By: Seena Khonsari, MS, CSCS
Ramblings of a Fitness Coach
I recall this time last December when I was scrambling to keep up with training some 50+ hours every week. It made for plenty of face-to-face time, but not enough time to dedicate insight to my community about the broader picture.
Looking over this year, I thought I would provide some thoughts which will challenge some of you, offer helpful information, and get you thinking differently headed into the New Year.
These thoughts are not absolutes; but rather my take on some of the more important topics that involve why you are here in the first place – to receive leadership and expertise.
- Nutrition is important, but not as important as the training program assigned to you. If you are not making it to the gym consistently twice per week and making progress within your workouts (i.e. increased intensity) then there are still results to be had from training
- Soreness is great, but only to the extent that it is a reminder to your body that recovery is needed. Recovery happens while you are resting, not training. And if recovery is not ideal, it will be hard to return to your next week of workouts and perform the same.
- The exercise selection is created so that you can safely and accurately load resistance through a movement pattern. The weight and repetitions performed are designed so that you can create a response such as ‘increase muscular endurance’ or ‘increase muscle tone’. Better to prioritize selecting the proper resistance for your body and meeting the designated repetitions than picking the exercise that ‘looks cool’ or ‘appears more difficult’.
- The last reason anyone should hire a coach/personal trainer is so that they can ‘learn it all’ and then take it and run with it. That’s like saying you are going to attend a single lecture and run away with a PhD. Instead, you should realize that you hire a coach because you need someone to hold you accountable, and to explain the ‘what’ rather than the ‘how’.
- The motivation that you seek when you feel unmotivated is obtained in other ways besides your weekly workouts. In a training gym scenario, some examples are weekly content (such as what you read now), regular check-ins performed with your coach, as well as community events & fitness challenges.
