Castle Personal Training
Castle Personal Training is a Corstorphine, Edinburgh based company who specialise in weightloss/toning and Pre and Post Natal exercise.
Blog 01-11-13; Don’t you just hate not getting the full package?
Hi guys,
Sometimes I am just baffled what people will put up with; High petrol prices, outrageous BBC bonuses, no-one being held accountable for the banking scandals out there, dodgy politicians, shoddy workmanship and people not picking up their dog’s poo when they walk them.
One of the main things I hate though is people just not knowing when they are getting ripped off. Doesn’t matter whether it’s by a car-mechanic, a lawyer or a Personal Trainer.
I had the following discussion with a Personal Trainer this week;
Me; “How many sessions did you deliver this week?”
Him; “40”
Me; “Wow, that’s a lot. Must take you ages to do all the session plans, nutrition info, support and all that”
Him; “Nah mate, I just do a session plan for each day. All my Monday clients get the same session or I’ll wing it, I don’t touch nutrition and I don’t do support other than during the sessions.”
Me; “WTF??????”
OK, I didn’t actually say that last part but I definitely thought it.
First of all; It’s called Personal Training. If a session is not specifically tailored to your needs you might as well do a Zumba class, at least that’s likely to be free.
It might be fun but it’s also not effective.
Secondly I guarantee you that, if you don’t get your nutrition right, you will not get any meaningful results within a reasonable time-frame.
Everybody in the fitness industry agrees that diet is BY FAR the most important part of your training regime if you are at all interested in seeing your hard work pay off.
Some say it’s 80% diet/20% exercise. Some say that “with a Personal Trainer” it’s 70% diet/30% exercise..personally I think it’s closer to 85/90% eating the right stuff as I sincerely believe most Personal Trainers over estimate their own importance when it comes to getting people results purely through exercise.
Even if you train with a PT for 5 hours a week, that still leaves 163 hours a week that you’re not. A big part of that 163 hours will be filled with temptations such as “Sit down and watch some tv”, “Go ahead, have another” and “Let’s go out for a few drinks tonight”.
It’s up to you to NOT give in and that’s not an easy thing to do. Part of your Personal Trainer’s job is to guide you through those hours as best he/she can. This means a good PT will give you nutritional information and various means of support.
I firmly believe it’s vital that a Personal Trainer has nutritional certifications. If they don’t then they are simply not allowed to give you the most important information you need to get you results and without that vital piece of the puzzle you are just wasting your time.
Finally, support is just as important;
I have people texting me from restaurants, people sending me messages on Facebook to ask about this and that. Usually just small things such as “Does coconut milk fit in with my diet plan?” or “I’m going out to dinner with a client tomorrow, what should I order off the menu here?”. Nothing major but still questions that they don’t know the answer to.
If I was not able to offer support until the next session it would all be “Yeah, you shouldn’t have done that and that’s why you’ve not achieved your results this week”. That would just be a waste of time for everyone involved and would demotivate my clients. Think about it; If you know you have support ready at your fingertips you are much less likely to have a slip and fall back into bad habits.
I very rarely have clients saying something along the lines of “Yeah Pete, I had a very bad week and just had pizza, chips, chocolate and wine this week. I had a bad Friday so thought “Feck it might as well throw it all out of the window now and get back into it next week”“. This is because they can pick up the phone and text, email or facebook message me knowing that I’m there for them. That doesn’t mean that my phone is always ringing off the hook, in fact hardly ever. And that’s simply because They know I’m there for them with the help and they therefore no excuse to fail.
Does this mean my clients never slip? No, of course it doesn’t..but they don’t fall off the wagon massively, not even during their holidays, and that’s what makes the difference.
You should insist on getting the full package. Get the nutritional info you need, get the support you need and make sure you get exercise tailored to your needs. In other words; work with a professional. If you’re in Edinburgh just get in touch.
Take care.
Your Friend,
Peter
Castle Personal Training 
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