If you want to get serious about your health and fitness by working with a personal trainer, you might have asked yourself the question: ‘How long should I use a personal trainer?’
Getting expert help from a fitness professional is a well-known, highly rewarding and effective way to kick-start your fitness – particularly if you haven’t exercised for a while or have struggled to make progress on your own.
With “at home fitness”, personal training at your home breaks the barriers for many who don’t enjoy the gym or need a convenient alternative.
But the question remains: is it ok to become reliant on a PT?
Pearl, At Home Fitness Gloucester
Ultimately, the goal is to get to a place where you’re exercising regularly, you’ve picked up positive nutritional habits, and have created a new healthy lifestyle that you love and can maintain.
That’s what At Home Fitness is all about: helping empower you to become a fitter, healthier and happier version of yourself by driving results and momentum through regular personal training sessions.
This week we got together with some of our expert home personal trainers to discuss the ins and outs of that question: ‘how long should I use a personal trainer for?’
Our expert PTs Neil Urmatam (who covers the Ilford area), Rumer Day (North London) and Pearl Donaldson (Gloucester) dived deep into this topic and answered a variety of other questions to help you make the right choices…and take the right step in the direction of your fitness goals.
It depends on what the client’s aim and goals are. Some people come into the At Home Fitness programme with a set goal of, ‘I need to be X by my wedding’, for instance. And then you’ve got others who are simply trying to get back into normal life after the pandemic, and are looking for someone to help fitness become part of their lifestyle. That becomes a long-term goal. It’s up to the client based on what their goals are.
Neil Urmatam, At Home Fitness Ilford
Neil, At Home Fitness Ilford
Rumer of At Home Fitness North London explains that it often makes sense to work with a personal trainer for longer if your goals are evolving.
You might start off with one goal to lose weight, but sometimes those goals change over time and you want to be more toned, or want to do a Tough Mudder at some point. The trainer has the expertise to tailor your training in line with the new goal.
Rumer Day, At Home Fitness North London
Every day, 52 weeks a year, with a special burpee workout on Christmas Day.
Just kidding…
In truth, it’s down to you, your fitness goals, and your budget.
It makes sense to have one-to-one sessions with a personal trainer between one and three times per week.
Consistency is obviously key. As is getting sufficient rest between your sessions. Whether you train with a PT once per week and do two sessions by yourself, or vice versa, we recommend having a day’s rest in between workouts. This allows your body to repair and recover properly.
Rumer, At Home Fitness North London
Our six-week personal training programme has helped countless clients see clear results in terms of their body shape, weight, fitness levels, and overall confidence.
This is the sweet spot for helping you experience physical results and creating fitness momentum needed to set you up for being fitter and healthier in the long term.
That said, it does depend on your goals – and a few other factors that our team of At Home Fitness trainers discussed.
Weight loss: a healthy approach
Weight loss is one of the main reasons most men and women hire personal trainers, so how much should you expect to lose?
PT Rumer Day said that shifting around 2kg-3kg in six weeks is realistic. This equates to around losing 1lb per week, although she added that more can be lost in some cases, especially if you have a significant amount of body fat to shed.
This approach is key for long term results!
You can lose weight faster – but with radical weight loss, you’ll also lose muscle, your metabolism will drop and you’re much more likely to bounce back because it just isn’t sustainable.
Neil, At Home Fitness Ilford
Quicker results take more than just exercise
Losing 1lb per week might not feel like enough if you’ve got a beach holiday in seven weeks. Same as if you’ve got a more audacious fitness goal like running a marathon.
We all agreed that quicker results are absolutely possible. But the only way to get there is to commit to changing more than just your exercise habits.
That means optimising your nutrition, swapping out the processed junk for whole foods and cooking from scratch. It means ditching the booze and drinking plenty of water.
Getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night is another biggie – and a commonly neglected lifestyle change that will help your body recover after your hard-earned fitness sessions. A good sleeping routine significantly improves your motivation to make healthy choices too. So it really is a win win.
Your mindset is key
We all know that the mind and body are connected; we tense up when we’re stressed, we feel it in our gut before an important meeting and we get butterflies before a romantic date.
What is less understood is how your mindset affects your results. This can ultimately hinder or accelerate your progress.
When you’ve got a more positive mindset and feel confident with yourself, you’re more inclined to notice whether your skirt feels a bit bigger than before, or that you've got more room in this top. Sometimes when you’re in a dark space, or are feeling down on yourself, you pick out all the stuff about yourself that you don’t like. You focus and zero in on that.
Pearl Donaldson, At Home Fitness Gloucester
Plus, there is increasing evidence that a positive mindset actually aids recovery, giving you more energy and helping you feel happier. The British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests an interesting slant on this with the role of ‘optimism’ in aiding recovery.
Rumer, At Home Fitness North London
The first six weeks is all about building solid fitness foundations and developing training and nutritional habits. These stack up to drive great results now and in future.
But there are some hidden benefits of continuing to work with a personal trainer for longer periods – and many of our clients carry on training for years.
As professionals in the fitness world, we often spot and track improvements that you might not otherwise notice. Neil explains:
It’s our responsibility as trainers to communicate the mini victories that you might not even notice. Sometimes a person may be trying to lose a stone and they lose sight of how far they’ve actually progressed. It’s about hammering away, ‘yeah you may not be exactly where you want to be – but look at what you’ve done.’
Neil Urmatam, At Home Fitness Ilford
Because we live in a digital world and instant gratification culture, we’ve become accustomed to quick delivery….whether it’s texts, Amazon parcels or Deliveroo dinners.
It can be really frustrating if you don’t achieve your fitness goals overnight.
But with your personal trainer analysing all aspects of your health and fitness – someone who knows you, and the progress you’re making physically and mentally – they can emphasise the numerous ways you’re winning. This will help you build on your strengths and stay motivated in the long-term.
Persevere through these moments when many might be tempted to quit, then you will achieve more than you thought was possible.
Pearl, At Home Fitness Gloucester
If you’re curious about how an At Home Fitness personal trainer can help you get fit, in shape, feel great and improve your health from home, get in touch to talk to one of our friendly team.
This first session will help you establish your goals, the starting point in your fitness journey, get insights into how to best approach training and nutrition, and fire up your motivation to take action and get started.
Train in-person (if there’s a trainer near you), or online (available anywhere), and you’ll get the perfect start to your fitness journey with an expert trainer helping set you up for long-term success.
Learn and apply the 5-step journey we use to help clients transform their health and firnes from home
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