If you don’t exercise, or even if you do, it can be difficult to know quite what is involved in a personal training (PT) session and whether PT is for you. The short answer is that everyone, from the completely unfit, overweight and inactive to the fittest of athletes can benefit from the encouragement and motivation provided by a personal trainer in a session tailored precisely to your ability.
Here’s how we approach a new client:
- Informal discussion with you in person to get a broad idea of your current level of exercise or lack of it, and your aims and motivations. We usually suggest a course of 10 PT sessions which can be arranged to suit your availability. Most clients find a weekly session works best.
- Informed consent form – to ensure you understand the risks and benefits of exercise and to check that you don’t have any medical conditions which may require a letter from your GP before we start.
- Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire – to ask in more detail what you wish to achieve (eg run a park run 5k, cycle regularly, increase strength, lose weight, improve your appearance etc) why exercise is currently difficult for you and what lifestyle constraints you may have (eg work/family commitments, no motivation, self-conciousness about weight or lack of fitness).
- Health and Fitness assessment. This takes place during the first PT session and involves taking measurements of your height, weight, BMI, blood pressure, body fat percentage, resting heart rate and other health risk factors such as waist to hip ratio. Whilst this may be daunting, it gives an objective assessment from which to improve. Then we proceed to a cardiovascular fitness assessment on a rowing machine or stationary bike. We monitor your heart rate and effort level to ensure the effort is appropriate for your fitness – or lack of it! Next is a muscular strength and endurance assessment and finally we test range of movement of your limbs. This comprehensive battery of tests is a workout in itself and enables us to design your PT sessions and refer back to previous results later on. You will be provided with a full written summary of your assessment for reference.
- PT sessions. These are usually one hour long and take the format of a gentle warm up in the gym followed by 15 to 20 minutes of cardiovascular work on the wattbike or the rowing machine. Each workout is different and your heart rate and effort levels are constantly monitored. As you get fitter, the workout will get progressively harder in terms of the work done but your effort level will be approximately the same. A series of both free weight and body weight exercises then will build strength and endurance. We may add in some core stability and balance work. At the end of the session, stretches to address any flexibility issues and to cool down conclude the session. It’s also a time to discuss the session with us ready for planning the next one and to talk about exercise options in between sessions with us, such as running, cycling or exercise at home.
- Re-assessment. After about 3 months or so we repeat the Health and Fitness assessment to measure your improvements, hopefully in all areas, and to re-examine previous goals and devise new ones for the next set of sessions.
At all times you will have the full attention of Carl or Carole during your PT sessions and the exclusive use of our facilities to train in private. See “Price List” for an up to date list of our charges.
Please contact us if you wish to discuss Personal Training, either in person at “Physicality” or by telephone and we will be happy to answer your questions.