confidence and motivation to taking the next step of becoming the greatest physical version of yourself. Now with professional guidance through a personal trainer, your possibilities of reaching the ultimate body/ health are limitless!

Getting a personal trainer is a fantastic step toward achieving your fitness goals but be prepared as this is the first step towards your journey. Here’s what you can expect when embarking on this fitness journey.

Assessment and Goal Setting: Your Personal trainer will assess your current fitness level, discuss your goals, and create a personalized workout plan tailored to your needs. Here at JCBPT, we will discuss specific goals that you may have. For example, you may want to make your workload easier or you may want to target specific muscle groups (like flatter stomach or smaller arms). Knowing what you would like to see in the mirror sets a clear path of what we will need to do.

Education: It should be noted that you come prepared and ready to take knowledge from a Certified Personal trainer. This will not only help you with your training journey but most importantly enhancing your overall quality of life. Personal trainers educate you about fitness, nutrition, and lifestyle choices, empowering you to make healthier decisions outside of your sessions.

Be on Time: Ensure punctuality to maximize your training experience. Trainers maintain busy schedules, and arriving late deducts valuable workout minutes. Imagine paying for two hours daily but losing 20 minutes due to tardiness, resulting in just 40 minutes of training. Arriving promptly ensures you receive the full value of your investment.

Warming Up Before You Training Session: Prioritize warm-up exercises before your session. Personal trainers typically advise warming up with stretching and cardio exercises. By following these instructions, you optimize your training time. Proper warm-up allows your trainer to concentrate on vital exercises during the main session. Maximize your investment by being prepared, ensuring your trainer can focus on enhancing your workout experience.

Customized Workouts: Certified Personal trainers design workouts that target your specific goals, whether it’s weight loss, muscle gain, or overall fitness improvement. 


Here’s an example of a customized workout for someone who’s looking to build lean muscle. Remember this example is for informational purposes and recommend you consult with a physician or doctor before starting any regimen 


Warm-up (5-10 minutes):

• Jumping jacks
• Bodyweight squats
• Arm circles
• Light jogging in place
• Strength Training (45 minutes):

Barbell Squats: 4 sets of 8-10 reps
• Rest: 1-2 minutes between sets
Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Rest: 1-2 minutes between sets
Cable back rows: 3 sets of 6-8 reps
• Rest: 1-2 minutes between sets
Dumbbell Rows: 3 sets of 10-12 reps (each arm)
• Rest: 1-2 minutes between sets
Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets of 8-10 reps
• Rest: 1-2 minutes between sets
Dumbbell Bicep Curls: 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Rest: 1-2 minutes between sets
Double are Tricep ext: 3 sets of 10-12 reps
• Rest: 1-2 minutes between sets

Nutritional Guidance: Many personal trainers or nutrition coaches, provide dietary advice to complement your workouts, helping you achieve optimal results. How should a personal trainer give nutrition? 
Each client has their unique goal in mind, body type, lifestyle preferences and medical history. It would be wise to develop a personalized nutrition guideline for clients based on these attributes. 
 

Personal trainers should Educate clients about fundamental nutrition concepts, including macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats), micronutrients (vitamins, minerals), hydration, and portion control.




Great work ethic:
 

So you have finally gather the motivation and mental toughness to go into a personal training program. So what do you do during the training sessions? You grind! The best way you can because remember, you invested your hard earned money into your body, you definitely want to get your moneys worth. 


A strong work ethic ensures you consistently attend training sessions and follow the workout and nutrition plans. 

Consistency: Consistency is key to achieving your fitness goals Putting in the effort during workouts leads to better results. 


When you work hard, you challenge your body, encouraging it to adapt and grow stronger. Remember F.I.T is an acronym F is for Frequency. I is for Intensity and T is for Time.





Coaching ability:
 Being able to accept feedback ultimately boils down to your success. Understand that most experienced trainers have experience with having clients reach their ultimate fitness goals and will break down the secrets with you to achieve this feat. Be receptive and captivate the information that is given to you. This openness accelerates the learning process, helping you grasp new techniques and concepts more quickly. Being coachable allows you to implement changes, leading to more efficient and effective training sessions and better overall progress.


 

Trust in your Fitness Coach: A coachable attitude builds trust between you and your Personal trainer. Trust is fundamental in any coaching relationship, enabling trainers to push you to your potential safely.



Motivation and Support: Personal trainers act as your cheerleaders, providing motivation and support to keep you going, even on the toughest days where you don’t feel like working out. Motivation gives you the drive to start your fitness journey and overcome obstacles, while support from friends, family, or a community provides emotional backing and helps you stay committed. Having a support system also offers practical benefits, such as workout buddies, shared knowledge, and advice, making the journey more enjoyable and sustainable. Ultimately, motivation and support create a positive environment that fosters growth, resilience, and long-term success in your fitness endeavors.



Proper Form and Technique: Trainers ensure you perform exercises correctly, reducing the risk of injuries and maximizing the effectiveness of your workouts. Doing the exercises correctly, makes all the difference between success and failure. Using your energy to its full potential will change your body in way that’s unimaginable. A good trainer would help you maximize each exercise and help isolate targeted muscle groups. 
Here’s an example of how to maximize exercise and proper form 


Bench Press 
Set Up:

• Position: Lie on your back on a flat bench. Your eyes should be directly under the bar.
• Grip: Reach up and grab the barbell with a grip slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Your palms should be facing away from you (overhand grip).
Body Positioning:
• Feet: Place your feet flat on the ground for stability. They should be positioned firmly and comfortably.
• Back: Arch your back slightly and squeeze your shoulder blades together. This creates a stable base.
• Buttocks: Keep your buttocks on the bench at all times.
Unrack the Bar:
• Lift the bar off the rack, or have a spotter assist you in doing so. The bar should be directly above your chest with your arms extended.
Lowering the Bar:
• Inhale and slowly lower the bar towards your chest. Keep your elbows at around a 45-degree angle to your body. Lower the bar until it lightly touches your chest or hovers slightly above it.
Pressing the Bar:
• Exhale and push the bar back up to the starting position. Focus on using your chest, shoulders, and triceps to perform the movement. Keep your movements controlled and steady.
Lockout:
• Fully extend your arms at the top of the movement without locking your elbows. Pause briefly to contract your chest muscles.
Racking the Bar:
• Once you’ve completed the desired number of repetitions, carefully rack the bar back onto the rack or have your spotter assist you.



Progress Tracking: Personal trainers of Fitness coaches track your progress, adjusting your workout routine as needed to keep you challenged and on track toward your goals. At Jcbpt we track our clients heart rates through certain devices. We have an app that tracks what we are eating and the exercises we doing in our spare time. Most apps integrate with Apple Watch which we strongly encourage a client to get. This gives us a detailed analysis of what we are doing throughout the day and see what adjustments we have to make to make sure we are on the right path to achieve our goals. 




Perseverance: we all know that everyday is not gonna be peaches and roses. Sometimes life comes at us hard. But it’s how we adapt and push forward that makes us who we are. We all heard of the “Mamba Mentality” from Kobe but there are only a few that really carry it. Being mentally tough and adapting to life circumstances while staying on your fitness goals is a complete winner and should deserve all the credit in the world! 



Accountability: Having a scheduled session with a trainer holds you accountable, making it more likely that you’ll stick to your fitness routine. Having a clear path towards your fitness goals will also encourage this. Here at Jcbpt we set the blueprint for our clients. From point A to point Z. We weave out all the guess with clear visuals to make sure that this is the best investment to make. We are gonna make sure you reach your goals and build a healthy and strong community. 


Variety: Personal Trainers introduce diverse exercises and techniques, keeping your workouts engaging and preventing boredom. Listen, in reality we all like the results of working but who actually likes to workout? Being able to see the end result will definitely keep your eye on the prize and push through the least to like exercises.                                         Trainers will give you a ton of variety of exercises for each muscle group keeping you engaged. Incorporating a mix of cardiovascular exercises, strength training, flexibility exercises, and activities like yoga or sports can provide the benefits of variety, ensuring a well-rounded and effective fitness routine.


Preventing Plateaus. When you repeatedly do the same exercises, your body can adapt, and you might hit a plateau where you stop seeing progress. Introducing variety challenges your body in new ways, preventing plateaus and promoting continuous improvement. Learning new exercises and techniques can be mentally stimulating. It engages your brain as you focus on mastering different movements, which can be as beneficial for your mind as it is for your body.


 

Progression: In addition to preventing plateaus your body should go through phases of progression. As your body changes for the greater good, as should your workouts. Gradually increasing the intensity of your workouts is a fundamental principle in fitness that helps you continually challenge your body, prevent plateaus, and achieve better results over time. Here’s a more detailed breakdown of how you can do this:
• Progressive Overload: This principle involves gradually increasing the amount of weight you lift over time. As your muscles adapt to a certain weight, you need to add more resistance to keep challenging them.
• Proper Form: Always prioritize proper form to prevent injuries. Start with a weight that allows you to maintain correct form and gradually increase the weight as you get stronger.
•
Doing More Repetitions (Reps):
• Increase Repetitions: If you’re lifting lighter weights and want to increase intensity, add more repetitions to your sets. Higher reps can enhance muscular endurance and definition.
• Focus on Control: Pay attention to the quality of each repetition. It’s better to perform fewer controlled reps than many sloppy ones.
• Increasing Tension on the muscle:
Time under tension (TUT) exercises involve controlling the speed at which you perform each repetition of an exercise, increasing the time your muscles are under strain. One significant benefit of TUT exercises is enhanced muscle hypertrophy (muscle growth). When you prolong the duration of each repetition, your muscles experience a longer continuous workload. This increased stress prompts the muscle fibers to adapt and grow in response to the sustained tension. TUT exercises can stimulate muscle growth effectively, especially when combined with proper form and an appropriate weight.


Increasing the Duration of Cardio Exercises:
• Gradual Progression: If you’re doing cardio exercises like running, cycling, or swimming, aim to increase the duration of your workouts gradually. Add a few more minutes each session or extend your workout by 5-10 minutes per week.
• Interval Training: Incorporate interval training where you alternate between periods of high-intensity exercise and periods of lower intensity or rest. This technique can boost cardiovascular endurance effectively.
Progression Planning:
• Periodization: Consider using a periodization approach in your training. This involves dividing your workout routine into different periods with varied intensity and volume. For example, you might have a period focused on high reps and lower weight, followed by a period of heavy lifting with lower reps.
• Rest and Recovery: Remember that your body needs time to recover from intense workouts. Plan rest days into your routine to allow your muscles to repair and grow stronger.
Listen to Your Body:
• Avoid Overtraining: Pushing yourself is essential, but it’s equally important to recognize the signs of overtraining. If you feel persistently fatigued, unusually sore, or experience decreased performance, it might be time to scale back temporarily.
By incorporating these methods into your fitness routine, you can ensure a gradual and sustainable increase in workout intensity, leading to improved strength, endurance, and overall fitness



Improved Confidence: As you see progress and gain strength, your confidence in your abilities and appearance is likely to soar. Regular physical activity can boost energy levels and combat feelings of fatigue. Having more energy can make it easier to engage in social activities, pursue hobbies, and accomplish tasks, leading to an increased sense of self-assurance.

Conclusion: Remember, the key to a successful relationship with your personal trainer is communication. Be open about your goals, any concerns you have, and how you’re feeling during and after workouts. With dedication, consistency, and the guidance of a skilled personal trainer, you’re on your way to a healthier, fitter you!