I joined a real gym. Are personal trainers worth it?Follow

Just look online for workout routines based around what you want to accomplish for free.

Trainers are only good for people that don't know how to look up what they want to do and can't motivate themselves to keep to the schedule.

Edited, Jun 10th 2011 5:44pm by lolgaxe

The main advantage of a personal trainer is to have someone who will make you do the full set(s) of exercises during a workout session. They'll push you harder than you'll usually go yourself. Unless your objective is to very very rapidly whip yourself in shape or something, and are willing to pay for the trainer to be there each time you are working out, it's not worth the money.

If you can set up a good routine for yourself and stick with it, you'll be fine with the basic membership. As Kavekk said, having a partner to work out with will work 90% as well as the trainer (and costs you nothing).

I did this for two months last summer. It was pretty intense. As we all know Codyy is a big fatty fat-fat, so it was a pretty big shock to my system. I had the same thing happen where my limbs decided that, and I quote, "Not today you fat ************." It was weird, and awkward once when I tried to cut through someone's bagel at work and could barely do it. But, I lost thirty pounds, and I never missed a session because this very NSFW attractive underwear model was my trainer. It was some pretty great motivation.

I think that, if you don't have the motivation to do it yourself and it actually helps to have someone directing you, go for it. It's expensive, but it works. I would still be with it if I weren't a poor college student. I had never felt better. Now I'm off the bandwagon again, unfortunately... But if I had the money, I would totally go back.

I'd train that so hard.

Everyone has an opinion, and you didn't ask for mine, but Imma give it anyway.

"If I fail" means you've already given yourself an out. Failure is an option.
You don't need to spend money to get in shape, just make up your mind to commit
to it and simply do it.

Not saying you in particular ( or maybe even at all) but when I see folks spending
money to get in shape, I'm 99.9% certain they will fail. It's a subconscious effort
to buy results. Results come from doing, not your wallet.


Walking briskly, jogging, push-ups, crunches, pull-ups, watching your diet, etc all cost
a sum total of zero dollars and can be done right now.


If you need a trainer to keep you motivated, then you're not actually committed to it and
might as well save your money and give up now. Trainers are great for getting you to the
next level, but you gotta get there first. Just my asinine opinion.

That's a good approach. Having your gym close by will make it easier to make the effort to go to it, especially on days when you don't really want to.

For the trainer, at two sessions a month though, I wouldn't even bother. That's just not enough. Personally, I feel like two days a week is a good, consistent rate, but it really depends.



And don't listen to this guy. I've always been a person who needs some outside motivation to stick to an exercise routine. I'm lazier about it than others, but that doesn't mean that I can't succeed at it. Part of the reason that I train MMA is because I always have the instructor and my training partners there to keep me going forward. Left to my own, I lose motivation to exercise very quickly. I need that outside push.

Edited, Jun 11th 2011 12:35pm by Eske

I work out and play a lot of sports. I personally like the feeling, or lack of feeling the next day after an activity. It reminds me that I did something. The more you train your muscles, the less you will feel this and when you do, it should feel good.

As far as trainers go, if you're out of shape or new to certain routines, it may be beneficial to get a trainer for a bit to at least get you into a routine and show you how the equipment works.

Either way, stay with it and good luck in achieving your goal.

This. The overall problem is that people in general are just lazy and not motivated.

Exactly.. that's what they do.

Eh, once I just happened to find some softcore-****-ish stuff of his. It's definitely not like, monstrous, but not bad either.

They're a rip off.

But...

Get the trainer a couple times a month until you're comfortable knowing what you need to do when you walk in. Despite what people will tell you looking up a routine does not teach you how to work out effectively. You need someone to show you the proper way to do an excersice and point out where your posture is wrong etc so you don't hurt yourself and actually get good well rounded results.

A lot of people fail simply because they walk into the gym and just hop on a treadmill because they don't know what else to do or don't want to be seen trying to figure something else out.

Others fail because they think they need to use the coolest machine with the biggest weights they can manage.

Having a trainer every other week fixes both of these issues and gives you enough knowledge about what you have to do the days you're not with the trainer to get results from what you are doing. It also keeps a little peer pressure on you so you keep going.

You do not need a trainer 2-3 times a week. Ever. Your trainer will tell you what you should be doing on the off days they are not with you.

You should be going more than 2 times a week if you can. 2 times a week is fine for maintenance once you're where you want to be but excercise is like eating, lots of little meals are better than 2 big ones. If you go daily you'll start finding your body misses it when you don't go, so you'll always go (it'll start feeling like relief instead of work). Going daily working different muscle groups each day (working muscles that are still healing doesn't help you much) on a 3-4 day cycle will get you into shape if you can manage it.

Wobbly muscle syndrome goes away once you build a bit of muscle, it means the trainer had you using muscles you wouldn't normally use to depletion. This is what trainers are good for, they'll make you go outside of your comfort zone. They call you out when you're cheating on an excercise (and you won't know you're cheating until someone says something.)

I'd say every other month or so, you may want to have a training session so that way you can make sure that you're not hitting a plateau or having your body getting used to whatever workout routine you're doing.

Also, a trainer can also let you know whether your form, etc. is on point so that you're maximizing your workouts.

Between those sessions, check out Fitness Magazine. They have good workout lists and routines.