Personal Training... with a general tone...

I recently visited another gym (mentioning no names). I was visiting friends in the area on consecutive weeks and ended up using the gym on a Tuesday and on the following Wednesday.

I saw two extreme opposites examples of personal training. One I really liked, the other I really DIDN'T! During which I observed what I called "Personal Training, with a general tone."

TRAINER ONE...
One of the "better" (read "busier"), personal trainers / better salespeople had clearly become so stuck in a rut, or perhaps lazy that they were churning out the same exercises, and possibly full "personal" training session for client after client!

He got my attention as he was seemingly looking for it judging by his twitchy movements, excessively loud voice and chanting as he counted repetitions.

HIS CLIENTS... Client one on Tuesday - overweight female, late 20's. Client two, fairly muscular male, aged 40+. On the following Wednesday, same female client followed by a very slender lady in her late 40's. SURELY, these 3 different people shouldn't require the same program of exercises and intensity of work?

TRAINER TWO...
MEANWHILE... in the matted area there was a very slender trainer going quietly about his business concentrating on his female client's core stability and working some nice, functional, yet challenging exercises for his client designed to encourage strength, muscular balance and core stability; finishing their session with a brisk bit of interval resistance work. Yet I only saw him on the second visit so assume he was less busy?

Immediately after, he was working with a very lean male in his early 30's (at a guess) who, as many men do, seemed to be looking to "bulk up". They worked major muscle groups, only concentrating on arms as the second part of a super-set and seemed to be allowing the client significant rest time when they were lifting heavy. They occasionally worked to "failure" and used a few super-sets; the whole session looked tough but worthwhile.

Trainer one had taken the "personal" out of "personal training" and was simply making his clients tired, not better! (Quote 3)

Trainer two had clearly thought about his clients, their needs, ability and end goals and from that, created a personalised session offering them, in my eyes, the most benefit.

SUMMARY...
This got me thinking about how both members and employers should approach this situation...

CLIENTS/ MEMBERS/ FUTURE CLIENTS...
Before you think about personal training in any way keep an eye on sessions and trainers around you. Ask yourself, is that session suited to the client? Have I seen the trainer do a similar session or set of exercises recently? Does it look enjoyable? Could I and would I do that on my own? Watch a few sessions and ask these questions each time before selecting a trainer.

Here's a few checks to make sure that your trainer worth your hard earned cash...

1- Is your training specific? Have you discussed goals and does your training match up to what you're trying to achieve?
2- Are you tracking success? Depending on your goals, is your trainer making sure that you're making progress through monitoring specific areas such as weight, body fat percentage, strength gains etc?
3 - Is your trainer a "fad" trainer? Do they learn something new and then blitz you with that until they pick up something else and then blitz you with that? Ie. They learn about TRX and that dominates your sessions, until their kettlebells course is complete and then THAT'S what takes over your sessions?
4 - Are they PESONAL or are they more concerned with talking to other people in the gym and checking their phone? Not the be all and end all but it's annoying and VERY unprofessional!
5- Do they give you anything extra? Sure, you signed up to an hour a week but I treat people as I'd like to be treated - is YOUR trainer conscienscious? Will they ever call or text or show that they listen to you in the session by adjusting the next session or bringing articles or other relevant things to your next session?
6- Do you know what your session "usually" involves? if your trainer does pretty much the same session week in week out give them the elbow? Sure, if you want to get good at squatting, the best thing to do is squat. But, if your goals are more generic, such as weight loss, then there are PLENTY of things that you can do!
7- Do they show you that they're educated? Do they clearly explain WHY you do things? HOW you do things? Do they offer you new ideas and tell you of new things they've learned? If not, they're probably not learning

There's plenty more but that's a good start :-)
EMPLOYER/ GYM...
There is a CLEAR need for the gym boss or head of personal training to step in here. In my mind Personal Trainers have too much free reign and as such, too much opportunity to veer off track and become lazy, too focused on sales and less focused on quality of session. Ultimately, a good business is run on retention and referrals, deliver good sessions and these will take care of themselves.

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Do it the same... but different...

So often I speak to people and hear things such as,

"I know my routine"

And they have no interest in listening to new ideas, suggestions and advice.

I always say "No one knows everything, so listen!" I will HAPPILY listen to advice from others on the one condition: they can tell me "WHY?".

WHY should I do it your way? WHY is it better? WHY will I benefit?

So it frustrates me to even hear people describe their program as a "routine" !!!!

A gym program should not be routine, variety is key when it comes to making gains and bettering yourself.

So you may not want to rip up your gym program and start over. That's fine, but why not experiment with variations. Add a few twists and tweaks to your usual exercises, their format, tempo and technique. Then, sit back and admire your gains.

Some ideas...

GRIP

Varying your grip is one of the most under-rated ways of boosting your gains. Probably the best example is when working an exercise for your back. The back is such a vast area it's important to try and hit as many areas as possible. This is made easier by varying your grip; try narrow and wide variation, over-hand and under-hand variations and feel the difference.

It's not just back, consider your grip width on things such as bench press and for push ups or dips; even your feet distance for squats.

BALANCE

Adding an element of balance to an exercise can really test you and make the exercise much more challenging, targeted and rewarding.

By using tools such as a Bosu and emphasising balance you not only have more to think about and improve balance, but you negate the use of momentum and as a result, isolate the target muscle or muscle groups - win, win!

REPETITIONS

If you become familiar with how 10, 12, or 15 repetitions feel then it's time to shock your system!

If you always work to a format of 3 sets of 10. Or a pyramid of 12, 10, 8, why not focus a month on high repetitions. Really throw in something different. Nothing less than 12 reps, starting each exercise with 2 sets of 20 repetitions (eg: 20, 20, 15, 12). You'd be surprised how you can spot your shortcomings and also build a much more rounded "strength" while gaining some firm and quality mass.

SUPER-SET

Another shock tactic that a lot of people steer clear of is a "super-set". Simply carrying out two exercises back-to-back with no rest. Stop letting your body rest so much, push it to the limit,fill your muscles with blood, make your heart pump and work continuously for a longer period. Try it, you'll feel ace!

RUN THE RACK

Now.. writing this paragraph I'm not sure if "run the rack" is a phrase I heard somewhere or half made up myself!?!... Either way, I like it!

Basic idea, start an exercise (maybe your final exercise as a "finisher") on a really low weight, carry out no more than 15 repetitions. Finish your set, take a few second, move to a heavier weight. Work your way up the rack finishing on a heavy weight with just 4-6 reps.

For example, last week I did this with shrugs; with hardly any rest I got a serious sweat on doing this (number in bracket = repetitions): 16kg (15), 20kg (15), 24kg (12), 28kg (12), 32kg (12), 36kg (10), 40kg (10), 44kg(5), 44k (5).

Result: 4-5 minutes, 96 repetitions, 288kg shifted, filled, warm traps and forearms!

SINGLE LIMB

Personally, I think that when gaining strength there are a few essential things to maintain. Mobility, form and muscular balance. For the third reason, I think it's important to try and work single limbs at a time during each session.

Why not add some variety to your sessions in this way?.. Single arm dumbell chest press (a favourite of mine), single arm shoulder press, one-leg squat or leg press, one-hand seated row. Pretty much every exercise has an option for this.

These methods will test your co-ordination, core stability if you maintain good form, cardio fitness as you'll work for a much longer time and will also highlight any muscular imbalance or dominant side that you have.

CHANGE THE ORDER

There is NO reason that you need to do the same exercises in the same order. In FACT - it's counter productive for progress!Try changing the order in which you do your exercises at least every few weeks. Also, change the day that you do each program.

Your body likes routine and patter and knowing what demands you'll place on it. Simply changing the order in which you perform exercises can greatly increase the stress on your muscles and encourage growth. try it - you'll be pleasantly surprised!

TIMED/INTERVALS

Instead of working to repetitions, why not ignore the counting and work to a time limit? E.g: Reps in 30 seconds, then rest 30 seconds and repeat. One such method, tabata, was discussed in an earlier post and is a favourite of mine; something I try in some form at least once a week. It's a different way of working, places different demands on the body and requires a completely different mind-frame.

COMBO EXERCISES

Mix two exercises together. It's simple, again places new demands on your body, often tests coordination and speeds up a session. Lunges with a shoulder press, straight leg deadlift with calf raises (and a shrug if you like?), squats and lunges alternate, chest press and flys alternate... the possibilities are endless!

PRE/POST-EXHAUST

If you enjoy making yourself feel weaker or perhaps enjoy a "pumped" feeling try pre-exhaust work. A basic and rewarding one is 60 seconds of dumbbell bicep curls with a light weight. Then straight on to a heavier preacher curl or cable bicep curl. The muscles feel full and both look and feel awesome. You can do this with ANY exercise and it's a good way of filling the muscles with blood before asking them to jump into action, encourage hypertrophy and also add new demands to your training.

Post-exhaust is the opposite. A "drop-set" if you like. Carry out an exercise, thenimmediately either drop the weight by around 50% or start another exercise wit a very light weight and aim for as many repeitions as possible. Same kind of feeling but play around and see which works for you.

CONCLUSION

I think a lot of people really overlook the benefits of adding variation to their workout. DON'T just do what you always do, think about how you can change it, improve it and increase it's complexity or difficulty. Try it a few times, get used to the technique and see if you get any gains from it.

Just a little tweak or few can go a long way - Variety is key! After all: "if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got!"

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