Personal trainers aren’t superhuman – they have niggles and annoyances the same as everyone else. While you’re aiming to reach your goals, you may be surprised to hear that there are some things you do that get under their skin at times. So what’s really irking them during those painful sessions? To get the most out of your time in the gym each week, it’s important that you’re both reading from the same page. Here are the top three annoyances you should speak to your trainer about in order to get the most out of your fitness programme.
Withholding Health Information
Are you taking medications? Did your recent hospital visit reveal anything worrying? Have you recently injured yourself? These are all things you need to let your personal trainer know about, even if your GP has cleared you to exercise. There’s a number of reasons for this, but namely you could be putting yourself at increased risk of further injury by withholding this information. For example, medications can affect your heart rate, and prior injuries can weaken certain joints or muscles which could change your usual fitness regime. Even if your PT hasn’t prompted you to give the info, it’s important that you be honest and fess up. In doing so, you’ll be able to get the most from your session without putting yourself under any strain and potentially forcing you from training at all for some time.
Complaining
Personal trainers, more than anyone else, hate complainers. If their eyes, complaining doesn’t make much sense, given that you’re paying them to do their job and get you fit. To complain all the while make bad use of the time you have with them, and could hinder you reaching your goals. In fact, using your time complaining could stop them using that time to give you important health, fitness or dietary advice. If you’re serious about reaching your goals, you should go to each session with a determined mind set and really make the most of your time with your trainer. If you’re struggling to get motivated, speak to your trainer who might be able to offer some advice, tip or vary your regime in order to work towards more manageable goals so that you feel more up to heading to the gym each week.
Making Excuses
Many people have trouble finding the time to fit exercise into their routine. It’s notoriously difficult to get motivated if you’re used to sitting around each night in front of the TV. But once you make the effort and commit to working out with a trainer, try to refrain from making excuses for missing your training session or for overeating in between. Being honest is the best way to let your trainer help you – for example, if you’ve overeaten for a reason, tell them and perhaps they can offer you advice on how to cut back or make healthier choices. The only person you affect in doing this is yourself because you’re making it that much harder to reach your goals. If your trainer doesn’t know the real reasons behind your choices, how can they help you? All the lying only stops you reaching your goals – and you wouldn’t want that, would you? So if you do slip and miss a session, don’t both creating some elaborate excuse for not being there – tell the truth and commit to being there more often.