6 Reasons to Hire a Personal Trainer (or Health Coach)

Because it’s January, and the time of year for healthy, goal oriented and guilt-ridden posts about lofty resolutions for the new year, here’s another blog post to guilt your conscious for the next few days. Or maybe you need an article to debate with your social media peers about why you don’t make resolutions. Whatever your reason for reading, thanks for visiting.

Meanwhile, I like to consider this my sequel to my last post about “6 Great Reasons to Join a Gym.” I want to write this because I feel that most people don’t see the value of a health coach/trainer, or even know what either really do, and that can be for a variety of reasons. For one, it may be a concept associated with celebrities, reality TV shows, or the wealthy. Seeing contestants on the Biggest Loser can look pretty intense, and not exactly an invitation to seek a trainer to the average sedentary onlooker.

Another thought is losing weight, eating healthy and exercise seem like simple concepts; you don’t really need someone to tell you what to do, just stop eating bad food and start exercising. Not necessarily a bad place to start, but that mindset underestimates the power of poor habits, community, medical history and negative psychology someone may be facing against failed attempts at lifestyle changes.

So allow me to highlight what I see as six benefits to hiring a Personal Trainer or Health Coach, which may also simultaneously introduce you to the details that these life changing work these professions offer.

(For clarification, a Personal Trainer (PT) is a certified exercise specialist that helps clients specifically in the area of exercise. A PT may possess other specialties as well (therapist, chiropractor, etc.) but as a trainer, the PT specialty highlights his/her knowledge specifically to exercise. A Health Coach (HC) is a certified specialist in the expertise of lifestyle change. A HC may also have other qualifications such as dietitian, psychologist, personal trainer, etc., but the main objective is providing strategies to help a client overcome barriers to healthy living through one-on-one therapy-like coaching sessions.)

1-EXERCISE

As a throwback to my previous post on why gym membership would hopefully inspire otherwise well-intentioned folks to start exercising, I also see members that throw away hundreds (thousands?) of dollars each year with gym memberships that don’t get used. It’s unfortunate, but it’s also a testament that simply signing up for something does not necessarily change any habits. Without an actual plan, particularly one that involves accountability (more on that later), most well-meaning gym sign-ups in January do not evolve into anything substantial past March.

The beauty of using a PT/HC is that similar you make an appointment, you commit to seeing someone who will instruct, encourage and challenge you to reach your fitness goals. It will help you start moving past the sense of failure you feel when your exercise plan derails, and help you move towards feelings of success with each session completed. Better yet, with each exercise, and each session, you make strides towards being healthier. Even one exercise session increases your endorphins and sense of well-being, which improves your overall outlook on life, creates a positive feedback loop, and makes it more probable that you will continue the cycle of exercising. Positive feedback loops are the key to starting a new habit, so meeting with a coach can begin the cycle to healthy, lasting change.

2-BE HEALTHIER

Connected with the positive feedback loop is the obvious benefit of exercise, which is improving your overall health. It’s common sense that exercise has benefits, but I often like to think of it as the “Magic Pill” that many people are looking for in their journey towards wellness. Of course, exercise can be overdone and done incorrectly, which is another issue altogether, but when you meet with a trainer, consider that you are making improvements in all of these areas with each completed session: heart health, cholesterol, blood pressure, sleep quality, bone strength, anti-aging, balance/fall risk, joint mobility and more!

In a country where we spend at least $147 billion on obesity-related healthcare ($132 per obese individual per year), I think it’s critical that we look at the real solutions to medical problems that can be addressed through exercise and guided by trainers.

3-ACCOUNTABILITY

I alluded to it in reason #1, and it’s important to highlight this point in a section by itself. This may very well be the MOST IMPORTANT reason to hire a trainer. And I think you can already guess the reason why. The reality is, we don’t handle change very well on our own. We have epiphanies and journals, blogs to follow, Instagram influencers, Pinterest pins of #healthyrecipes, and everything else that we think will help us get over the hump of our bad habits. But for most people, those things won’t work. The question is why?

I had to personally mull over this question last year. It came after an unexplempary act of eating an old, frost-bitten ice cream cone accidentally found in our freezer. It was not at all savory, and I stood there asking myself why I ate it in the first place. (In my defense, I did actually throw out the cone after the unsatisfactory halfway experience.) So for the next few days, I had to ponder why, knowing all I know about habits, food and exercise, did I eat that cone that I had not at all planned to eat, which did not satisfy anything I wanted?

It wasn’t for lack of knowledge…I have Google to answer every possible question I can think of about health, and an app for every exercise to see. It’s not for lack of consequences…the guilt, bloating, extra pounds, stale food and other side effects don’t stop people from eating unnecessary snacks. It’s not even due to socioeconomic status; people from every class struggle with food fixations and addictions (and I would wager that the wealthy may suffer from food vices as much or more so than the poor).

So I had to conclude that the main reason we fail at our attempts is that we ultimately have no one to answer to, and/or a community to belong to which encourages our desire for change. In an age of remote access to answers, we tend to devalue the power of relationships. Explaining to a real person, a friend, a confidante, why you ate the pint of ice cream and skipped your planned workout is not an exercise in shaming. It’s building rapport with someone you hope will help you stop the negative behaviors. You learn that this coach is not going to ridicule you for failing, but sympathize with your struggle, and strategize with you to develop better options. A coach might send you encouraging texts throughout the week, links to articles that might relate to your situation, or the perfect meme to capture the pain of leg day workouts.

I felt this reality for myself in regard to professional counselling. I don’t hide the fact that in 2018 I sought out the help of a local Christian counselor in regards to my marriage. She helped me identify poor communication habits on my part, and for a year we worked through improving my dialogue with my husband and family. In April 2019, I “graduated” and went back to life without a therapist. It didn’t take long for the ugly habits to rear back up (1 newborn + 2 toddlers (- sleep) = risk of mental problems. And although I decided not to return to counselling, I was able to identify the old habits that I was rekindling, and see that those tactics weren’t working, because they never have, and they never will.

The same idea is true of using a PT or HC. It doesn’t have to be a lifelong commitment to create lifelong change. When you start with an open mind to receiving professional advice to your problems, even just short-term commitments can keep you from defaulting back to old habits.

4- REACH YOUR FITNESS GOALS

In my experience, it usually takes a tipping point for someone to finally cave and hire a trainer. Whether it’s chronic joint pain, fear of falling (and injury), or desperation to find “something that works,” clients are looking for someone to help them reach a specific goal. Quite often it’s weight loss, and by the time a client reaches a professional, they’ve tried a variety of diets, exercise programs and read a lot of ideas about what “should” work.

With this in mind, it’s important to for the client to accept that they DON’T have the answers. I say important, but it’s actually critical to an individual’s success. There are certainly bits and pieces of knowledge to glean from other areas of wellness, but to reach your goals, the sooner you trust your coach, the sooner you will make progress. (*Note: I’m in no way suggesting that you don’t question your coach, but do it with a spirit of a student, eager for solutions that work.)

What sets a coach apart from other advice you might find, is that we have access to recent studies and research, and we have the experience of working with many individuals with similar goals, so we learn from observation and experience what may work best for clients. We are trained to meet the emotional and physical needs of overweight and de-conditioned clients (as well as a host of other special medical needs), and we are trained to know when to refer out to other medical professionals to better assist the client (dietitian, psychiatrist, physical therapist, etc.).

Also, we (hopefully) aren’t tied down by specific health products, so we can offer our unbiased opinion on the products on the market without seeking your for your subscription.

Finally, certified fitness professionals complete continuing education courses (CECs), just like other professions. We spend hours learning about exercise, nutrition, diets, medical conditions and more to help meet the needs of our clients.

5-CONTINUE REHAB

It’s not new information that the Baby Boomers in the USA (those born in the years shortly following WWII) are the fastest growing segment of our population. By 2029, the expected growth of Boomers will shoot to 20% of the population. With that in mind, fitness professionals know that they stand in the gap between doctors/therapists and patients treating the aging body. Although still relatively slow to engage the fitness industry, therapists especially are gradually valuing the importance of fitness professionals who can help their patients continue therapy after treatment. This is particularly true for those whose health insurance limits them to a certain amount of therapy visits in a calendar year. Working with a trainer continues the exercise program and also allows for progression within a client’s tolerance.

I can say from personal experience, I have had many clients move back and forth from me to physical therapy, sometimes at my recommendation, other times from the therapist. It is encouraging to see the specialties overlap and provide recovery and healing to the injured client. I have also had several clients use training services for the specific purpose of improving their balance. When training is used for this purpose, it bypasses the need to see a doctor first (in most cases), then the therapist, and work through insurance to get quality care. Instead, a client signs up for training and within the week, he/she can start working on the skills needed for improved balance.

6-STOP WASTING MONEY

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Slightly referenced in point one on using trainers instead of relying solely on gym memberships, my point here is to encourage anyone out there who’s searching the web and about to “Click and buy” a Seen-on-TV, popular weight-loss program or about to start following the latest Instagram diet…save your money and invest in what works. Products, apps, diets and exercise equipment can be accessories…helpful tools on your journey. But if you haven’t addressed the real issues of why you gained weight in the first place, or come up with a specific plan to reach your goals, then save your money for investing in yourself. Use the money to invest in what research shows will work. Health coaching and behavior change approaches continue to be at the forefront of successful healthy lifestyles.

In fact, a 2019 study from Stanford and NY University continues to send ripples through the medical and cardiac community by revealing that lifestyle changes versus stent placement & bypass surgery showed no statistical difference in outcome for those with low-level heart disease. A testament once again that with effective coaching, reducing medical risks and improving health is not found in a product, it’s found within the client who’s willing to take small steps with a coach for lasting change.

What’s your experience? Have you used a health coach or trainer? Comment below to share your thoughts. Thanks for reading. If you benefited from this blog’s content, consider subscribing to catch future content.

Defining the Core

Anyone interested in fitness lingo, or has sustained a back injury, has likely encountered a therapist or fitness enthusiast who loves telling people about the importance of “the Core.”  This mysterious and powerfully functional aspect of the body has nothing do with eating apples, and everything to do with developing efficient & stable muscles.  Although professionals tend to overuse the word, the idea behind core stabilization remains significant, and understanding it can help individuals develop muscle strength, and reduce injury risk.  Today we’ll look at a basic “core” definition, explain some reasons for it’s importance, and provide a few basic exercises to help develop the area.

In Certified News of American Council on Exercise (ACE) June/July 2008, contributer Fabio Comana, M.A, M.S. describes the core as “the ability to control the position and motion of the trunk relative to the pelvis and legs (9). ” This means that the core of the body functions the same way as a building foundation; it provides stabilization for the major muscle groups (back, pelvis, legs).  The strength & efficiency of these major muscle groups contributes to postural control, balance, coordination and overall movement.   Incorporating core exercises into daily regiments can greatly enhance functional activities, as well as overall health.

The authors of the Second Edition of The Essentials of Strength & Conditioning define core exercises as those which “recruit one or more large muscle areas (i.e. chest, shoulder, back, hip, or thigh), involve two or more primary joints, and receive priority when selecting exercises because of their direct application to the sport.” This definition may appear somewhat vague, until compared with the idea of “assistance exercises,” exercises that recruit smaller muscles (neck, biceps) and involve only one primary joint (Baechle & Earle 398).  Single-joint exercises include some basics, like bicep curls, knee extensions, shoulder rows, ab crunches & neck circles.

Core exercises, on the other hand, involve the cooperation of 2+ large muscle groups, and can work in several planes.  A lunge, for example, is a core exercise because when performed correctly, it recruits the quadriceps muscles as the knee flexes, and also the glute muscles as the posterior hip extends.

Another component to core exercises involves the idea of stabilization, or developing supportive muscles.  The concept here is explained in the 3rd Ed. ACE Personal Trainer Manual as exercises that “challenge the abdominal and back muscles to hold the spine in the appropriate position during movement of the extremities (Bryant & Green 271).”  Basically this means that to develop the support of large muscle groups, there must be tests of muscular endurance, often in static positions, and involving more than one plane.

A few examples of this concept would be a single-leg balance pose, bird-dog pose (see below), and the basic plank position (see below).

The importance of core exercises comes into play when paired with daily activities, & common muscle functions.  How often, for example, do people go up & down stairs, putting their bodies through a modified version of a reverse lunge?  Or down to the toilet or chair & back up, for a squat?  Or reaching behind furniture to pick up something hard to reach, much like a single-leg deadlift?  Some of these basic movements often become difficult when the muscles become shortened, underused or injured.  Performing core strengthening & stabilizing exercises regularly reduces the pain and/or inability of basic tasks.

For fitness novices & experts alike, core exercises remain vital to the overall longevity and health of muscles.  Performing exercises like the ones below can help almost anyone develop a strong & stable foundation for the rest of their body to live in.  Individuals at any fitness level can perform core exercises, as modifications or challenges can usually be incorporated.  Start with the basics, and gradually progress to greater challenges.  And as always, consider it a joy that you have the ability to exercise!

All images are property of ACE Fitness.  Complete descriptions of exercises can be found at the ACE Fitness website.

PLANK: Begin on stomach with elbows close to side. Contract torso & abdominals to raise the body off the floor, supported by forearms & balls of feet. For beginners, try to hold pose 20-30 sec. Advanced level:60 seconds or more.

SIDE PLANK: Lie on your right side with your left leg lying directly over your right leg in a comfortable position. Raise your upper body to support yourself on your right arm, your right elbow should bend to 90 degrees and be positioned directly under your shoulder. Align your head with your spine and keep your hips and lower knee in contact with the exercise mat. Hold pose 20-30 seconds or as able, and release pose by inhaling and lowering back down to floor.

PLANK WITH SWISS BALL: Lie on stomach on top of ball, with feet resting on floor. Contracting abdominals, slowly move feet forward, rolling ball, until hands touch the floor. Use hands to continue forward walking motion, until feet raise off floor, and the back is in a straight line from shoulders to toes. Hold the pose for about 5 seconds, then release and walk hands back to comfortable position. Repeat 5 times.

MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS: Begin in kneeling position, with hands on floor in front. Bring one foot forward between hands, while extending other leg behind, knee bent slightly. Quickly alternate back foot to the front, and front foot to the back, while keeping hands on the floor. Continue alternating for 25 seconds.

BRIDGE: Lie on back with knees bent and arms resting on floor. Slowly raise hips off the floor, forming a straight line from knees to shoulders without arching back. Ground heels into floor, and slowly lift toes off the ground, resting the weight of the body onto the heels. Hold for 10 seconds, and lower back down. Repeat 10 times.

BIRD-DOG: Begin on hands & knees. Slowly extend right arm forward, while simultaneously extending left leg back, forming straight line from hand to toe, and keeping back flat. Hold for 5 seconds; lower extremities and alternate to other side. Repeat 5 times each side.

RUSSIAN TWISTS: Begin in seated position on floor, with medicine ball or weight in hand. Rotate ball or weight (or just hands) side-to-side while leaning back to lengthen the abdominus muscles. If using hands only, rotate far enough to touch fingertips to floor on either side. Continue rotating for 30 repetitions.

CROSS-OVER LUNGE: *Advanced position from lunge; Learn proper lunge form before attempting this pose.* Begin in standing position, legs spread hip-width apart. Slowly shift right leg behind and to the left of front leg. Adjust stance width to comfort, and then slowly press hips back and begin lowering hips about halfway to floor. Slowly raise back up and repeat 10 times, then switch legs.

PIKE WITH BALL: *Advanced pose. First master the plank position on ball, then progress to pike.* Start by rolling into plank position on ball, until just toes remain on ball, then slowly roll ball up towards torso, and pushing hips up toward ceiling. Hold for about 5 seconds, lower hips, and roll ball under shins to rest. Repeat 5 times.