#gym beginner

I’ll tell you all something that no other personal trainer in the fitness industry will tell you. It’s nothing new, and all trainers and instructors know this very well. The only reason you’ll never hear a trainer mention this publicly is because they will miss out on potential money by sharing this information with you. Before I share this information, I’ll give you my own credentials so you know I’m not just pulling your leg (although I’m certain most of you will already know this information intuitively).

If you’re new here, hello! My name is Aleena! I’m a NASM Certified personal trainer, and I’ve been working in the fitness industry for nearly three years now. That’s not a terribly long time, however I’ve experienced massive growth and success in my career since I’ve began as a personal trainer. First a trainer then a class instructor and eight months later I was gifted with the opportunity to become a fitness manager. I work for a boutique gym located in Downtown Los Angeles and the entire premise of my job is help the other trainers in my facility grow in their own training abilities. Beyond my career, I’ve been active my whole life. I ran track in elementary school, played basketball throughout middle school and high school, and was an active gym rat in college continuing on. When COVID struck and we all went into quarantine, I became a yoga nut and runner, and you can most certainly bet as soon as gyms opened up I found myself right back in there. Post-COVID I got my first ever personal trainer and quickly realized how easily I could translate the information I had learned throughout my life to help others in their own health and fitness journeys. A few months later I was certified and ready to start building in my profession. The growth has been unreal, but I feel it’s a deep indication of how I have found the path that is right for me. 

So what is it that other personal trainers won’t tell you?

You don’t NEED a personal trainer. Sure, that sounds normal and understandable, so let me clarify with more information. 

You don’t need a personal trainer for the FIRST THREE MONTHS of your fitness journey.

It’s a fairly intuitive understanding, but most of us will get scared to do something new on our own. The reason I say the first three months is because, if you’ve never done anything fitness related or it’s simply been a long time since you’ve been active, the first three months should be dedicated to getting into the habit of becoming active. If we’ve been sedentary for a long time, quite literally any consistent movement will yield results.

I like to explain it like this - if you pick up a weight and you move the weight in some way and you do this everyday for 90 days, you will see a change. It doesn’t matter what you do with this weight. You can pull it, press it, raise it, walk with it. Just do it every single day for 90 days and watch how something will change. Now… it may not be the change you want to see, but there will be change. This is something we all know, and yet no trainer is going to tell you this. Instead (as an unfortunate result of the capitalistic nature of our society) they’ll try to sell you on the idea that you have absolutely no clue what you’re doing and you need a trainer’s guidance in order to make change happen. 

Here’s my issue with that - most people know what they want, but they don’t have specific and fully developed fitness goals. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve sat down with a beginner client and asked what their goals are and the answer I get in return is something along the lines of “I want to lose 20 pounds” or “I want to tone up.” In turn I’d have to get specific with them by asking what movements they want to learn, what modalities they do and don’t enjoy, what amount of time they are realistically able to dedicate to their fitness, and so on and so forth. My job is to be a trainer, and I actually do enjoy having these conversations with people, but there’s room for error when we start from ground zero together. 

Firstly, and I say this with absolute conviction, your only friend in the gym should not be your trainer. Community at the gym is proven way to keep people motivated and interested in their fitness. People will stay at the same gym, even when the equipment is falling apart, the AC is leaking or broken, or the staff is terrible, because of the people they see at the gym. People also find more motivation to show up to the gym when they know their friends or their gym crush is going to be there. You should establish some semblance of a gym community before you start working with a trainer. Secondly, shoveling money out of your pocket will definitely weigh you down in the hopes of seeing results. Generally when we pay for something, we look for instant gratification (we can again blame capitalism and rampant consumerism for this). Fitness never has been and never will be a source of instant gratification. In order to trust the process, avoid paying the big bucks up front and instead see what you can and can’t do on your own. Show yourself that the change is possible first, before you begin to invest in a trainer, that the way when you’re paying for a trainer’s guidance you already know that it’s well worth it because you know the results will come cause you’ve already seen how consistency on your own made change. Thirdly, these initial 90 days that you spend working out on your own will be the source of inspiration. You will get to spend time in a gym, or just moving your body and trying to learn more on your own. This gives you the time to become specific with what it is you want to do. It’s day 1 in the gym and you have no idea what a deadlift is, but now it’s day 90 in the gym and you’ve seen the same girl deadlifting since day 1, so you did your research and now you a specified goal to take to the trainer you end up working with. Specified goals will also help you when trying to select a trainer. Every trainer can teach you how to deadlift, but a barbell technique specific trainer is going to teach you the sport of the deadlift. You wouldn’t ask a math teacher to help you write an english essay, and same applies here. You wouldn’t ask a body building coach to teach you athleticism and mobility. You wouldn’t as a powerlifting coach to teach you how to become absolutely shredded. Become specific, and the path will become obvious. 

I’ve given you my three reasons as to why I believe people should start their fitness journeys on their own.

I’ll also share with you the exceptions I have to this belief. 

First, if you struggle with discipline or motivation, this will not work for you. If this is the case, I recommend looking for a coach, not a trainer. You may be thinking… what’s the difference. There’s a huge difference. A trainer will tell you what to do when to do it, they’ll show you how to do things correctly and they’ll send you on your merry way. A coach will do all of those things, but they’ll also help you build sustainable habits, they’ll help you push past your limiting beliefs, they’ll hold you accountable and do check-ins with you, they’ll make appropriate adjustments to your program without you having to say anything, they will monitor ver closely, your journey and course correct if something is not lining up with the path. Second, if you’ve had multiple failed starts to your fitness journey, I also believe looking for a coach will benefit you for the same reasons above. You may already have some knowledge around fitness, or you may have been very active back in the day, but again - the struggle is consistency and accountability. A coach is meant to be an accountability partner, it goes deeper than teaching someone the movements, it’s about reworking the brain’s chemistry associated with fitness. 

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Widely used U.S. Marine Corps Recruitment Propaganda

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Can you build muscle doing high rep sets for example sets of 15 to 20 reps?

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