10 Excellent Reasons for Hiring a Personal Trainer.

Hiring a personal trainer is one of the best, most exciting ways to reach your fitness goals, no matter what those goals may be. If you're thinking about hiring a trainer, here are ten excellent reasons to do so.

1. You Don't Know How to Train Your Body for the Results You Want

Many people have fairly well-defined goals, such as losing 20 pounds, building lean muscle or being able to run in a 5k this summer, but they don't know exactly how to make those goals a reality.

Fitness trainers have the education and experience to design a program to fit any fitness goal, or to fit several at once. As a non-professional, you may be working hard, but working hard at something that isn't going to get you the results you're looking for. A personal trainer will discuss your needs and goals, assess your present fitness level, talk with you about your lifestyle and schedule, and come up with a plan that will work for you.

More on how a personal trainer gets you results.

2. You Work Out But Aren't Getting the Results You'd Hoped For

There are few things more frustrating than spending hours in the gym without seeing the results you think you've earned. Very often, the problem is that your workout program doesn't match your goals or that what you're doing has already reached its max potential.

A personal trainer can look at what you're doing and easily identify what is working, what is not, and what can be done to shake things up and get your progress back on track.

A good trainer can be instrumental in avoiding plateaus and making steady progress.

3. You're Bored with What You're Doing

If you're able to get excited about spending another hour on the treadmill or another forty-five minutes doing the same routine you did last month and the month before that, count yourself lucky.

One of the problems with working out on your own is that your knowledge is usually fairly limited. You know a certain number of weight training moves and you understand how to use a few pieces of equipment. When boredom sets in, you get stuck or you quit. It's hard to be motivated to work out when you're sick of what you're doing. A personal trainer has an entire encyclopedia of fitness in his or her head and knows enough moves and enough methods to keep things interesting from week to week.

More on how trainers eliminate boredom from your workouts.

4. You Need More of a Challenge

One of the hardest things to do on your own is push your limits and keep yourself moving forward. You know you've mastered the moves you're doing or you know that your cardio routine has become, well, routine. But how do you ramp it up?

Your personal trainer knows exactly how, and can keep you stretching for the next goal by designing the challenge around your fitness level, your strengths, your weaknesses and your personality.

Challenging yourself is also the key to avoiding plateaus.

5. You Want to Learn How to Get Fit on Your Own

Maybe you're not too keen on having someone tell you what to do or you're a bit of a solitary person when it comes to working out. You can still realize some huge benefits by having a trained professional show you what you need to do and teach you how to design and change up your own program.

This is especially important if you're fairly new to working out. Having a personal trainer explain proper form, target heart rates, and other matters can help you to prevent injury. A professional can also show you which moves will net you the best results from your weight training, how to get the most from your cardio, and how to increase the difficulty of either one once you've mastered a certain phase.

Basically, a personal trainer can teach you how to become your own personal trainer.

6. You Need More Accountability and Supervision

It's one thing to cut yourself a break when you're overtired, ill, or have some other legitimate excuse for missing a workout or not giving your workout 100%. It's another thing to let yourself slide because you were up too late, your cat's mad at you, or you can't find a workout outfit to suit your mood.

Some people just aren't that great at keeping themselves accountable and on track when it comes to working out. A personal trainer is made for people like you. They're positive and encouraging, but they've heard all of the excuses and they don't care. Their job is to get you where you want to be, not to help you sabotage yourself. Very often, just knowing that someone is on the way to your home or waiting for you at the gym is enough to keep you honest.

More on how a personal trainer can help you stay on track.

7. You Need More Motivation and Support

Some of us are happy with the knowledge of our own progress and the support of friends and family who see our results. Others need a bit more encouragement and motivation to stay on track.

Personal trainers get excited when their clients work hard, reach both small and large goals, and experience personal triumphs of every size. They love what they do and they love seeing the fruits of both your labor and theirs. That excitement and passion are catching and having a personal trainer to cheer you on, pick you back up, or share your accomplishments can make a huge difference in your life and in your workouts.

A good trainer knows how to be a positive and supportive personal motivator for working out.

8. You Have an Injury or Condition That Needs to Be Addressed

Whether you have an injury from which you need to rehabilitate or a chronic condition that needs to be considered in your workouts, it can be very important to have a trained fitness professional help you.

A personal trainer is knowledgeable about modifying exercises to accommodate a chronic back or neck problem, or about bouncing back from a torn ligament or broken limb. Having the help of a personal trainer can make all the difference in working through your issue so it improves over time rather than get worse.

More on how a personal trainer can help you recover from an injury.

9. You Prefer Working Out at Home

For some people, the social aspect of going to the gym is part of the appeal. For others, it's what's keeping them out of the gym altogether. Working out in public or in groups isn't for everyone, but working out at home canbe difficult and limiting if you're not sure what to do or have limited equipment.

Your personal trainer can take your space and equipment into consideration and design a program that meets your needs and will work with where you are and what you have. Many personal trainers will also bring their own equipment, such as dumbbells, resistance bands, stability balls, and other tools to help you get a great workout without investing a ton of money.

More on working out at home with a personal trainer.

10. You Want to Train for a Specific Sport or Event

One of the things that personal trainers learn is how to build endurance for a marathon, increase speed for a soccer player, or build endurance for a competitive swimmer. If you're currently training for a sport or an event, or you'd like to be, a personal trainer can be your greatest ally. They'll create a program that gets you the results you need by the time that you need to be ready.

More on how a personal trainer can bolster your sports performance.

You may find that one of these reasons is the one that most applies to you or you may recognize several that apply to your situation, personality, and goals.

The best way to see how a trainer can best help you is to hire one and work with them for a while. We can pair you up with one of our skilled, experienced, and knowledgeable trainers that suits your personality and workout style, and most importantly gets you to where you want to be.