Skip to main content
« My Top Ten Tips for Obstacle Course Racing What is your favourite way to use Monkey Bars? »

Why have a Personal Trainer and what's involved in a PT session

Categories: Exercise, Nutrition, Goals

I'm going to go over why you might want a personal trainer and what's involved in a personal training session, in case you've ever wondered.

There are usually a few different reasons why you might want a PT. Sometimes it can go down to motivation, you can go to the gym on your own, but you're not feeling like you're being pushed enough or you need somebody else to help keep you accountable during your sessions. I know if I haven't got something planned in, and a specific time to go to something, it doesn't usually happen. So having a Personal Trainer and having that time set aside in your diary can really focus your exercises and your training.

They can help you set goals and really focus on what it is that you want to achieve. You might have a marathon coming up; you might have a race or another event on the horizon. They'll help you break down that event into reasonable chunks of training and, and then steadily progress to it, rather than it be in one big goal that you're trying to work towards.  As a trainer I break clients goals into small achievable chunks.

The other advantage of having a PT is they are qualified and trained to plan the sessions, they've got the experience, they've got the expertise of knowing exactly what exercises you should be doing in different combinations to help push your body to the maximum.  You'll then get the best out of your training sessions and also feel like everything's not getting repetitive, when you’ve planned your own session and run out of ideas.

If I'm playing my own sessions, I always like to plan the exercises that I like doing, which is great. However, you always get better at those and sometimes neglect the areas of training that you might not enjoy quite so much.  If you've got somebody else planning it for you it takes that out of your hands. You get a really good balanced programme focusing on all aspects of your fitness that you need to improve and develop on. That's just kind of a few reasons why you might want to go and get a personal trainer. The other important factor is finding the right setting for you. Do you want to train in a big gym, or do you want that small personal studio approach that we have here. At our Studio it's usually just one trainer working with either one client or within a small group setting. It keeps it personal and very tailored towards your own needs.

What's involved within a personal training session or what sort of journey might you come through with us?

We'd always start with a consultation, whether that's over the phone or face to face with you in the studio. During that time we’d look at what it is that you want to achieve and what training you've done in the past. What types of exercises you like doing and what are your reasoning’s for coming and having a PT session. We'll then look at what type of session would work best for you. We offer a mix of sessions working from one to one training, paired training, semi private personal training and small group training.

Paired training is where you're then working with a friend or somebody that might have a, a common goal to you. This training is very specific on your own needs and what you're trying to achieve.

Semi private training is our Legends programme. Everybody has their own training programme, but within the studio you may have two or three other people training in the same time as you. All following their own training programmes, setting their own goals and targets. As a personal trainer works with everybody within that time period. Again, making sure your technique is spot on. Your monthly training is set to exactly how you need it to be and we're hitting the goals that we want to achieve within it.

The other training we offer is our small group training and that comes in the form of our Blast Programme. We work with a lot of runners and obstacle course racers. In the small group you've got six to eight people training and everybody's doing exactly the same training programme. We tailor it each week so you focus on a different fitness element. Whether that's your strength, core, mobility and balance work, or hit and power work. The time that you're with us and you'll be working every element of fitness, again getting a rounded approach to training. These sessions are still very specific to your fitness needs if you're looking at improving your running and your fitness for your obstacle course racing.

Depending on what you’re wanting to achieve will help to decide which training route is right for you. We'd work out what would work best for you to hit the goals that you want to achieve. Your sessions can be a mix of group and 1:1 Personal Training depending on your own goals. For cardiovascular fitness we have a treadmill in the studio. For strength and conditioning we use, the dumbbells, barbells and kettlebells to improve your strength and your fitness. You'll have an element of stretching and recovery within your session as well. This could be using the trigger point balls and the foam rollers and you could have some assisted stretching with your trainer and your coach.

It is important you find a trainer that works well with you that you're going to get on with, because you're going to be spending a lot of time and investing financially and emotionally with them. Lots of my clients have been with me for a number of years and we've seen the steady progress that they've wanted to achieve. You need to make sure that you're happy and you're going to get the goals and meet the targets that you're wanting to achieve, whether that's strength, fitness, weight loss, toning.

If you have any questions or want to know more about personal training and the benefits of it to you and drop me a message and I'll get back to you.