What is Personal Training?

Personal training is the latest rage for those that want to increase their health. Whether someone is interested in getting into the best shape of their life or trying to increase their performance in a particular sport, a personal trainer can be a great investment. However, what a personal trainer actually does might be unclear if you've never had the opportunity to train with one before. Here are the basics for those interested in becoming a personal trainer or looking for personal training for themselves.


Personal trainers are certified fitness consultants that are licensed in providing fitness advice. Depending on where they are located, they might need state as well as city licensing and training. With this background, they are educated in anatomy and physiology, exercise instruction, exercise form, preventing sports injuries, and creating fitness plans. But this is just the beginning of what personal training can do for the avid exerciser.

Personal training begins with an overall fitness evaluation. The client would go into the gym or the personal trainer might visit them at another location : home, an office gym, etc. During this evaluation, the client might be asked to perform certain physical fitness tests or just sit and talk with the trainer about their fitness goals. The personal trainer would then consider these goals as well as the time that the client wants to spend exercising and any time frame that they also may have allotted for their goals. The personal trainer will write up a plan of action for these fitness goals and discuss them with the client. Together, the client and the trainer would decide if the plan was workable as well as challenging enough for the client.

After this initial session, there are several things that can occur. If a client sees a personal trainer in person, they might workout with the trainer on a regular basis : daily, or a few times a week. Some clients like to receive a training plan from a personal trainer and then complete the work on their own time, meeting with the personal trainer as their goals and fitness levels change. And in other cases, personal training can occur over the internet or via email or phone calls. Clients tend to choose the kind of personal trainer that fits into their budget and lifestyle from these various choices.

During a personal training session, the client and trainer may train in a number of ways; again, depending on the fitness goals. They might work on strength with weights and other resistance based exercises. For the client that wants to improve their cardio function, the client and personal trainer might focus on aerobic work, perhaps by running around a track or heading to various cardio machines. Other clients might want a mixture of exercises, so the personal trainer will lead them through a variety of routines to create the perfect balance for their goals and fitness levels.

During these sessions, the personal trainer's goal is to monitor the form of the client as well as the overall intensity. The trainer wants to make sure that the client is working out hard enough so that they are going to reap the results they desire, but also not too hard as to injure themselves. The trainer will also focus on motivating the client and making sure that they are pushing past their old fitness levels to better their overall health.

A personal trainer may choose to workout along with the client, or simply observe the client as they progress. Some trainers like to show their clients how to perform the exercises, while others find that instructing verbally works well. In personal training sessions, a mixture of these two teaching styles is most common.

Personal training may also involve the use of several different workout styles and methods. What's great about personal trainers is that they tend to be innovative in their teaching, which allows clients to learn new exercises that are more effective than anything they might have read about in a book or magazine. Some personal trainers will use medicine balls and stability balls in addition to the traditional weights. You might find yourself on a balancing board or using resistance bands as well. What the personal trainer is trying to do is continuously introduce challenges to your body so that you can constantly improve your fitness.

Personal training is individualized to the client and creates a relationship between the personal trainer and the client. With this kind of attention, a fitness client can get into superior physical shape much more easily than they might on their own. The training and the knowledge that the personal trainer brings to the gym allows for consistent workout changes and adjustments, in correlation with goals. Sometimes, the outside expertise and objectivity of the personal trainer is all the motivation that anyone needs.