Personal Training at Precision Health & Fitness involves the design and implementation of a complete health and fitness program created specifically for your unique physiology, goals, and lifestyle.
I am located in Austin, TX, but even if you do not live in the Austin area this page is still worth reading, especially if you are considering hiring a personal trainer, because this page will help you think about some of the things to look for in a personal trainer.
NOTE: This page deals mainly with the initial consultation and the actual personal training exercise sessions. For information about additional benefits you will receive with personal training services visit the Consulting page.
As with most personal trainers, I have an initial consultation with any potential client, but my consultations tend to be different than most trainers. I do not treat my consultations as a big sales pitch, but instead they are opportunities to educate potential clients about health and fitness. Also I do not have a set list of things to cover, but instead focus on whatever the client wants to discuss. Sometimes I spend the vast majority of time on nutrition, while other people have solid nutrition backgrounds and want to focus on specific exercises, program design, or various other topics. Most notably, I go beyond just telling people what I can do for them and actually give them practical information to use right away. For example, many people have low back tightness or pain. For these people I make sure to show them at least a couple exercises and stretches (making sure they can perform them correctly) they can use right away to help their low back discomfort. Even if a potential client decides not to hire me as their personal trainer I make sure they feel as though their time was not wasted and they are better off for attending the consultation.
As for the training sessions, I ensure that each session is truly individualized and includes a warm-up, resistance exercises, and cooldown/streting. I utilize many different types of resistance training including free weights (dumbbells and barbells), exercise balls, cables, bodyweight exercises, medicine balls, and more. Also, I do not use copied or computer generated exercise routines and every session is designed with your goals and abilities in mind. One thing that my programs do have in common is they will be filled with variety and prevent boredom that commonly accompanies training programs. One of the biggest mistakes that exercisers make is having a lack of variation in their training. Following the same program all the time is a recipe for a decrease or complete stoppage of positive results. As the human body adapts (improves), the training program must adapt as well if you want continued improvement. If you were wondering, constantly increasing weight is not a solution to this problem, because eventually you will not be able to significantly increase weight and you will run the risk of staleness and overtraining. Different exercises and different challenges are required for continual long-term improvement.
It is also important to understand that there is no specific exercise that is universally best for everyone. The first requirement for incorporating an exercise into a program is that the individual can perform it correctly. Most people have restricted motion and tight muscles in some of their joints, which causes typically beneficial exercises to become potentially harmful ones. The training sessions are opportunities for me to see how my clients move and perform exercises, allowing me to remove exercises that cannot be performed correctly, as well as adding other exercises to improve the muscles and joints that are causing the problems. Exercising should always be about feeling better and not only looking better.