For many, going to the gym for the first time is a rite of passage, let alone involving a stranger in the journey. In reality, a personal trainer is always there to support you, to help you set goals that you may not have thought to aim for before, and to keep an eye on your progress until your skills and knowledge are solidified.
Stebby’s 9th episode of “Samm-sammult heaoluni” podcast was visited by Jacob Price, who helped us understand of personal trainer’s occupation and finding the right one.
According to Price, the price of a personal trainer is the same as a bottle of something stronger in the shop, but a full hour of wisdom is more likely to change your life for the better with only one of them. And we talked about:
- who benefits from a personal trainer,
- the importance of social media,
- positive effects of strength training.
Listen to the full episode HERE or on Apple Podcast HERE. Keep an eye on Jacob @Jacobrprice and @spordibuss.
Finding a personal trainer on Stebby is easy. Find them HERE.
Strength training is talked about as a universal panacea for promoting physical health. Why should you start strength training?
People come to me for so many different reasons, and often it’s still because they feel I’m not in the best shape. Strength training is very good for our health as it makes us stronger and helps us to live a longer and fuller life.
Even if you’re not even interested in athletic or visual results, and you’d rather be out drinking rum and cokes, I think if you could get some strength training into your life, you could probably drink those rum and cokes for longer. Just to be clear, I wouldn’t recommend that anyone who’s starting to work out should start drinking rum and coke, but rather that people who are drinking it should start working out to enjoy life longer.
When the internet is full of tutorials, why start with a coach?
I think you can certainly start without a coach – you don’t need a coach to go to the gym. A trainer is really there to keep you safe and not hurt yourself. And from there, we can think of the trainer as helping you navigate through the information overload you get from different types of media.
People come to the gym with different goals, but often still just say that their reason is to get in better shape, so to speak. But define better shape? It’s different for each person, so it’s really a question of finding out the person’s abilities and more specific goals.
In personal training, the first session is always an excursion type of training, where we do theory and practice together, i.e. we walk around the gym, try different things, see what we like and at the same time, as a trainer, I try to figure out what are the possibilities, motivators and abilities to improve.
For a lot of people the gym is also a bit of a scary place in that sense and I think if we do a tour type of workout where we talk more freely about things, that will leave a bit of a lighter or more positive impression on people about the gym and take away a bit of that fear.
A trainer isn’t just someone who makes you lie on your back and do push-ups, but rather someone you can walk around the gym with and interact with. Plus, personal training is like reading a book – you may only get one sentence, but that one sentence is worth the price of the book. It can be the same with personal training.
Does a trainer keep going with you at all times?
A coach should be like a driving instructor, which means that if he or she is a good enough coach, after a while you basically don’t need him or her anymore. That he sets up everything for training and then if after a while there’s progress, he’ll change the loads a bit and let you go on.
Usually, the plus side of having a coach is that he or she is there for you outside the gym. Let’s say you’ve done the first three or 10 workouts and you’re on your way, you’ll still have the opportunity to go to the trainer with your questions.
For example, I myself use a workout app platform where I have my workouts on my phone and I have their plans and instructions in one place. At the same time, they can always write to me there and ask for advice. Let’s say I see that Martin hasn’t been training for 10 days, I’ll write to him and tell him what’s going on or is there something wrong. I think that in 2024 it is not necessary to have a personal trainer always at hand, because we have many different ways to support the trainee.
For example, my most popular package is a combination of three workouts and then a personalised plan based on those workouts. And after that, I encourage people to keep in touch. However, I also have clients who go to the gym with me every month or week all year round.
How to choose a trainer?
The qualification part is easy – gyms will still partner with or employ trainers who are sure to have the right qualification. But from there, it’s also possible to use social media – we can see what and how they train, what are they like as a person and maybe we can see the people they trains. All of this can give you confidence in choosing the right coach for you.
When I go to the gym, I actually see other trainers with other clients. Then you can look for the smiles on their clients’ faces. Also, if you can see over time that within six months some clients have had a serious change in physique, that can also give you confidence in choosing that particular trainer.
Hiring a personal trainer sounds expensive. How much does it really cost?
In my opinion, people see things as either expensive or cheap based on whether they see value in them. The other day in the shop I looked at the fact that I basically work for a bottle – very popular bottles of spirits cost the same as an hour with the average personal trainer. Personal trainers range in price from €25-50.
Of course, we can say that that bottle of booze is very powerful and it can change your life, but so can one workout change your life, and certainly for the better. I believe I’ve guided some people for the better, and who knows, maybe given some life-changing advice.
Why do you give out advice on social media for free?
For me, it’s about entertainment and showing life as it is. Since I have been reading and watching about exercise for a very long time, I am happy to pass on this knowledge. Sharing the added value makes me feel good, and in the meantime, people write to my inbox to say that I’m doing really cool and thank me for it.
Obviously, it also helps to reach a lot of clients, that maybe I solved some of their problems on social media and now they’re coming to the gym with me.
Listen to the full episode HERE or on Apple Podcast HERE. Keep an eye on Jacob @Jacobrprice and @spordibuss.
Find your new personal trainer with ease HERE.
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