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How’s your exercise routine these days? Are things getting a little mundane? Have you been doing the same program for months and months? This is incredibly common. We are creatures of habit. Once you get used to something, you get in a groove and go with it. I have talked to many people who have done the same workout three times a week for ten years straight. The problem with this is that your body is not being challenged adequately. After a few months with a certain program, your body adapts, and the workouts are no longer enough of a stimulus to encourage it to improve upon itself. A great way to get past this hurdle is to work with a personal trainer for a few sessions to learn some new moves. But you don’t want just any trainer. Many states still allow anyone to personal train without so much as a certification. Here are some things you should ask before deciding on the right trainer for you: Do you have a degree? Look for someone who went to college to study the human body and learn about exercise. Common degrees in the field are Kinesiology, Exercise Science, Fitness Management, Community Health, and Human Movement. Trainers with these types of degrees will have studied muscles and physiology in depth, which usually results in a better understanding of how to design an exercise program. Do you have a certification? There are actually hundreds of certifications out there, but only a few you should trust. They are the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), and the American Council on Exercise (ACE). Getting a trainer with one of these certifications ensures that you aren’t working with someone who paid $99 to get a piece of paper with their name on it after a four-hour class on a Saturday morning.Do you have experience? Ask how long they have been working as a trainer. Also ask if they have worked with seniors before. Training someone over sixty is a lot different than training the typical client. How long will our sessions be? Personal training is usually an hour, but that may be more than you can handle. Ask if they can break up hour-long sessions into two half-hour sessions on different days. This will also reduce your weekly expense. What kinds of exercises will we be doing? Your goals will probably be different than your trainer’s usual clients’, so your workouts should be different, too. A good senior exercise program should focus more on exercises for leg and core strength, flexibility work for good posture, drills for coordination and agility, and balance exercises. Of course, cardiovascular exercise is very important as well, but you will most likely do this on your own without your trainer.Working with the right
personal trainer can do wonders for your workout. You might only want
to do a few sessions to learn some new exercises. Or you might want to
see your trainer a couple times per week for the next several months.
Either way, you will probably find exercising a lot less boring, and
you may be surprised by the improvement in your fitness level.
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