The 7 proven tools for long-term health and fitness results! A successful Personal Trainers’ perspective.
Here are what you will require to get the long-term results of a successful health and fitness journey no matter what your exact individual goals are:
1) OMRON body composition monitor including scales (accountability, education and behaviour change)
2) 12 month calendar (accountability logbook, education and behaviour change)
3) Nutritional Management diary (accountability for 4-8 weeks+ and education)
4) Heart Rate monitor (accountability and education)
5) Personal Trainer with Tertiary/University degree, experience and passion (VITAL for accountability, education and behaviour change)
6) Program card and design (accountability and education)
7) YOU!!! (must have a willingness to listen, learn and be open to want change and results)
Having spent the past 20-odd years Personal Training in a full-time capacity, I have managed and employed over 200 staff and I am now the very proud manager of my own Personal Training company – Just In Time Personal Training. I feel very well experienced to provide for you the almost 100% proven successful tools that I and we employ that will evoke the best physical and mental shape you can and will be in to this point in your life.
In essence, below I will share with you an expansion on the 7 proven tools and how they can and will get you to where you want to be and for the long-term and not just for a 6, 10 or 12 week transformation.
1) OMRON body composition monitor including scales (accountability, education and behaviour change)
This device as pictured above is a key driver in helping understand that muscle and fat are 2 very different tissues and that your actual weight is not and should not be the key driver in the goal setting process and as a measurement of the success of your exercise and fitness regime. The device itself using bio-impedance gives you an insight, awareness and education into continued feedback weekly/fortnightly of what your weight is (kg’s) BUT and more importantly your % body fat, % muscle and a reading of your visceral fat.
Knowing these figures and taught to understand what they mean, how they change (over time – behaviour change) and are then taken weekly/fortnightly will help anyone that is looking to change their weight, size, fitness level, eating habits, muscular and physical appearance, reduce stress, increase sleep, etc. It offers feedback based on all that you have done over the course of the week/fortnight and can give you almost instant feedback so that you adjust your behaviours/routines/habits over the next week/fortnight.
This is already a better method than measurements not taken at all or given every 3 months as is often the case from many gyms or personal trainers.
Attached here is one recent real-life example of one of our perfect examples of a client whom has followed all 7 steps as devised, educated and monitored by myself and he (for the purpose of privacy we will refer to him as “Updated 2015 OMRON Adam Willis” has only needed 1 Personal Training session per week to achieve this so far and the rest he has done on his own in between sessions and really applied himself to our process.
In this process “Adam” has as you will observe lost 5.6kgs in 12 weeks (which included 3 weeks holiday overseas), lost 3.9% body fat and increased his skeletal muscle by 2.3%. Most importantly this happened as a result of following all that we have outlined within this article/blog.
2) 12 month calendar (accountability logbook, education and behaviour change)
This self-produced calendar (given free to all of our Personal Training clients) is an integral tool of the entire process and used as a logbook to ensure accountability, education and long-term behaviour change. I am unaware of any other Personal Trainer in Melbourne that does to this extent produce this level of intricate service and detail but we are all about ensuring premium service and achieving results which in essence this article is about doing.
Rather than expand on this here and now, please refer to my monthly feature article in the Southbank Local News or for the expanded version read further here.
3) Nutritional Management diary (accountability for 4-8 weeks+ and education)
Most people have a general “idea” and “concept” of what to eat but little direction, knowledge or understanding of what macro-nutrients (carbohydrates, fat, protein), how much they should be consuming, when and in what quantities. They often listen to “diet” trends and fads and then chop and change regularly and ultimately never get anywhere. By simply filling in a 7 day nutritional management diary and over a period of 4 weeks or (preferably) more, we help guide them to more sensible food and meal choices and do is in a manner that allows gradual, manageable and sustainable behaviour change.
This is vital in attaining optimal nutrition, health, wellbeing, body fat%, body % musculature and happiness with how one looks and feels. This ties in very much with the OMRON testing, the calendar/logbook, the Personal Trainer and/or dietitian’s role in helping you achieve your success.
4) Heart Rate monitor (accountability and education)
Many people are aware of a general guide to work out their maximum heart rate equation (220-age) and working out at a certain percentage of that maximum (e.g. 60-80%) but to my amazement many Personal Trainers do not at a minimum provide a heart rate monitor for their client to know in real-time where they sit as they train? This intrigues me as it provides a deeper level of insight into many things. It gives instant feedback on your working heart rate and the Polar monitor we use also provides an average working heart rate for the session, a maximum heart rate, total time trained and we use it to test a 60 second recovery rate at the end of any cardio session and record all of this (on the program card) to display and educate on improvements in all areas over time.
We combine with this an RPE (otherwise known as one’s perceived exertion). This allows for a client to know what sort of intensity we would like them to work out at when away from us to help them achieve the results they are looking for.
5) Personal Trainer with Tertiary/University degree, experience and passion (VITAL for accountability, education and behaviour change)
There is such an oversaturation of Personal Trainers in the marketplace. Whilst this is great for us at Just In Time Personal Training, as it allows anyone that experiences the way we approach Personal Training with a 100% personal approach to a client and their needs and matched with a higher level of education, passion and apply these 7 key principles not to mention the rest that goes with it as well as the experience that is integral to ensuring the best possible pathway to success in comparison to our competitors.
The sad reality is that the minimum standard of being classed as a Personal Trainer is what is termed a certificate level 3 and 4. Now don’t get me wrong as some Personal Trainers with a certificate 3 or 4 in PT are fantastic! Often though, they too have the experience to match and have been doing so for 5-10 years plus. However possibly close to 80% of registered Personal Trainers (just an observation of mine – not a fact) have been in the industry for less than 1-2 years and it is almost a rarity for many (possibly as high as 70-80%) to be in the industry for greater than 12 months!
That is a sad reflection of where many of these certificate 3 and 4 course providers (Sage Institute “no excuses!”, AIPT, VFA, etc) promise the world with an abundance of career opportunity and after delivering a course that simply cannot compete with a 3-4 year University/Tertiary degree churns out “want-to-be” and aspiring PT’s that ultimately fall short and find it way too hard to attract clients, run their own business and essentially they are gone before you have even gotten to know their last name!
So the battle is finding a Personal Trainer that has the necessary scientific education, passion, experience and is equipped to take you through these listed proven tools and get you the results you are after. Remember that you need as little as only one Personal Training session a week (preferably) if the PT has the necessary skills to get you the results you are looking for. Yes it may be a little more work finding the right one for you and they may be a little more expensive than the entry level cost of $50 a session with a <1-2 year experienced “dime-a-dozen” certificate 3 or 4 PT but I can tell you that based on my 20 years of experience that 1 session a week (for example) at $100 is worth more in terms of value and results and is much better spent than 2 sessions at $50 each and you not get anything other than an intense workout. Simply a chalk and cheese experience.
Click here for your 12 point “How to choose a Personal Trainer” checklist and here to see our some our clients verbalise what it should feel like from your PT experience.
6) Program card and design (accountability and education)
A program card is simply a must for any Personal Trainer to record your relevant information from session to session to allow for educating you weekly of your improvements, tracking past achievements and allowing for long-term reflection. It helps serve as an accountability and educational tool when explained and shared with you as the client. A Personal Trainer should also be regularly updating and providing new home/gym/weights/fitness program cards as you develop new skills, your ability to increase your competence and need to move towards the new and improved you!
A generic program is not the answer and if any PT brings out a whiteboard or delivers you with a “WOD” (workout of the day) – STAY CLEAR! They are not going to get the best out of you and are more suited to being a group fitness trainer. The focus of your training must be geared towards quality and not quantity and be centred around your ability and with honesty – read here for more info.
7) YOU!!! (must have a willingness to listen, learn and be open to want change and results)
Here is the last and most vital “tool” that we as Personal Trainers need to work with. If you are not prepared to devote the time, effort, hard work and dedication to invest in yourself for a period of 6 months + (the time that it generally takes to achieve long-term behaviour change – as per Prochaska’s behaviour change model – click here for a great overview), then all likelihood is that you will revert to previous behaviours and your battle to get to where you want to be will continue in fits and spurts.
So the question gets back to you as to just how much you really do want to succeed and are you prepared to put in the required effort and commitment. Here is a great article also on taking that first step.
So, I hope this has been helpful! I know it is a lengthy read and ultimately if you have read up until this point, you are interested in taking that next or different step and I urge you to do me a favour – either find the right Personal Trainer for your exact needs and budget (because we all have one and need to be very mindful of that), work out the cost vs the value of your health and how much you are willing to invest in yourself and then make it happen and get started. Or at the very least, if your current trainer is not employing these sorts of systems and accountabilities, then challenge them to lift their game or shop around elsewhere and find what will work for you because remember that this is about YOU and not your Personal Trainer – they like us are just one of the essential tools! Keep this statistic in mind –
“Only 25% of people who work out achieve their desired results and 9 out of 10 people in that 25% success group have their own Personal Trainer”.
Kind regards and best wishes,
Justin Moran 0411 798 934
