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5 “Extra” Things To Remember On Every Dive
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Copyright 2005 strength-training-woman.com
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Not all personal trainers are equal...
Working with your own coach can be a significant investment -
even with hourly rates differing vastly across regions and
countries - you are still paying a fair amount of money for the
expert knowledge that will help you achieve your health and
fitness goals and look after one of, if not, THE most important
assets you have - your body.
So how should you choose a trainer and what are the things you
need to look out for, ask them and receive from them?
First and foremost, you MUST ensure your trainer is fully and
properly qualified. This means they should hold, at the very
least:
1) A CPR certification - if you do have any accidents or
problems your coach must know how to deal with them and ensure
your safety at all times.
2) A recognised fitness/personal training qualification - this
obviously differs from country to country and there are only a
few internationally-recognised qualifications. Most countries
have a self-regulating body - in the UK this is REPS (the
Register of Exercise Professionals) and you should ensure your
coach is registered here before you even consider hiring them.
If in doubt, ask your trainer which qualifications they have -
most won't be offended but will be keen to show them off.
Once you are satisfied they hold the necessary basic
qualifications, here are a few pointers to look out for. A
'good' versus a 'bad' coach should:
1. Ideally hold additional qualifications and be updating these
all the time. As our scientific knowledge about the body
increases, the methods with which we train the body change. If
your trainer qualified 5 years ago but has done no further
qualifications since, it's likely their training methods &
knowledge will be out of date. A leader in health & fitness
training is the CHEK Institute - their practitioners work with
some of the world's top athletes, including PGA Golfers and
Olympians. A CHEK-trained coach (even at the basic level) will
usually be far more highly qualified than the personal trainer
with a "typical" national training qualification.
2. Address more than just your fitness levels & give you more
than just a fitness programme. Exercise is only a small part of
what makes us "fit" and "healthy". To help you achieve your
health & fitness goals, your coach should address several areas
of your life - your nutrition & eating habits, sleep patterns,
stress levels - all of these affect & determine how likely you
are to achieve your goals and if not addressed, can prevent you
from attaining optimum levels of health & fitness.
3. Perform some initial assessments. In order to help you get
where you want to be, your coach must know where you are
starting from. You should be asked to complete a PAR-Q (Physical
Activity Readiness questionnaire) at a minimum to ensure your
safety & ability to perform exercise and your trainer should
perform some basic tests such as weight, blood pressure, perhaps
body composition, girth measurements, lung capacity and aerobic
fitness or strength. If more qualified, additional assessments
such as postural analysis, spinal curve measurements and
abdominal wall function should be tested to design a more
accurate programme. And if your coach is really good, they will
assess your physiological load levels to determine what type of
exercise (strength training, cardio, meditation, stretching)
your body is currently able to cope with. This is essential if
you want to know whether what you've
paid them has been worth it
- if you can't see the progress or differences working with a
coach has made because they forgot to measure a baseline when
you started with them, then although you may feel fitter,
slimmer or stronger you won't have hard facts & figures to prove
it.
4. Discuss your goals with you and adjust any unrealistic
expectations you may have. To get your business, a trainer may
promise that you will lose half a stone of fat in 2 weeks or
you'll get the body of your dreams in a month even though you've
never exercised before and are 3 stone overweight - this does
you no good. You will have unrealistic expectations & goals from
the outset and will be much more likely to become de-motivated &
disillusioned when you realise you haven't lost a stone in a
week. Whilst a good trainer will not discourage you from your
ultimate goals, they should at least educate you on the
realistic progressions you are likely to make.
5. Design a programme that is tailored especially to your needs
and your body. This may sound obvious but I have seen plenty of
trainers run through identical training sessions with every one
of their clients. This ties in with the third point - if they
haven't completed assessments & initial tests on you, then they
won't know what your individual needs are. You are paying them
to provide you with a fully customised service - that's why it's
called 'personal training '!
6. Track your progress at every session & be working to a
periodisation plan - you may not see them carrying a clipboard
or doing this during the session but your trainer should know
when they need to adjust your programme and what adjustments to
make. If they've been winging your sessions and haven't been
planning & tracking your progress, how will they know what
adjustments to make after a few weeks? They should have designed
& be following a periodised training plan to ensure you are
achieving your goals during each phase of your training.
7. Show you how to exercise safely & correctly - again this may
seem a given but if your trainer gives you a programme and then
just leaves you to it, they are putting you at risk and not only
will you probably struggle to achieve your goals without their
attention, you may even injure yourself. Similarly, if they are
supervising you, they should constantly be giving you tips,
adjustments or even just positive affirmations that you are
performing your exercises correctly - not watching the sport on
TV or chatting to other staff & clients in the gym.
All of the above are nothing however, if you don't actually get
on with your coach! They may be the most highly qualified person
you can find - but if spending an hour with them (sometimes 3 or
more times a week) is like spending an hour in the dentist's
chair or worse, then you probably aren't going to get the full
benefit of working with that trainer. They don't have to be your
best buddy, just ensure that you feel comfortable with them, can
trust them and that you do enjoy your sessions - in a
masochistic kind of way!
About the author:
Lea Woodward is a fully qualified Health & Wellbeing Coach. She
specialises in exercise for women, weight loss and corrective
postural exercise. She is C.H.E.K. trained and is a certified
Intermediate Metabolic Typing Advisor. Using a holistic
approach, Lea addresses all 6 foundational factors of health to
help her clients feel at their best. Details at
www.activOne.co.uk
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