Seven Things I Learned as a Personal Trainer

Having trained over 1000 people as a personal trainer, I have learned a lot when it comes to the fitness industry.

The fitness industry is a place of mass confusion, but in actuality, health and fitness are really a lot more simple then the confusion makes it out to be.

Yes, many myths exist and of course many dogmas.

For this reason, in this article, I am going to go over 7 things I learned as a personal trainer so you don’t have to be confused by all the mess around the fitness industry.

This is all from what I learned in school, from experts in the field, studies, observing people and experience.

I hope this helps you.

Scroll below to read what I learned as a personal trainer.

Form Matters

Doing the exercise correctly is probably the most important thing you can do when it comes to weight training.

I have seen many people, trainers as well, who get lazy when it comes to the crucial details of the movement.

If you progress the client too fast in terms of weight, eventually at some point that will get exposed.

How so?

Because if you are not doing the exercise with the proper form, it will eventually lead to injuries, extreme tightness, and general pain.

This is why it is vitally important to master the movement, feel extremely comfortable doing it and then you can start going up in weight.

There is no need to rush and try to lift the most amount of weight you possibly can because that is not going to do anything for you.

Therefore, focus on movement and by doing that, the weight will start to move due to you using all of your joints and muscles properly.

The exercise will be done efficiently and effectively and the weight will move without any hindrances.

Eat In a Balanced Manner

There is so much confusion around diets. More then one can imagine.

Therefore, I want to simplify this for you so that the confusion gets killed.

All diets work. Yes, all of them work, but not all are sustainable or healthy.

75 percent of people who lose weight will gain it all back in one year. By the third year, 95 percent of people who lose weight will have gained it all back.

This phenomenon (if we can even call it that) has been going on for years. The diet industry has made millions, if not billions of people trying to lose weight.

However, no one can seem to keep the damn weight off.

Why is this?

It’s because most diets are not sustainable in the long run.

This is why when you start a diet, always ask yourself ‘can I eat like this for the rest of my life?’

If the answer is no, then look for a diet that is balanced.

Most diets create a guilt factor in that you cannot eat certain foods. If you do eat certain ‘junk’ foods you’re “cheating,” or your eating bad food that’s going to make you fat.

But, is eating two cookies really going to make you fat?

No chance. What you do the majority of the time is what really matters. This is why it is vital to eat in a calorie deficit and follow the 80/20 rule.

80 percent of the time eat whole foods that are nutrient-rich and 20 percent of the time save room for fun foods!

By doing this, you will find it sustainable and you won’t feel that losing weight is a burden.

Life should not be separated from working out. Instead, it should be apart of your lifestyle.

Remember, most diets work if you eat in a calorie deficit, but most diets are not balanced, they are always suppressing.

For this reason, eat in a balanced manner when you’re looking to lose weight and keep it off.

And lastly, just make sure you are in a calorie deficit.

I learned as a personal trainer that a balanced diet is important

Weights with a Mix of Cardio

Nothing will have you looking the way you want to look like weight training will.

It simply tightens your body like no other form of exercise and you get that nice lean look.

This is something cardio cannot do, however, cardio can be a great assistant to weight training.

Doing too much steady-state cardio without weight training can give you that loose skin look, which I am sure you do not want.

Whereas weight training can tighten you up.

But this is not to say there is no place for cardio because there is. Cardio should be treated as the cherry on top of everything and not the main driver.

If you weight train 2-4 times a week, then doing cardio 1-2 times a week is more then enough.

Doing them together will create a greater calorie deficit and you won’t lose lean muscle.

Also, I wrote about what is the best cardio for weight loss that you can check out to get more details on the whole cardio topic.

But based on scientific evidence and my own experience, performing weight training 2-4 times a week and cardio 1-2 times a week will have you achieving your goals in no time!

Being Present Matters

Some people when they walk in with a lot on their minds, tend to suffer in their workouts.

Firstly, because the stress has made their muscles tight and that hinders their ability to move correctly.

Secondly, they just are not all there.

When you are not fully present with what you are doing, you are pretty much saying that the life situation in your head is more important than life and the present moment itself.

Life is always NOW and when we go against life, we suffer.

Suffering takes many forms and your body will tell you by creating tightness in your muscles and different parts of your body.

Therefore, what I learned is that it’s ultra-important to just relax and live in the moment.

Most problems don’t exist in the now, they exist in your mind. Get out of your head and into the NOW and watch your life change. By doing this you will get more out of life and the most out of your workouts!

Supplements Are Not Necessary

No one has benefited more from all the confusion in the fitness industry then the supplement companies.

One of the things I learned as a personal trainer is that many products have been created that supposedly will help you achieve your goals faster.

Let me tell you this, most supplements (besides protein powder,) are useless.

Fat burners? Eat-in a calorie deficit and you’ll lose weight.

Pre-workout? Stick to coffee or tea

BCAA’s? you can get most of your essential amino acids from a proper high protein diet.

With confusion comes great opportunity and that is what most companies have lived off.

Save your money and just eat in a balanced manner and train hard.

That will get you to your goals, not some special supplement.

I learned as a personal trainer that supplements are not necessary

People Are Not Transactions

What tends to happen when people open up a business, they start seeing the client as a transaction.

This could not be further than the truth.

Each person you see is unique and from my experience treating them as such is the best thing you can do.

Anytime you go to a gym and people see you as simply as a number, it’s a good sign for you to look elsewhere.

In my experience letting people be fully themselves is the most powerful thing you can do.

When you do that, a relationship and a bond build that’s powerful and you become a great team chasing after the same goal.

At the end of the day, you matter and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Look Beyond The Scale

The scale is a great tool don’t get me wrong.

However, using it as the only tool for measuring your progress would not only be doing a great a disservice to yourself but your results as well.

There is a lot that the scale cannot tell you. It cannot tell you muscle to fat ratio, how many inches you have lost, how your clothes fit, how different you look in pictures and how great you feel.

The number on the scale (as you can see,) cannot tell you a lot.

This is why it is important to use all the tools when it comes to measuring your progress.

Take before and after pictures.

Do Measurements every 4 weeks.

And take note of how your clothes fit and how your energy levels are!

By doing all these, you will get a much more accurate picture of how you are progressing towards your fitness goals.