A personal trainer is a luxury that very few can afford, and those are just the dime-a-dozen trainers that absolutely suck.
An experienced and more knowledgeable trainer could set you back even more money than that.
A decent personal trainer is definitely a solid investment that shouldn’t be balked at. At the end of the day, investing in something that could potentially improve the longevity and quality or your life is well worth it.
That unfortunately doesn’t change the fact that trainers are well out of most peoples’ price range. There is, however, a solution. Becoming your own personal trainer.
Don’t hold your hands up like there’s no chance of that happening. If you can use a computer and have an internet connection, then you can easily make this happen.
If you’re shrugging your shoulders and haven’t got a clue where to start, here’s a step-by-step walkthrough of how you can train yourself, and do it well.
Calculate the calories you need to achieve your goal
Ok, we’re assuming you know what you want here. Build muscle, lose fat or a little bit of both are the usual goals.
If you want to build muscle, you’ll want to eat a little more than you’re burning off to support the new mass you want to build.
If you want to burn fat, you’ll need to eat less than you’re burning off in a day to create a deficit. Your body will use your body fat stores as fuel to make up for this energy deficit.
If you want a bit of both (and who doesn’t want to do both), then, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. You can do both, but the process will be painstakingly slow. It’s up to you, but in this case you’ll need to eat around a maintenance amount of calories (burn off about as much as you consume daily)
Ok, but how are you supposed to calculate such a complicated formula? That’s the great thing about the internet, you have sites like LiftNLive who have created an accurate calorie and macro calculator. The best part? It’s free.
Just throw your credentials, your activity levels and goals into the mixer and it will spit out an accurate starting amount of calories, broken down into macronutrients, for you to consume.
Input this data into a nutrition tracking app like MyFitnessPal and you’re good to go. Easy.
Download a scientifically sound training plan
This sounds daunting, but isn’t actually that hard.
The gurus haven’t helped with the confusion about which programmes are effective for your goals, but the science is pretty darn simple.
Follow these guidelines and you can’t go wrong:
Muscle building
Muscle growth is dictated by overall volume and progressive overload. I.e. you start with a beginners amount of sets per bodypart per week, then you progress the weight you’re using and when this stops? You add another set. Easy. Simple rules to follow when choosing your programme:
- Should train each body part 2-3 times a week
- Should contain at least 10 sets per body part, per week for a beginner. Going up to 20+ sets for an advanced lifter.
- Should use a rep range between 6-15 per set
- Should train sets close to failure (leave 1 or 2 reps in the tank apart from the final set)
- Should train muscles evenly, at least to start with.
- Should not dictate rest periods. Take as long as you need to perform your next set with the utmost quality. (it will generally take 30-90 seconds for sets of 8-12 and up to 3 minutes for reps less than this)
Fat Loss
One of the simplest goals, scientifically that you can accomplish. Simply eat less than you burn in a day and/or use exercise to further create a calorie deficit.
- Eat 500 calories less than your maintenance level
- The same weight training principles above will also help burn fat
- Cardio. Just flippin’ choose the cardio protocol you enjoy most. They all burn calories. You enjoy boxing? Box. You enjoy dancing? Dance. You enjoy cycling? Cycle. Just do it with intensity and it will do its job.
Measure and track your results
This is something else you pay a personal trainer to do but is unnecessary. There’s no reason why you can’t track your progress yourself.
It’s simple. Give it a go:
- Take starting pictures in good lighting.
- Take your starting weight.
- Measure a body part you particularly want to grow or lose fat from.
- Make a note of the weights you can lift on your first session.
Once you have your starting marker, here’s how often you should track your progress:
- Picture: 1 x per week in the same lighting and at the same time.
- Weighing yourself: 3-6 x per week first thing in the morning after a bathroom break. This isn’t to upset you, it’s so that you can take a more accurate average at the end of the week. Remember, daily weigh ins don’t count, weekly averages do.
- Bodypart: 2-3 times per month. This can become demoralising if done too often as these changes can be slower.
- Gym performance/strength: Every time you go into gym. You should be logging your workouts every time. You can then look back and see your performance improvements.
If these progress measures aren’t moving in a positive direction, simply adjust the plan. Add or remove calories, add or remove sets from your workout, change your cardio routine. Whatever you’ll find easier to sustain.
On a final note, don’t panic and change up everything you’re doing completely. Your routine often just needs a subtle tweak for you to start progressing again. Don’t use a sledge hammer to screw in a screw is what I’m saying.
There you have it. You are now your own personal trainer and it didn’t even cost you a penny. Get out there and get yourself some results.