CONSULTING Consulting is essentially personal training without instruction and feedback during your exercise sessions. Consulting is just as individualized as personal training and still examines your health and exercise history, goals, lifestyle, etc. to create your ideal health and fitness program. One of the best features of consulting is that it can take place in person, over the phone, or even through e-mail, so anyone can take advantage of this service.
Consulting is a great option for people who are comfortable with exercising and currently following a health and fitness program, but not experiencing the results they want. In these situations, I will analyze your current exercise, nutrition, lifestyle, etc. and see how well your program matches your goals. Then I will either make changes to your current program or create an entire new program depending on what will work best for you.
Consulting services are also extremely beneficial for anyone starting a new health and fitness program. A primary benefit is that you will have a program designed with your specific needs in mind and you will avoid mistakes that hold people back from reaching their goals (see below for some common mistakes). Having a program designed specifically for you also ensures you will get the best results for the amount of effort that you put in to your program. Of course if you do not put much effort into your program or are not consistent, you should not expect your results to be very good. COMMON EXERCISE AND NUTRITION MISTAKES | | A common exercise mistake is thinking that more is always better. This philosophy usually results in overtraining, where the body is pushed too hard over an extended period of time and high amounts of effort result in increased fatigue, muscle weakness, sore joints, etc. As for nutrition, probably one of the biggest mistakes and misconceptions is thinking that eating as little as possible will result in faster weight loss. This is wrong for many reasons and eating too little will actually result in a slower metabolism, decreased fat loss, and increased muscle and water loss (among other things). Some people may end up losing weight, but it is not the type of weight they want to lose and once they start eating more they gain it back and probably will have more fat than before. Decreasing caloric intake by smaller amounts and increasing caloric expenditure through exercise is always better than trying to starve yourself. |
There is another important benefit to consulting that should not be overlooked: Health and fitness education. In general, the more knowledgeable people are about health and fitness, the more likely they are to have success (especially long-term). There are many reasons for this, but I will focus on a couple of the most important ones:
1. A personal trainer or consultant will not always be there to give advice or tell you what to do, so what happens when you have to make decisions for yourself? Chances are you will revert to your old habits or follow your most recent or favorite program until it no longer produces positive results. As you hopefully know by now, a good health and fitness program is frequently evolving and adapting to your current goals, ability level, lifestyle, etc. A better understanding of health and fitness will help you make smarter decisions when you need to change your program.
2. Understanding the rationale behind your program (why each component is important and how it is beneficial) will make you follow your program with greater consistency and maintain a higher level of motivation. Typically if someone perceives parts of their program (specific exercises, nutrient intake, etc.) as being unimportant, they will put less effort into those things. Every part of a well designed program has a purpose, putting effort towards only certain things results in less overall benefit. If you do not receive the benefits you are expecting, your motivation will decrease, frequently resulting in decreased overall effort and an increased chance of failure. Having a good understanding of your program means you will know exactly what is required to receive the benefits you want. Additionally, you will also be aware of the negative effects of not following the program correctly. This should certainly increase your motivation, helping you to stick to your program and reach your goals.
If you are interested in Percision Health & Fitness consulting services or have any questions, please fill out the form below. Thanks, Ross | INFORMATIONAL SIDEBAR: Effects of Following a Randomly Chosen Diet or Exercise Program | It is common for people to try to improve their health and fitness by starting a new diet or exercise program. Unfortunately, many people blindly follow a diet or exercise program that was seen on TV, recommended by a friend, etc. Unless the individual has specific goals and the program has been analyzed to make sure it fits with those goals (plus lifestyle and other issues), the individual is essentially choosing a random diet or exercise program to follow. The programs can have incredible or horrible results, but usually end up somewhere in between. To simplify things I will break programs into 3 groups, good matches, partial matches, and bad matches. 1. Good Matches: Sometimes people get lucky and choose a program that matches their needs very well. While this is least likely to happen, it usually has the best results. Of course, even if the program is a great choice, as the body adapts, the program must also adapt or results will diminish or it will take longer for the goals to be achieved. This is commonly what happens when people see great initial results and then the results followed by a plateau. If the program is continued without changes, the initial results are kept, but additional results are much harder get. This often leads to frustration and sometimes the individual will give up and stop following the program altogether. 2. Partial Matches: This is the most common situation, where a diet/exercise program will address some needs well, but not others. An example is someone who wants to lose weight, improve cardiovascular health, and prevent osteoporosis who starts an aerobic exercise program. To greatly simplify things, I will ignore nutrition/lifestyle and just look at the general exercise issues. The aerobic exercise should be beneficial for losing weight and improving cardiovascular health (with appropriate intensity, duration, etc.), but it will not be an ideal choice for preventing osteoporosis. Resistance training is better for improving bone density and preventing osteoporosis than aerobic training, so not having this component would be an obvious mistake. Deciding if a program is a good match is rarely this simple, but it shows how some goals can be met while other are not. 3. Bad Matches: I will not spend much time on these except to say they work against what you are trying to accomplish. Some examples would be someone who has not exercised in years trying to follow the same routine as a friend who is in great shape or an athlete wanting to improve power and quickness by following a bodybuilding training program. If you have specific goals and know what a given program is designed to accomplish, these situations should be easy to avoid. Wrap-Up: Following the wrong nutritional or exercise program can sabotage your efforts, but perhaps the biggest problem is the negative psychological effect. Failing decreases motivation and people who fail to reach their goals often attribute the failure to themselves (physiology, motivation, ability, etc.). Frequently this is not the case and the same efforts applied in different circumstances (better program), would yield better results. Unfortunately, people start feeling as though they are not capable of success and they should not even try. Instead of putting all your effort into the next program that sounds new or different, put the effort into finding or creating a program that matches your needs. This will not solve all your problems and you will still have to work hard and be consistent, but it will start you in the right direction. |
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