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What to Look For in a Gym or Personal Trainer

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It’s never a bad time to commit to a healthier lifestyle that combines diet and exercise with mental and spiritual well being to achieve your best self.  Always consult with a doctor before starting any fitness program.

As you get started down your path to fitness, you will no doubt have many questions about every aspect of your journey. It will be a process that you take one step at a time. Our goal for today is to learn what to look for in a gym or personal trainer.

We are going to help you figure out what kind of gym you need.

If you are thinking about going to the gym and getting fit, it is common to wonder what gym is the best one to join. Some gyms are small and only offer the basics, while others better resemble a fitness center where every possible activity has its own space. 

We are going to help you choose a personal trainer.

Some gyms will offer a personal trainer as part of their membership package, or for an additional fee. If you are looking for a trainer to help you achieve your goals, this could be the right solution for you. Otherwise, you will need to seek out and select a trainer and develop a schedule that works for both of you.

Here are several things that you will want to look for in a gym and a trainer.

Location

One of the biggest concerns you will face when choosing a gym and personal trainer is its location. There may be several gyms in a city or large community, but only one or two within driving distance if you live in a rural area or small town. Transportation can also be a problem if you don’t drive. Weather is also a concern if you live in a location that receives excessive snowfall every year.

Your trainer’s location will also be vital if the gym does not offer training. Long-distance between you and the trainer can complicate early morning or late night meetings and weather will also be a more significant factor.

Availability

You will need your gym and your personal trainer to be available when you are, or at the very least, be available at times that work for you. If you don’t like working out in the morning, don’t get a trainer that trains in the morning. If you can only work out at 3 am, you will need a gym that’s open twenty-four hours a day.

Trying to fit your workout into a time frame that does not suit you will waste everyone’s time and your money. You will grow frustrated at your inability to wake up or your rushed workouts, and it will be counterproductive to your fitness goals.

You need to determine how often and at what times you can work out and find a gym and a trainer that operate during those times.

Cost

Cost is going to be one of the most significant determining factors when choosing a gym or a trainer. A fair price is going to be influenced by everything we talk about, as well as your gut-feeling. 

You can try out most gyms a few times for free or by paying a try out fee, but most will want you to sign up for a monthly membership pretty quickly. Some gyms will give more significant discounts corresponding to the length of your commitment.

Sometimes the size of the gym can influence the cost. For example, a gym with a swimming pool might be more expensive than a gym without one. If you need or will make use of a pool, you might justify the cost increase. Otherwise, paying for a pool is wasted money. Many gyms have package deals that include or don’t include the pool and other extras. 

Personal trainers are much more costly than gym memberships, and they can charge by the quarter, half, or full hour. Sessions are usually once a week, but they can be every other week, or once a month depending on your budget and fitness goals.  Someone in need of rehabilitation might meet a trainer several times a week.

Reputation

Reputation is always important to consider when choosing a gym or a trainer.  You certainly want a gym that has a reputation for being well managed with clean, well-maintained equipment. Your trainer needs to have a reputation for getting results. 

Specialties or Perks

Going to the gym can open up more possibilities than just bench presses and squats. Many gyms offer Aerobics, Zumba, Boxing, Yoga, Swimming, Racquetball, and Tennis as well as many other specialty classes that you might find interesting. 

These specialty classes can be instrumental in helping you achieve your goals.  If you enjoy participating in them, you will stay motivated to keep returning and working out.

Your personal trainer’s specialty is going to be very important. A physical therapist is not going to be the best option if you want to body build or train for boxing. You need a trainer that specializes in helping others achieve the goals you would like to reach, whether it be weight loss, muscle gain, etc.

Trainer Specific

We’ve pretty much covered what you need to look for in a gym, but there are still a few things you need to look for in a personal trainer.

Credentials

Credentials mainly in the form of certifications can be an essential determining factor, especially if the cost is high. There are four widely recognized certifications and hundreds of others. The main four are as follows.

  • National Academy of Sports Medicine – NASM
  • American Council on Exercise – ACE
  • National Strength and Conditioning Association – NACA
  • American College of Sports Medicine – ACSM

If your trainer has other certifications, we recommend checking to see what receiving that certification entails. Some certifications only require an afternoon while others require a college degree.

Experience

The more experience a trainer has, the more likely they have seen someone like you before and will be able to help you. Someone terrible at their job usually doesn’t stay in business very long.

Personality 

For many people, this is a crucial factor. You cannot reach your goals if you cannot get along with your trainer. Your trainer will need to push you to your limits and keep you motivated while remaining receptive to your needs and goals.

Summary

Hopefully, after reading this over, you will have a good idea of what you need. Remember, training is only a small part of the fitness equation with your diet being the main ingredient. Your mental state and motivation level is also an essential factor. Never follow any plans blindly, always do your research to be sure your heading toward your goals.  

What to Do When You Hit an Exercise Plateau

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Ah, the well known exercise plateau… It’s just the worst isn’t it? Well, maybe not. It may be the perfect opportunity to look at your exercise habits and ask yourself “what’s working and what’s not?” Plateaus are extremely common to those who exercise regularly.

First off, how do I know that I’ve hit a plateau?

Are you measuring or tracking your progress?

There are endless options to track your progress. Whether it be devices or apps, there are so many great options to monitor and track your fitness goals. If you’re not using tools like timing, heart rate monitoring, or tracking calories burned, it’s almost impossible to know the rate at which you’re improving.

Do you feel sore?

Soreness can mean a few things… it could mean you haven’t been stretching enough, or possibly you worked out without a warm-up, or maybe you’re pushing your muscles to a higher velocity and the muscles fibers are tearing. The last option is what you are ideally trying to do when you strength train. The muscle fiber tears are what cause the increase in size and strength of the muscle as it repairs. If you’re not feeling sore, your muscles may not be growing and this could mean you hit a plateau.

How are your clothes fitting?

I like to ask this one instead of focusing on weight. Your clothes are a great indicator of how your body is reacting to the type of exercise you’re doing. If you’re feeling uncomfortable in your clothes (i.e., they aren’t fitting as well as they did when you began training) this may be a red flag!

Photo by Bruno Nascimento on Unsplash

Okay, I think I’ve hit a plateau… what do I do now?

  • SWITCH IT UP

I get it, it’s so easy to get addicted to one type of workout. Maybe it’s cycling, running, yoga, barre, pilates, you name it. Unfortunately, though, sticking to only one type of training can get you stuck. Your body craves movement in a variety of ways. Challenge yourself. Try that dance class you’ve always wanted to try and see how open your body feels afterward. Try a mat pilates class and notice how deeply engaging your core can make you feel just as strong as weight lifting does.

  • BACK TO BASICS

This can be a great opportunity to go back to your fundamentals. Are you engaging your core when you squat? Are your shoulders pulled back and down as you bicep curl? Are you accidentally tipping forward and overextending your knee in a lunge? These minor adjustments can be huge change-makers in the quality of your results.

  • LOOK LOCAL

Notice the community around you. What are other people doing? Can you get involved in a local running club or a free yoga class at the park? Connecting with others in your local community can be a simple way to reconnect with why you exercise in the first place. Making a “workout date” with a friend will leave you with double the endorphins!

Photo by dylan nolte on Unsplash

Hitting a plateau is a great place to be. You can now look towards your goals and reassess your fitness strategy. Just like you have to constantly balance your work, lifestyle, and relationships, you also have to realign your exercise routine to make it the best use of your time and energy. Use this plateau as a learning experience and get out there – try something new!

How To Use Social Media as a Fitness Professional

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One thing that many people in the fitness industry need to focus on is really creating their own brand and personality that separates them from all the other fitness professionals in the industry. This really starts with creating a presence where your future clients are, and that’s online. I have worked with some small businesses and have been working on building my own brand as a yoga instructor and here are some tips and tricks I found from both my education in Public Relations and just going through all the trial and error of trying to build my own presence online.

  • The biggest thing is CONTENT: All other workshops and groups will stress this day in and day out! Content and giving your audience something they can use will not only show how credible you are as a source, but also give future clients an insight to how you work as a professional.
    • It’s OK to repost! If you follow someone with similar content feel free to repost that content, be sure to provide the source! This will generate people to your site or platform where you have like minded content.
    • Speak to your specific audience! If you have a specific population your are looking to access – talk to them! That’s what social media is about! Use words like Ladies! Guys! Fellow Grads! Etc. to show who your audience is and access them on a more intimate level.
  • Consistency/Frequency: When thinking about content make a calendar and be specific about your posting schedule: For example, I use for posting that every other day I am using quotes to emphasize my blog topic or podcast topic to keep reinforcing my audience to go back to the podcast or blog post to drive people to continue to view my site and maybe collect people I may have missed on the weekend! This also gives some uniformity to my sites because visually there are positive messages between images of yoga poses, nutrition, etc.
    • More on the posting schedule: You do NOT need to post every day! (woah, did I just say that?) There are a lot of analytics out there that say even 1x a day (depending on the platform is enough) Your audience doesn’t need to know the 3 meals and 2 workouts you did each and every day, nor do they really want to! If one day you are focusing on nutrition, post one great meal and give a recipe! If it’s a leg workout, maybe doing a quick video with modifications and going live to show key portions of your workout will be enough to show quality content without just force feeding. No one likes the person who lives on their social media and shows everything!
    • The key to a great platform is trying to be consistent – your followers will know you for your content and know what to expect each day and will look forward to those nuggets of wisdom only you can offer!
    • Personal tip: I set on my to do list a posting schedule and try to set alarms catered to the schedule based on when I know my followers will be on. I do this without using an organized platform like Hootsuite, but you can definitely look into these automated posting websites that will help relieve some of the hassle of trying to make your posts on a deadline!
  • Make your profiles “business” profiles: this mostly is catered to Instagram, but this allows you to look up analytics to see who you are accessing, how many people you are accessing, and even location. These insights allow you to really hone in to who you are reaching out and maybe seeing what areas you need to focus on.
    • age group: try to keep content within the age group of your niche and do some look as to what content that age group wants.
    • location: use the location tab and incorporate location of your business to get people looking at local businesses to find you!
Screenshot of my insights from Instagram
  • Hashtags: USE them! You are allowed to use 30 hashtags per post, I recommend using them as a comment after the post so it’s not in the forefront of what your audience sees, but use them to drag people to your content.
    • I personally like: All Hashtag they generate for you the top 30 hashtags based on the word you use and you are able to just copy paste into a comment! You’re also able to see analytics as to how well certain hashtags are doing if you want to get super techy with your marketing!
  • Know how your audience functions and when they are looking for you!: Look up peak times that people view certain posts on social media. Also what platforms are they on?
    • Don’t waste your time!: This is the time to really find your audience and post during those times where you know people are searching for that content. Typically this is around lunch or after work in the evening. If you are posting at 6 am and there’s no one watching, what good will that do? Here’s a great review of times for social media on SocialSprout!
    • Pick a/a few platforms: you don’t need to be on ALL the platforms, and all the time! If you know your audience research where to bring your focus on. Also have a feel for different types of platforms. If your jam is on Facebook and creating Facebook content focus on that and maybe start to play with another social media platform that is more evident for your age group.
      • 22+ : Facebook still highly ranked with Instagram coming in close second. If you have a high visual content you may want to play with both but bring your focus to Insta. Pinterest is also emphasized for clients over 50 because it allows them for more searchable content.
      • <22: Snapchat is growing and Facebook users are steadily declining. Recommend access through more visual social media platforms due to need for high quality visual content with this age group.
      • Source: Business Insider
  • Be SOCIAL: Don’t just respond with emojis, actually respond to people, reach out to similar profiles and businesses and connect.
    • Follow like businesses and profiles: When I mentioned this to a small business there was a lot of hesitation, and I get it, why would you like and share content so similar to you, wouldn’t people go shop or take their business there? There is power in creating a network of like-minded business people. You support each other! Sharing each other’s content creates a broader outreach which means more clients to all! It also gives you insights as to what is working within your niche or field and what is not. This helps you for content creation as well!
    • My personal rule of thumb: as you are scrolling through content, which we all do almost every min of the day, like but also comment on one post (be sincere and add more than an emoji!). Who knows, you may spark a convo which brings people to your profile for more?!
  • Set a call to action!: People want to be involved with social media, so why not involve them? Ask them what areas they want to focus on when it comes to working out, ask what your peak yoga pose should be in the class. Ask questions and engage with people will also allow you to show your personality and get people to trust and want to work with you.
    • Personal Tip: I try once every two weeks to incorporate those yoga students who follow me in their classes by asking which peak pose they want. I put the question as either a choice between 2 or 4 different poses. Or, I will ask between two areas of focus (i.e hip openers vs inversions). This allows you to create a personal relationship with your audience and when they see you in class it shows you are actively listening and engaging with them. It’s a nice special touch.

I hope these tips help! Use these steps to get started on making a more uniformed and professional looking profile that will allow you to grow your personal business/fitness personality!