Personal Trainer NYC | Free Fitness Blogs

Deciding to get fit is easy - doing it can be tougher! Making the decision to start a fitness program can make perfect sense - we plan a schedule, book time at the gym and make a start. But, then lose the motivation to carry it through and end up firmly back at step one.

Then to make things worse, we feel demoralized because we failed. But, believe it or not, you CAN start and CONTINUE an effective fitness program. All you have to do is to follow our 10 step plan:

Step 1 - Use A Personal Trainer

Keeping up a fitness program on your own can be hard - how do you motivate yourself? This needn’t be a problem if you work with a personal trainer as it’s their job to keep you motivated!

Step 2 - Use Your Friends

Make sure that you enlist both friends and family to support your efforts in your fitness program. It’s a lot harder to give up if you are getting encouragement at home (and the embarrassment if you do give up is enough to motivate most people!)

Step 3 - Know Your Limits

One of the main reasons that people give up on fitness programs is that they try to do too much too soon. It’s much easier to keep going if you start off slow and build up as you go along.

Step 4 - Keep Changing

In the gym boredom is your ENEMY. If you get bored with a routine then you’ll lose motivation and you’ll stop seeing such good results. So, change routines regularly and keep yourself challenged!

Step 5 - Set A Target

Decide why you want to get fitter, write the reason down on a piece of paper and stick it on the refrigerator. This way you won’t open the door for unnecessary snacks and you’ll have a constant reminder of what you’re aiming for.

Step 6 - Break Your Goal Down

Achieving a big fitness goal can be hard as some days it’ll just look like all work and no results. Breaking your goal down into smaller targets will make you feel better and you’ll be more motivated. So, if you’re aiming to lose 10 lb then set smaller goals along the way.

Step 7 - Treat Yourself

When you reach a target or feel a bit demoralized than give yourself a ‘fitness treat’ to make you feel better. Have a manicure or pedicure, invite the girls round for a DVD treat or take yourself off for the weekend.

Step 8 - Work on Your Whole Life

An effective fitness program isn’t just about getting to the gym - it’s about what you drink and eat. So, make sure that your diet is healthy. This will increase the results you see from the gym and it will make you feel better about your life as a whole which will make you feel better about continuing with your fitness program..

Step 9 - Get Fit Out Of The Gym

Taking regular exercise makes you feel better so don’t just use the gym as part of your fitness program. You can work exercise into any part of your day. Walk round the office to give a colleague a message rather than emailing. Take the stairs at the mall rather than the elevator. Go for a long walk at the weekend. It’ll all make a difference.

Step 10 - Scare Yourself

Being unfit and/or overweight can seriously harm your health - it can even shorten your life expectancy. Take a look at any online medical service and you’ll soon see the damage you could be doing. That should be enough to scare you straight into the gym!

Working out is – without doubt – one of the best things you can do to keep both physically and mentally on top of your game. If you exercise you’ll lower your body weight, minimize the risk of illness and disease as well as look and feel better than if you live the life of a couch potato! Regular exercise can help you get a better quality of sleep, improve depression by increasing your self-esteem and you’ll simply have more get up and go. Let’s take a look at some physical and mental advantages.

Physical Advantages

- Regular exercise such as strength training improves metabolism by stimulating muscle growth. Meaning, your muscle becomes more active, and burns more fat, more effectively. You’ll simply burn more calories off – even when you’re not exercising.

- As we get older our metabolism slows down naturally, and we gradually lose muscle mass. So, even if we eat and exercise the same amount, we can see body fat increase because our metabolism isn’t working the way it used to. Keeping your fitness plan fresh by challenging the amount of weight you’re used to will always compensate for this.

- Just 30 minutes of exercise a few times a week can help you lose 2lbs a week if you eat a healthy low fat diet as well.

- Strength training is a proven way of protecting your bones as you get older. Weight training and weight bearing exercise, for example, increases spinal bone mineral density which can help prevent osteoporosis.

- Regular exercise helps you get better quality sleep and, if you sleep well, then you feel well! Exercise is a common addition to prescribed treatment for those diagnosed with depression.

- Exercise increases your stamina in all kinds of ways as it pushes up your anaerobic threshold. So you can do more activities, for longer periods of time.

- Regular exercise reduces menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes, bad temper and insomnia.

- Regular exercise reduces the chances that you’ll suffer from cardiovascular diseases.

- You can change your cholesterol levels from bad to good with a regular fitness plan.

- You’ll reduce your risk of injury, and not just form exercise! You’ll be physically more adept and coordinated!

Mental Advantages

- Regular exercise can help you keep mentally sharp.

- Because exercise promotes restful sleep, you’ll perform better mentally as well as physically.

- If you are prone to depression then taking regular exercise can help by simply making you feel better about yourself.

- Getting into exercise may not be easy at first but it will make you feel better about yourself and give you a sense of achievement.

- Feeking stronger, lowering your resting heart rate and having a leaner total body mass will reduce internal and external stress, help you handle other challenges much easier, which will improve quality of your life…meaning you’ll relate to yourself and others…better.

We all want to be fit and healthy – and a lot of us try to get there! With all the online personal training available, is there a need to meet with an ‘in-person’ trainer? For most of us, it isn’t always easy to get fit and to stay fit. It doesn’t matter whether you go it alone in the gym or whether you join a workout class – getting fit is all up to you at the end of the day… and it can be hard to stay motivated.

It doesn’t matter if you simply want to become more fit as a lifestyle choice or whether you have to for medical reasons – getting really fit could be one of the hardest things you’ll probably ever do. For most of us this results in a couple of well-intentioned but half-hearted visits to the gym before we simply stop going.

But, if you can achieve your aims here then there’s no better feeling in the world. You’ll start to enjoy the fitness work you do, you’ll improve your health and you could even increase your lifespan. And you’ll feel and look healthy and fresh and you’ll feel far more mentally sharp.

The easiest way to get from aiming to get fit to getting fit is to let a professional help. Getting fit and healthy doesn’t come naturally to most of us. No matter how good our intentions are we’d far rather reach for a bag of chips, eat a chocolate bar and relax in front of the TV than hit the gym! And, there are so many options to choose from if we do get there! Do we swim, do an aerobic workout, take on weight training, do pilates or get cardiovascular? Even the equipment in the average gym is scary! And, let’s not even think about the athletic, super-fit people we’ll see when we get there!

But, before you give up and hit the candy store instead of the gym you should think about the advantages of getting this kind of professional help. It is far easier to get started, take the right kinds of exercise AND stay motivated if you work out with a certified personal trainer. This is a qualified and experienced fitness professional that works with clients on a one-to-one basis to help them meet their fitness and health goals.

If you’re a gym-newbie then having someone help YOU can be a great solution. Your trainer can make sure that you use gym machines correctly. They can teach the correct fitness techniques. You can exercise all you like on your own but, if you don’t do it right, then you’ll waste effort and see no real fitness benefits. To be honest, with an experienced personal trainer you’ll be taught to work out ‘smart’ which will take less effort, yield greater rewards and avoid possible work out injuries.

The biggest advantage meeting in-person with a personal trainer is that they are totally focused on you. So, a good trainer will get to know you and will find out what you want from the gym – they can then put together an individual training plan and help you work through it. You’ll have their undivided attention and full support whenever you have a gym session and there’s no better motivation for actually getting to the gym in the first place than having to meet your trainer there!

Having a professional fitness expert help you set up an achievable fitness plan to suit your body and your fitness goals is the perfect way to get fit the right way. This way you don’t ever do too much… and they won’t let you get away with doing too little! As time passes and you become more fit, they will then adapt your plan to make sure that you continue the good work – and once you start to see the benefits you’ll be addicted! A good trainer will also be able to give you dietary advice as well so you can work on your whole body at once.

When it comes to choosing a good personal trainer you should be looking for someone with broad experience across various fitness fields. The advantage here is that you’ll be able to use different techniques during your fitness program which will help you achieve overall aims and keep things fresh for you. It’s also real important to find someone you like – they may bark at you like a Marine to keep you motivated sometimes but they do have your best interests at heart!

And, hiring an professional fitness trainer can bring a whole range of other benefits as well. It can be hard to organize getting to the gym if you have a busy working life - so many trainers offer a range of additional services that could help. Some trainers, for example, offer telephone and email support which can be great if you are away from home but still want some advice. And, you can also work with trainers who offer gym-care facilities – here, you leave your training kit with them after your first session and they’ll then launder it and bring it along for you to every session. (Just like TWTNYC!) Some trainers will also provide towels and shower stuff for you as well – so the only thing you need to think about getting to the gym is yourself!

Tomorrow you are going to start working out. Yet, tomorrow is now today, and then poof: has come and gone, and you still haven’t started exercising. So, what’s holding you back? Why the excuses one after another after another?

It’s time to face your excuses for not getting in shape so that you can live a healthier lifestyle. Here are some of the most common excuses for not working out and skipping the exercise… along with ways to get a hold of them.

I Don’t Have Enough Time: The most common excuse EVER. But, it still doesn’t hold water. People that use this excuse are actually saying that staying healthy is not a priority! If this is you, then it’s time to take a look at your priorities. Exercise is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your family to ensure that you live a long, full, disease-free life.

Exercise Doesn’t Work For Me: It can be difficult to do something after you’ve failed before. Did you do too much, too fast? It’s very common for fitness newbies to be overzealous when starting a fitness program and end up either burning out or getting injured. Did you set unrealistic goals? Stick with goals that are truly achievable. For example, that you will workout three times per week for the next week. Take it one week at a time.

I Don’t Have Any Fitness Equipment: It doesn’t require specialized equipment to get your body moving and get your heart rate up. If you have a flight of stairs in your house then you’ve got an awesome way to get your heart rate up - Try walking or running the stairs. Doing push-ups and dips and will make you realize how hard your body has to work when just using it’s own weight.

I Don’t Know How To Put A Plan Together: There are literally dozens of ways to learn what exercises will help you. A great way to ensure your workouts are most effective is to hire a personal trainer or an online personal trainer, a professional can guide you every step of the way. You can even try ExerciseRadio Online Fitness Training which has an automatic workout generator, and it’s only $20 per MONTH, and has video demonstrations and all kinds of resources for you to learn how to put a program together for yourself.

I Can’t Get Motivated: This one makes me crazy. No one can motivate you BUT YOU. If you’re not motivated to take care of YOURSELF, what makes you think you can find motivation elsewhere? You have to WANT to be healthy, and you have to care enough about yourself to do it anyway. Even if it sucks. Remarkably, most people enjoy something more as they get better at it, so before you sentence yourself to a life-time of hating exercise just remember that anything worth having, is worth learning and practicing.

I’m Too Tired: The first thing to do here is look at your diet. A diet high in processed sugars can slow you down and make you feel sluggish. Remove all packaged and processed foods from your diet, and replace them with fresh vegetables and fruit and see if that doesn’t help your energy level. The more tired you are then the less appealing exercise sounds. Exercise can actually make you feel more energetic, but you do have to eat the right fuel for the engine to run correctly. Getting enough rest is obvious, but at least 6-8 hours a night can be a luxury for some. Did you know that sleep deprivation can cause you to conserve bodyfat? It’s true. Make sure you get enough rest.

Reminding yourself of all the many benefits of working out: increased energy and vitality, lower body fat, decreased risk of disease, reduced instances of depression, improved bone density, reduced risk of injuries and many more will make the time period between ‘excuses’ and ‘in-shape’ easier to navigate. Sore is always better than EXCUSES, so stop making them and get on with it!