Okay, great – you’ve found a personal trainer to work with. Now what? Well, obviously you have scheduled a series of sessions. Many trainers like to book their sessions in blocks – so whether you have scheduled 2 sessions or 4 – there are ways to maximize your time spent with the personal trainer.
Here are 4 things that you, as the client, should do to help you get the most for the money, time and training you are paying and receiving.
- Take Notes – Yes, there will be a quiz. Whether you write the notes down or you get a copy of what your personal trainer is writing down – you need to take keep track of what types of exercise, how much weight, how much time and how many sets you performed during the session. These notes will help you in future sessions whether you are working with the personal trainer or not
- Ask Questions – Your trainer is there to help you out. If they are having you do an exercise you don’t understand, ask about it. Don’t know what they mean by form? Ask. Don’t understand the muscles they mentioned? Ask. There is no such thing as a stupid question when you are working with a trainer and understanding is key to promoting your personal and positive fitness
- Listen, Learn & Accept – You need to listen to your trainer and learn what you can, but you also need to accept that you are not going to remember every single thing the trainer said. You are likely going to pick up more and more information in each session and you may discover that in session three, you’re putting into practice without having to think about it – what you learned in session one.
- Skip Trying to Impress the Trainer – Seriously, you don’t need to impress your trainer. Your trainer is there to help you and to instruct you. They don’t need you showing off for them by trying to power lift an extraordinary amount of weight. They want you to be honest with them and tell them exactly how things are going – the more honest you are with them, the better your sessions will be.
Have you ever worked with a personal trainer? How did it go?