Typically, a personal fitness trainer is a qualified instructor, who helps clients to achieve their health targets. Occasionally, these trainers advise professional or amateur athletes. In most cases though, they work with smaller groups or individual clients. They will often start by assessing the medical history of their clients, by visiting their clients’ doctors before devising a workout plan. If any problems are flagged during this process, such as skeletal structure or muscular injuries, or severe health conditions, they will ask the doctor for medical clearance prior to commencing training.
The majority of personal trainers develop fitness programs with particular aims in mind, like increasing physical strength or losing a certain amount of weight. Cardiovascular exercises feature heavily in most fitness regimes, because they are vital for slimming down and maintaining general health. There are various types of cardio exercises that might be used in fitness drills, however cycling, swimming and jogging are the most common.
A personal fitness trainer might have knowledge of dieting and nutrition, although this is not always the case. Often, a trainer will consult a nutritionist to devise the right kind of diet for people with weight problems. This means that their clients can get all the advice they need from them, instead of having to pay someone else to advise them about food.
Many people participate in fitness plans to get a body that makes them more physically attractive. While getting in shape can help people to do this, frequent exercise can prevent injuries and various diseases, and lower stress levels as well. In addition, there are workout regimes that are designed to help people overcome specific injuries or illnesses, and stop these from occurring in future. Fitness plans can be customized to achieve any targets, restricted only by the client’s ability to dedicate time to the plan.
Some trainers will only arrange a couple of appointments with their clients, to establish fitness goals and devise a workout program. Generally speaking, this happens in health centers, where personal training might be a membership perk, or offered for an extra charge. Other personal trainers work closely with clients over a number of months, and are present at every gym session completed. They might attend workouts to modify the exercises to increase their effectiveness, and to motivate their clients further. A trainer may only attend certain workouts, and periodically tweak the fitness program after their client has reached their initial targets. In this regard, the industry is extremely personalized, and trainers might have intermittent, short term or long term client relationships.
