Yes, anyone CAN be a personal trainer! This is a very different statement from anyone can make a living from being a personal trainer! In fact, there is a lot of turnover in the health and fitness industry as result. However, if you were to gather up the most experienced Fulham personal trainers you’d soon realise that they don’t possess any ‘special sauce’ the gives them an unfair advantage over anyone else. Even the most elite of personal trainers is simply at a different part of the fitness journey from a complete training novice. So how can you become your own fitness coach?
Coach yourself fit (without experienced Fulham personal trainers)
When you want to get fit, you don’t need the worlds most complex programme. Keep it very simple. Improving your health and fitness is not rocket science. if you’re starting from a baseline of zero then any form of physical activity is going to improve your fitness. People who bemoan the inaccuracies of activity monitors such as the FitBit or Garmin (others are available) are missing the point. Simply being more physically active will improve an individuals fitness. Activity monitors highlight these physical activity levels. You do not even have to do a formal exercise session – moving more through the day can be enough at first.
Be prepared to adapt to your new fitness regime
Where ever you start, you will need to adapt. The human body adapts to stress. Physical stress or overload in the form of exercise is a great example. As you train the body it becomes fitter. Therefore you need to keep adapting your training if you want to keep improving your fitness. This typically means asking it to work harder. But don’t panic because the body is already fitter, so should be able to cope. Making training harder may mean an increase in the amount that you do, working faster or heavier, or performing more complicated activities. Each of these will force the body to adapt and become even fitter.
Moving in ever decreasing circles
The process of continuing to be fitter involves three simple steps. Firstly, plan what you’re going to do. Secondly, follow your training plan and keep record of any deviations from the original. Finally, review what changes in fitness your programme has created. If the programme has been effective then you may not need to tweak things too much. If you haven’t made the improvements that you were expecting then you will need to change your programme to reflect the lack of progress. This process becomes ever more focussed as you continue on your training journey. You will find that you will analyse things in increasing detail, hence ever more elaborate training programmes.
Use online resources during your Plan, Do and Review
If you don’t have the budget to to stretch to gym membership or the services of a personal trainer then their are plenty of great resources available online. From introducing different training methods through to ‘how to’ guides on performing specific exercises. Trust the process and you may just find you have the same knowledge bombs as those highly experienced Fulham personal trainers!
