As a new gym goer, I was recently introduced to the concept of personal trainers (also known as personal fitness trainers) in a gym. I have read about personal trainers and how all the rich and famous must have one but this was really my first contact with personal trainers up close and personal.

Because I was new to my club, I was offered free services of a personal trainer for 3 gym sessions. It is then up to me whether I need their service further; for a professional fee to be paid.

I had seen personal trainers in other gyms previously. To me, many of them look like muscle beef cakes and seem to be fond of walking from one corner of the gym to another, strutting their muscles along the way. Others seem to be posing in front of mirrors all the time. Yet others seems to be hovering around female gym goers only. They don’t seem to be doing a lot of personal training…

Well… maybe it’s just because I wasn’t familiar with personal trainers or perhaps the good ones had not caught my attention. Anyway, I had a personal trainer attached to me for 3 gym sessions and this let me had a good understanding of the role of a personal trainer and how he or she can add value to a new gym goer.

Firstly, believe it or not, not all trainers are muscle beefcakes. In fact, you can’t tell at all that the personal trainer I had is a personal trainer despite her being a national hockey player.

Secondly, a good personal trainer job is not to just show you how the various exercise machines work. In fact, that is his last task. A good trainer will firstly need to sit down and assess a client’s physical and medical condition and find out his/her client’s fitness goal. He will also need to assess your physical posture, your dietary habits and the time you can afford for training.

Only then can he work out a short and long term training for you. Even then, a good trainer will not let you start on exercise machines straight away especially if you had never been a regular gym goer. He should start you on various stretching and strengthening exercises, so that your various weak muscles and/or the core muscles needed for further physical work can be strengthened. This will also correct posture problems you may have, prevent future muscle injuries and build up core essential muscles.

Your trainer will need to take a few sessions just to build up these strength. These sessions may involve a lot of stretching and posturing exercises using various basic fitness tools such as elastic bands, dumbbells, exercise balls etc. You are unlikely to be familiar with most of these building up movements and this is where a trainer can guide, motivate and even exercise along with you.

A good trainer will want to get your basic diet, posture, core muscles correct before he would even want to start you on the various exercise machines. Like what my trainer said, if you can’t get the basics correct, then progressing on to the exercise machines will not be as good or as effective as what it should be.

My personal verdict about personal trainers? They are certainly worth the money (between S$70-120 an hr), if you have a serious fitness goal plan or want to see double-quick results or are unable to motivate yourself to exercise.

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