Is a Personal Trainer Worth the Money?
Core - Edition Nº05
Two days ago, I was on a long walk with a close friend, and we started speaking about home workouts and other ways to stay active. With him and many people now, being in a work-from-home situation for the past 12 months has made staying active has become more paramount than ever.
Since being at home, my friend has been walking daily around the area, trying to beat his previous time as every new day comes. During our walk, which lasted around two and a half hours, he talked about the need for someone to guide and motivate him to get more exercise done—which got me thinking again about personal trainers.
Interestingly enough, I’d just had a conversation with an Aunty the day before who became wonderfully committed to workout videos on YouTube since they started working from home. Both my friend and aunt are very active now but have contrasting views on whether spending a lot of money on personal trainers (and lavish gyms, Peloton bikes and expensive subscriptions) is a waste.
So, I wanted to delve into the idea and dissect whether personal trainers are necessary. Let’s take a look.
What You Can’t Get Without a Trainer
I think personal trainers are great—but it depends on your needs. Some people (like my aunt) have no problems getting ready and going hard for their daily workout each day, whereas others find it laborious and tiring from the thought alone.
Going without a personal trainer doesn’t mean you’ll never be able to progress further and faster than you think, nor does having one mean you’ll get the same or more than you pay for; it’s a combination of things that makes having an instructor worthwhile.
Accountability is the most significant value factor of having a trainer (which my friend and I spoke about). As well as discipline and extrinsic motivation, a personal trainer provides better accountability because you’ll have someone dedicated to making sure you do what you’re supposed to do. Their time becomes all about you, and that usually makes people feel more accountable for their actions.
Someone is there who’s figured out the technicalities and best methods to get you to your specific goal faster. All you have to do is follow what they say. And besides, you’re paying for it. Why wouldn’t that make you feel more accountable?
A trainer makes themselves accountable for making you a healthier person. The fact they are impartial, honest, and constructive is valuable enough to make the money you spend a no-brainer. An unbiased arbiter can offer many people what they’d never feel or get from exercising alone or with a friend. The right trainer will teach you to be motivated intrinsically and inspire you to show up, time after time.
In terms of research, A 2003 study published in the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine found that working with a personal trainer can significantly increase our fitness goal success rate. Another interesting 2021 study found that looks matter with PTs: muscular PTs were perceived as significantly more competent and knowledgable than nonmuscular PTs, as were female PTs over males. But males also preferred to work with male PTs over females.
Anyway. Positive change is impossible without first realising where you’re going wrong; it takes the right voice and influence to show you a better, faster, more straightforward way to approach your fitness goals. A PT can help massively with that. Including accountability, PTs work best at giving direction. Most people need a plan to get things done. And without that direction, most people also prematurely.
A good coach is a friend; they encourage you and gives you what works for you. A great coach is a best friend—they will not hesitate for a single moment to push you harder than ever and tell you it’s not good enough, but they will be first to pick you up after every fall, and they will keep you going until you look back and see you passed your goal a long time ago.
When You Need A Personal Trainer
Personal training has gained immense popularity over the past decade. With the internet being the most extensive communication vehicle these days—more so with the coronavirus pandemic—personal training has moved online and gone from strength to strength.
I’ve made a note of five signs that suggest you may benefit from having a personal trainer. Several benefits to PTs are applicable for everyone—but it will always come down to you, your goals, and how much you want to invest.
1. You’re Often Demotivated.
Losing motivation with exercise is easy to do. In fact, every reason we quit the gym usually boils down to lost motivation somehow. And everyone loses motivation from time to time. It doesn’t matter who you are. This is because motivation is like booster fuel; it’s finite and eventually runs out.
Someone asked me how I stay motivated recently, and the answer would surprise most people.
I don’t rely on motivation.
I’ve dealt with poor motivation for longer than I’d like to admit at times. And the key to preventing it from stopping you is to stop relying on it. I used to always hear within myself and others, “I’m just not motivated to start”. But here’s the truth: you don’t get motivated to start; you start to get motivated.
Motivation is hard to get, harder to keep and easy to lose. So instead, get things done—and the motivation you want will follow. I always find myself more motivated after getting started with something for a few days, and the more I do it, the more motivated I am.
Purpose breeds motivation. Find that, and you’ve got exactly what you need.
2. You Struggle to Be Organised
Finding the time to establish and organise your goal and direction around your life can be demoralising. It’s also time-consuming and tedious. Especially if you have zero ideas about what to track or what exercise (or diet) suits your needs.
This is what a trainer is for. They can tell you what results mean and help you work out your limits and the standards you should be hitting with every workout. For example, a PT can help you find your One Rep Max on different exercises and calculate what weight range you need to be lifting for the next few weeks. They can also examine your weaknesses and give you a plan to strengthen the muscles that contribute to particular lifts (if it’s a squat, they can prescribe useful glute, back or knee exercises).
Ultimately, they will save you time. That allows you to focus on hitting your goals every week and giving your maximum. They take the stress out of your hands and optimise a schedule to fit around your life. That time (and stress) saved is worth 10x or 100x the money for some people.
3. You Lack Clarity or Focus
Like the previous point, our minds can get cluttered with everyday obligations such as work or looking after the kids. It’s not easy dealing with 11 million bits of information every second, which is why being able to have clarity and focus during a workout is often invaluable.
A good PT will help you unwind and switch off from life mode into exercise mode. For many, this is therapeutic. Writing, recording, and analysing your fitness progress can take a lot out of you, so it’s best to outsource this to someone else if you can afford it, even if it’s a friend who stores your fitness data for a small sum per month.
4. You Struggle with Decision Making and Ideas
A surprisingly low number of people truly know what exercises work best for their goals. Few people know any exercises other than what the gym machine indicates, either.
A PT gives you the continuity, consistency, variety and reliability that comes with excellent training. With a paid trainer around, you may not want to miss a session but not know what plan to decide on. Knowing that someone is there to ascribe a tailored plan is confidence-inspiring enough for many.
During my time at school, I helped train several friends for a few weeks, writing their plans, outlining goals and keeping track of progress. I used to think that everyone knew most exercises, but it turned out that we know very little about what works well for our body, whether it comes to training volume, intensity, compound exercises or recovery. A good PT teaches you all of this.
5. You Lack Accountability
Last but nowhere near least, most of us suffer from poor accountability at some point. To me, it’s one of the most underrated traits out there.
It’s hard for 90% of people to govern themselves through a long term training plan without being advised or encouraged by anyone. This takes serious self-discipline, and an understanding of intrinsic motivation few people possess.
It’s very easy to let one missed workout slide until one becomes two, and two becomes three. A good PT can see past excuses and help you get back to training, especially when you don’t feel like it.
Accountability teaches you to own up to your work input. It helps you realise how capable you are of your effort and how little things outside your control matter. When someone’s checking in on you every week to see if you’re doing what you should, that feeling alone can be what you need to reach your goals. It’s a small action that adds up and compounds over time. And with compounding, something might be small initially, but the difference can be staggering in a few weeks and months.
Final Thoughts
Personal Trainers work are an excellent option for people who lack the effort or confidence to work for their goals. Besides, they’re not only a PT; they’re your partner, your friend, your window to success, and your physical conscience.
It’s like a voice in your mind that now exists in the physical dimension, telling you everything you need to hear out loud. Being active every day should matter to everyone, and if a trainer is what’ll make you do so, then as I like to say: there should be no limits to how much we spend on our health.