You want to get stronger. Feel better. Look better.

You’ve tried video tutorials and bought gym memberships, but still feel stagnant in your exercise regimen. Or maybe you have a specific goal in mind that’s overwhelming to reach for on your own.

There is a way to break down those walls blocking you from your goals.

In this guide, we’re going to show you what a personal trainer does, who is best served by a personal trainer, and how this differs from a personal fitness coach.

Contents

• What Is The Benefit? Personal Training 101
• How Long Is A Personal Training Session?
• What A Typical Personal Training Session Looks Like
• What You Can Gain – 3 Benefits Of Having A Personal Trainer
• Why Personal Training Works #1 – Faster Results
• Why Personal Training Works #2 – Avoid Injuries
• Why Personal Training Works #3 – Accountability
• Differences Between Personal Training And Personal Coaching
• What A Personal Coach May Do Differently From A Personal Trainer
• A Personal Fitness Coach Digs Deeper
• A Personal Fitness Coach Adds The Right Amount Of Stress
• A Personal Fitness Coach Takes You On A Lifelong Journey
• How Our Fitness Coaches Can Help You Achieve The Benefits Of Personal Training

What Is The Benefit? Personal Training 101

Do you want to learn how to do a backflip? A personal trainer can help you master that.

Do you want to target different muscle groups? A personal trainer can drill you on specific exercises to increase strength in those areas.

The goal of a fitness trainer is to give their clients what they think they want.

Take Mia for example.

She wants to run in her first Spartan Race this next season and she feels she has reached her plateau with her home workouts. She needs help getting into shape to prepare her for the different challenges she will face.

What are the benefits of a personal trainer to Mia?

A personal trainer will design a plan of action for the challenges she’ll face, then drill them with Mia until she can hardly walk the next day. She’ll become someone else throughout this process — someone better.

Personal trainers aren’t for everyone and there are other options.

Keep reading to learn if personal training is for you and to discover more ways to become a better version of yourself.

In Motion O.C. offers fitness coaching. We want you to know the difference between what a personal trainer and a personal coach offers, so you can make the best choice for you.

How Long Is A Personal Training Session?

1 hour is fairly standard for a personal training session.

The ideal length of your session depends on a number of factors:

• Your goals
• Your budget
• Your experience level 
• Your schedule

We recommend you consult with a personal trainer to decide what works best for you.

What A Typical Personal Training Session Looks Like

A personal trainer’s goal is to push you — hard. Their goal is to train you to be fit. This can sometimes feel like a drill sergeant pushing you to the limit.

After that introduction, the first time at the gym might make you feel nervous, and that’s normal. The first session often involves a tour followed by an evaluation.

A personal trainer might ask you questions like:

• What are your goals?
• Do you have any injuries or illnesses? 
• How much time do you have to devote to exercise?

This is very important: never skip a warm-up. This is essential before, and sometimes during, all major physical activity. A dynamic warm-up, one that increases your heart rate and loosens the body is best.

During the bulk of a regular session, you get more than a workout — you get training.

Each session should have a plan and a function.

Here we move into movements that require more muscle usage. These are movements that develop strength and power.

That could include:

• Squats 
• Deadlifts
• Pullups 
• Bench Press

Then the personal trainer might switch you to movements that target specific muscles such as:

• Bicep curl
• Toe touch 
• Rear delt raises

To finish, you might do a metabolic conditioner or a cardio blast that completely fatigues the body. These are the exercises that make you not want to move the next morning.

After the hard work comes another important step: the cool-down.

This can include:

• Stretching
• Light jogging
• Walking 
• Body shakes to loosen up your muscles
• A discussion with the personal trainer about what you can do at home, and a plan for the next session.

This might sound intimidating, but there are some good benefits of personal training sessions.

What You Can Gain – 3 Benefits Of Having A Personal Trainer

You might be wondering, “why should I get a personal trainer?”

One study in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine found that among their research subjects, 73% changed their attitudes positively toward exercise.

If your attitude can change, your actions often follow. With that comes results.

A personal trainer can help you get faster results than exercising on your own. They help you train properly to avoid injuries and motivate you to keep going.

Why Personal Training Works #1 – Faster Results

Exercising without a plan can feel like you’re driving without a map. The car may be moving, but you’re not sure where it’s going.

What are your goals?

Each goal requires a different road, or plan, to get there. One of the benefits of personal training sessions is they help you develop a plan to get faster results.

As you grow, they can help your regimen grow with you to maintain results.

There is no more time wasted on activities that don’t get you the results you want.

Why Personal Training Works #2 – Avoid Injuries

Another one of the benefits of having a personal trainer is they train you in the perfect form.

They educate you on:

• Form
• Technique
• Posture

Learning correct form and technique can prevent you from injuring yourself during your time at the gym or at home.

Why Personal Training Works #3 – Accountability

You’re human. You might like late-night snacks and Netflix binging, too. With a personal trainer, you have someone to report to, someone waiting for you at the gym to help you train.

A set of focus groups found that a motivating personal trainer helped inspire clients to continue doing the work needed to improve.

This is one of the benefits of group personal training.

Even though you share a personal trainer, everyone is striving to improve, just like yourself. They can motivate you to keep going and check-in with you when you walk into the gym.

Differences Between Personal Training And Personal Coaching

A personal fitness trainer will train your body to be more fit. A personal fitness coach will facilitate growth on your health journey.

What does that mean?

Personal fitness coaching is holistic.

Remember Mia the Spartan Racer?

She’s hit a wall in her training — but the wall is more than not knowing the right exercises to get stronger. A fitness coach can help her identify the wall, and push her to adapt.

A fitness coach will expose her weaknesses and bring Mia right to that wall, then stop.

This process is not a walk in the park, but it can do great things for her wellbeing on her way to reach her goals.

Keep reading to learn how a session with a fitness coach is different from a personal trainer.

What A Personal Coach May Do Differently From A Personal Trainer

A primary difference between a personal trainer and a personal fitness coach is that a personal coach knows the difference between what a client wants, and what they need.

Sometimes the stories we tell ourselves aren’t helping us. Maybe Mia keeps telling herself all she needs to do well in a Spartan Race is to get stronger. For that purpose, she will find the benefits of personal training might better suit her needs.

However, if her motivation keeps flagging, a personal fitness coach can help her reassess the story she keeps telling herself.

Maybe what she needs is a lifestyle overhaul. Maybe it’s to change her perspective from a single goal, to a lifelong change.

This shift can help new habits stick.

A Personal Fitness Coach Digs Deeper

A personal fitness coach doesn’t just look at what happens in the gym. They will give you the benefits of personal training with added depth that leads to more holistic wellness.

A fitness coach looks at your lifestyle, choices, and motivations. To find your limit, they need to look at roadblocks to your success.

A fitness coach may ask questions like:

• Why are your muscles moving this way?
• Where are you carrying your stress?
• Where is this stress coming from?

Every personal fitness trainer is different. They might not call out every rep or compliment every form, but they will pay close attention to how you move and why. Then they might point out something specific and you’ll have the ah-ha moment you’ve been looking for.

And here comes the introspection.

The questions they ask, the occasional silence, the tailored education, will cause you to evaluate your body and your motivation.

This is the beginning of a lifelong wellness journey.

A Personal Fitness Coach Adds The Right Amount Of Stress

When a fitness coach brings you to the wall that’s keeping you from improvement, they purposely stress your system. This process is called hormesis: a favorable response to stress.

We are not saying this process is fun. When we move better, the more enjoyable moving becomes.

A personal fitness coach will educate you on how to move well. Exercising goes from something to endure to something you enjoy.

A Personal Fitness Coach Takes You On A Lifelong Journey

A fitness coach can help you:

• Prevent or treat health risks and conditions
• Manage weight and life stressors
• Increase physical, mental and emotional energy 
• Improve self-esteem and self-image

All of these things bleed into the rest of your life in the best ways.

A personal fitness coach will not become your crutch. Fitness coaching can provide you the benefits of personal training with a more holistic approach to wellness.

How Our Fitness Coaches Can Help You Achieve The Benefits Of Personal Training

At In Motion O.C. our fitness coaches help clients in three major ways by:

• Helping our clients look and feel better.
• Improving posture, balance, flexibility, cardiovascular endurance, and function. 
• Preventing recurrence of pain and injury.

Many people have a fear of movement. Our fitness coaches can show you what you should be feeling during the exercises. We also do this efficiently by working smarter not harder.

This gives you the confidence to move.

We take pride in creating a safe and comfortable community for our clients that motivates our clients to strive for their best.

To see if a personal fitness coach is what you need to grow, schedule your free consultation at In Motion O.C. today.