The Chairman's Fitness Challenge Blog

In the Globe and Mail on Monday, one of my favourite bloggers (Alex Hutchinson) reported on a study conducted at Ball State University on personal trainers.  Surprise, surprise - the study found that working with a personal trainer yield better results.  I am not surprised by this, given the number of people piddle away in the gym with bad form and a random training regimen (and I should probably put myself in that category - until recently.)  But the very interesting finding of the study - it's because someone working with a personal trainer tends to use higher weights, working harder and getting better strength gains in the process.

This is something I can relate to - since refocusing on the Hard-Body Plan, I have been militant about upping the weight whenever approaching the ten-rep limit.  Going back through my journal, I see way too many "tens" without corresponding increases in weight - and every one of those is a lost opportunity for strength gains.  And by pushing the weights up, I have been seeing plateaus shattered.  (For example, tonight on the machine I did leg extensions with 105 lbs/leg - versus seventy lbs or so just a few weeks ago).  Take a look around the gym, and you'll undoubtedly see people working well below the 50% one-rep max that is required to stimulate muscle growth - every one of them is sub-optimizing their workout by doing so.  (If you are interested in figuring out your one-rep max on a given exercise, select a challenging weight, do as many reps as possible, and try this calculator.  It works at 20 reps but is more accurate at lower numbers.)

There is also evidence that the personal trainer achieves results by providing motivation and encouragement - again, very logical, but nothing a great workout partner couldn't provide for free.

The bottom line is that the right personal trainer, one with knowledge enough to tailor a workout to his or her clients' needs, can achieve results, and be a worthwhile investment to someone just starting out or looking to bust through a plateau.  However, if you are being honest in pushing yourself, with challenging weight loads and a good degree of motivation, you are probably getting most or all of what you would get out of a trainer-led session already.