Top 3 Reasons to Hire A Personal Trainer or coach!
- Jamey Merkel
- Apr 2
- 4 min read
Updated: Oct 7
Hi there, my name is Jamey and I am the head coach here at JM Performance. To kick off this blog, I wanted to share with you what I believe are the top 3 reasons you should hire a professional coach to guide you on your fitness and performace journey. But first let me share how I became a personal trainer and why.
When I started my fitness journey, I was confused. I joined a gym like everyone else and went to workout. Dredging up memories from my high school athletics, I started pushing around some weights but I quickly realized I had no idea what to do. This wasnt high school and my body was 42 years old not 17. I was lost. Then I started searching on the internet to find my perfect program. As you may have experienced, there is a bewildering array of information, programs, exercises and advice. None of this was helping me achieve my goals.
Determined to succeed, I decided to hire a personal trainer. He took me through an onboarding process and helped me decide what my goals, abilities and timeframe were. He showed me correct technique and built a program that was aligned to my goals and abilities. He helped me with my diet. For the first time, I began to see results. I mean real results. Needless to say I stuck with him for 6 months, was inspired to get my first certification, and well, the rest is history.
Now that you hopefully understand where I am coming from, let’s get to that list shall we?
Save Time
First up is time. Let’s face it we are all time poor. We have jobs, hobbies, maybe a family, a social life, work travel, vacations and many other demands on our time. So where does that leave our fitness goals? Lost somewhere in the crunch, that’s where. We often have good intentions, but lack the time resources to get it done. Having a personal trainer helps. When you have a definite path laid out, with goals, metrics, timelines and scheduled gym time it makes it easier to stick to the program. As trainers, we know how long this is going to take and what it takes to get there. We actually save you time. A good workout program can be done in as little as 3 hours per week. Now if you like math, you will realise that that is actually less than 5% of your time. Not a bad investment.
Get Results
Secondly, after investing our time, we want results! Now like in my story, you search and search for the perfect program, you quickly realize you have no idea what you're doing, what you should be doing or what you could be doing. Nothing is more de-motivating than not having a plan. Wandering aimlessly around a gym is not going to get you anywhere. Our job as trainers is to set you on a path, coach you, and push you to do better. Do you understand the principles of progressive overload? Do you know how intensity, volume and frequency affect your results? Do you know that recovery is just as important as exercise? Can you structure a decent meal plan that moves you towards your goals? As a certified personal trainer, strength and conditioning coach and nutrition coach (among many others), I know what to do. I will give you a path.
Personalisation
Third, there is no one size fits all when it comes to fitness. My biggest gripe with the fitness industry is this trend that if we get together in a big group and do the same workout, we can all get great results. Ahem. I’m not so sure. We are all different as human beings. We have different medical and injury history, mobility issues, strength imbalances, exercise history, metabolisms, cardio vascular health and so on. So how can a one-size-fits-all prescription be the best for you? With a personal trainer, all these issues get taken into account when your exercise program is developed. You get the perfect workout for you, right now, given your limitations and goals.
Bonus reason: Safety
As an experienced exerciser and trainer, I have been to many types of classes and trainings. I always cringe when I see someone executing a movement with bad form. It is an injury waiting to happen. If you cannot do an exercise properly, then you should move onto a different one that is safer. Nothing stops your progress at the gym faster than an injury. I often tell my clients that my job is to save them from themselves. When you are motivated it is often tempting to try and complete a set or movement even though you risk injury. My responsibility is to stop that from happening.
SO Get a personal trainer!
So there you go. My top 3 reasons for having a personal trainer. If you have anything to add just shout it out in the comments. If you want to book a call and try me out for yourself, get in touch with me. Until next time.
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