How to Choose a Personal Trainer

How is your week going so far? While I am sure you’re busy running around before the holidays with all the parties, shopping, and spending time with loved ones, I bet you are starting to think about ringing in the New Year as well. Have you decided on any resolutions yet?

A common New Year’s Resolution is getting to the gym more to workout. That is half the battle! But how do you make the most of your workout time at the gym?

There is no sense in wasting your valuable time if it isn’t going to help you lose weight, get toned, or just get healthy, is there? So, how do you make sure you are doing the exercises that will help you best reach your goals?

In order to get a customizable workout that takes into account your current health status and body shape, it is best to hire a personal trainer. They can run from $30+ per session, but most gyms offer a free session for just joining the gym. If you haven’t taken advantage of your free session yet, I highly recommend you start off the new year with a personal trainer.

Why would you want to work with a Personal Trainer?

1. They can help you meet a goal such as lose weight, run a 5k, or get you in shape for sports.
2. They can customize a workout for those with special health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, injuries, or women who are pregnant.
3. They can help you determine your current fitness status and help you improve it!

How do you choose a Personal Trainer?

1. Look for one with a Personal Training Certification from organizations such as ACSM, ACE, NASM, or NSCA.
2. Choose one with the specialization for your current health condition (i.e. pregnancy, postpartum, injury, heart disease, etc.)
3. Determine how many years of experience they have and any experience in your specific condition.
4. Make sure they have liability insurance just in case something happens while you are on their watch.
5. Determine the location you would like to work out at such as a gym, in-home, health center, weight loss clinic, etc.
6. See if the Personal Trainer has a trial session to make sure your PT is a good fit and will best help you! Remember, it is all about you getting the help you need to reach your goals.
7. A great Personal Trainer will devise a customizable workout plan, will help you evaluate your progress, gives you direct answers and in terminology you can understand, is a good teacher, is patient, and is someone who cares about helping you reach your goals.

The key is finding someone who fits well with you and your goals.

As you get ready for the New Year, decide on your resolutions and make sure they are doable. There is no sense in making resolutions that are too hard to reach. Make your goals short term and reachable.

For example, if you think you need to lose 50 pounds. Don’t make your goal ‘I will lose 50 pounds by March’. That is a big goal to reach and if you don’t reach it, you may become discouraged. Instead, make your goal I will lose 10 pounds in the next 6 weeks.

This goal is smaller and easier to achieve. Once you achieve this goal, you will be more motivated to stick with your program and keep working your way to those 50 pounds.

New Year’s Resolution Motivation Tip: Start with small goals!

Ready for that challenge?

Leave a comment below and let me know what your new year’s resolutions are this year.

5 Crazy Simple Steps for a Healthy and Successful New YOU in the NEW YEAR!

I think I can vouch for the majority of us to say that we come to a point in our lives and we just want more!
We want to feel better. We want to be successful in life. We want to make a difference. We want to achieve something great. We want a job promotion. We want to be free of taking medications. We want to just feel better about ourselves. We are ready to get out of the old grind and get on with lives! We are tired of the everyday mundane lives we find ourselves in. (Can you think of another “we” to add?)

So how do we get to the point that we feel better about ourselves and what we are accomplishing?

Well, I have come up with the top 5 steps to consider when deciding to create a healthier or more successful you!

1. Take your health (or your success) seriously!

What does this mean? It means that the first step to achieving greatness no matter what area in your life is to take it seriously. If you approach this desire for change in a half-hazzard manner, you are not going to accomplish anything. Make sure you have a positive attitude about creating a serious change in your life.
Changes are hard to make which is why it is vital that you take this change seriously.

2. Small changes are where it is at!

With determining a need for changing, it is important to determine what changes are to be made. Make sure the changes are small and achievable which will make it easier for you to stay motivated on your path. If your change is big, cut it down to smaller bite-sized pieces so they will be easier for you to chew (or achieve).

Instead of saying I want to workout on a regular basis and eat very healthy, say I would like to workout doing XYZ 2 times a week and cook one healthy meal at home a week. Then once you have done that, move on and add more to your list. Achieving these small goals, will help you keep making small changes towards your ultimate goal!

Big changes discourage you when you mess up, small changes are easier to achieve and encourage you! Which do you want?

3. Get support!

With making any changes, there will be difficulties faced. You will come to a road block and not have any motivation or knowledge of how to get around the road block. This is where you need help! It is vital that you find a support system to help you on your health or business building journey. These people will help you overcome difficulties and will give you the support, encouragement, and accountability to keep going towards your finish line!

If you can’t find a good support system in your friends and family around you or if you feel you need a 3rd party to really help you stick with and work through the difficult times, hire a personal coach.
There are coaches for many different areas of your life.

There are business, marketing, or success coaches that can help you build business. There are health and wellness coaches to help you reach your health outcomes and offer the expertise to set you on the right track. Check into coaches for what you want to accomplish.

4. Plan of Action!

Develop your plan of action requires you to determine what your goal is and what steps are needed to achieve that goal. Your plan of action should include what health benefits you are after, what achieving these benefits will do for you, and how you are going to achieve these health benefits.

Without determining all of these aspects to your plan of action, you will not be organized in reaching your goals which will lead to a lot of time wasted and could even cause you to lose your enthusiasm and give up! We don’t want that! Write out your plan of action!

5. Don’t forget to continue learning!

Learning is a growth process. In order to grow in any area of your life, you need to learn more about it in order to change how your current approach to this area of your life is. If you are very interested in learning how to get healthy, it is very important to keep reading more about healthy living. This way, you are equipped to tackle this area of your life. If you don’t know what it means to be healthy or what the experts are currently saying, how can you expect to become healthy.

If you are very interested in building a home-based business, it is very important for you to learn the newest marketing strategies and business building tactics since these are changing on a constant basis in recent days. How can you expect to grow your business if you are using out-dated tactics? Never stop learning!

With these 5 steps, you will be unstoppable in achieving greatness in all areas of your life! Try them! You will be amazed of what you thought you would not be able to achieve that actual proved doable! What are you ready to change in your life? What are you ready to achieve?

YOUR TURN! What is currently holding you back from achieving your goals in life? Is it fear or the uncomfortable feeling of steping outside of your current status-quo that is holding you back? Leave me a comment below and let me know! Don’t forget to share this post with your friends by clicking the +1 button to the right!