Tuesday, June 11, 2002

Up Close and Personal
If you really want to get fit, you needs an expert to guide you through your workout. But make sure you find someone with the right credentials.
by Patricia Young

There is a universal force even more powerful than the wild optimism of a New Years resolution. It’s that sinking feeling this time of year as you place your hand on the spreading pudge around your mid-section. You realize that, once again, you not only tumbled off the fitness wagon, but this time, lack the energy to clamber back.

You can break this cycle. Say these words until you are comfortable with them: “My personal trainer”. Hiring a personal trainer is not the first step to Botox injections, liposuction, and Saran-Wrap-tight facelifts. You are simply hiring an expert.

You spend hundreds of dollars an hour on legal advice and someone else to do your taxes. So why balk at the idea of $65 an hour for a personal trainer? Take a look at your closet and add up how much you have spent in clothes. Suddenly having someone teach you how to train your body doesn’t see so extravagant.

Why do you need a personal trainer? It’s pretty simple. Look at elite athletes. To reach their goals, top jocks have a coach who sets up a program. Yes, you can do it on your own, but with the right trainer, you are less likely to give up.

Personal trainers provide the same accountability this is built into the coach/athlete relationship. If you know your trainer is waiting, especially at $60 per hour, you are less likely to roll over and go to sleep. Trainers motivate, correct technique – and the truly great ones inspire.
Embarking on a fitness program is like learning a new language. You can do it on your own, but how likely are you to reach any level of success if you don’t have someone to guide you?

Barbara Harris has been charting the fitness industry for the past 14 years as the editor-in-chief of Shape magazine. She says the biggest shift over the last two decades has been away from “go for the burn” aerobics to a convergence of mind, body and wellness.

The hottest growth areas are yoga and pilates, but her readers still clamour for more information on how to do strength and weight training exercises properly. Harris says this is where hiring a personal trainer can help.
A good one will build more than your strength, flexibility and balance. They will give you a program you can use for life.

“People are recognizing that active lifestyles is just not looking fit, but goes far beyond fitness,” Harris says.

But finding a good personal trainer will take research on you r part. Don’t trot down to the local gym and pick out the first hard body you see.

Harris believes proper form is so important that she insists that each of the models used in her magazine undergoes technique testing.

“All of the models who d any of the workouts in the magazine have to pass a fitness which is extremely rigorous,” says Harris.

Diane Stibbard is lean, trim and has a flotilla of loyal customers who come to her for fitness training. Last year she placed in the top ranks for her age group at the Duathlon (running, biking) World Championships.

“Education is the most important thing,” says Stibbard, who works at the Kings Mill Club in Toronto. “Your trainer should have at least a degree in phys-ed or kinesiology or a related field. And then they need certification [from a certifies body].

Personal trainers should be certified, at least, by the American Council of Exercise (ACE,) or the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Check out their credentials before you sign up for a training package. Depending where you live, expect to pay anywhere form $40 to $75 a session. If that’s too much, consider small group sessions.

Lou Schuler is the fitness director at Men’s Health magazine, a savvy, irreverent source for the newest trends in sport and fitness. His magazine won’t even look at fitness experts unless they can provide a raft of degrees and certifications.

“The biggest change is the establishment of standards that has translated across the platform,” Schuler says. “You want to be leery of a trainer who is trying to sell you something like supplements out of the back of his car. Avoid those one who talk more about themselves than about you. If a trainer won’t give you a written version of their program, don’t go to them.”
So now you know enough to demand papers as well as pecs form your trainer. The best trainers keep educating themselves. They will know whether you need pilates or ploymetrics.

Jason Gee, the director of Personal Fitness Consulting, a Toronto based in-home fitness-training group says that just because your trainer knows fitness, he should not step out of his area of expertise.

Gee warns that you should beware of personal trainers with a high turnover rate. “I still have my second client under my roster.”

Gee believes the most important thing a trainer can pass on to his client is that the correct technique for exercise or weights is paramount. And to ensure that the proper form is being done, a trainer has to keep watching.
“A lazy trainer is the most dangerous thing there is. If any of my mine are caught sitting down or leaning on equipment, they are in trouble.”

In Canada, a dismal 64 percent of people are not active enough to derive any benefit to their health. Walking from the car to the mall, or from the couch to bed does not constitute exercise. It barely qualifies as a survival option.

But if going to the gym seems too dull for you, why not try to recapture the fun you has as a kid? Go out and play. According to Harris, there is a ground swell of interest from Shape readers in outdoor group exercise.
“Group exercise strengthens the need we have to be with others, and offsets the unnatural solitary lives so many lead,” she says.

Jeff MacInnis and Yvonne Camus are elite adventure racers and the founders of TeamUp, which is on the cutting edge of this trend. TeamUp provides an alternative to one-on-one personal training. As pack animals, people respond better in groups. Instead of cut-throat rivalry, group training fosters….