How online personal training can be as effective as having a trainer by your side.
Do you want to lose weight? Get fit? Run further and faster? Get stronger? Do you want to achieve the body and mind you crave?
When it comes to achieving your health and fitness goals, there’s nothing like having a personal trainer by your side to make sure everything is tailored to your needs. Online personal training has really taken off in the last few years and while many people are intrigued by it, they aren’t sure if it really works. The surprising fact is that it can be just as, if not more effective than the more traditional “in person” option.
I know what you’re thinking – Really?
Let’s take a look by breaking down the main comparisons:
Motivation
Personal training is effective because motivation to exercise and follow a healthy eating plan can sometimes be difficult. It’s good to have a qualified professional on your side to hold you accountable for your actions and help you stay focused on your goals. Online personal training is no different, your coach is always in touch via email, often more often than an “in-person” coach, fueling your progress and maintaining a reassuring connection with you. You’ll find that having a trainer literally by your side isn’t entirely necessary to motivate you to exercise. In fact, over time it can become a problem, as you become too dependent on your coach being physically by your side and cannot train independently of him. The online option takes a “gentle touch” approach whereby your coach stays in regular contact via email, etc., encouraging and progressing you, but during workouts it’s all up to you. In the long run, you’ll learn to push yourself and use your coach like any other component of a healthier life.
Progress
It’s more or less a draw in this case. Both varieties of personal training are equal in terms of progressing the challenge of your workouts. Your in-person trainer will move things forward during your workouts. Your online personal trainer will use your training logs to see how you are progressing and will move forward with this information.
cost
Personal training is one of those things that is traditionally a luxury for those whose pockets are deep enough for it. It can be very effective in helping you truly identify and achieve your health and fitness ambitions. There’s nothing like having a qualified coach on hand who focuses specifically on you and your goals. The downside is that working out with a trainer 3 or 4 times a week is an expensive undertaking and too expensive for most of us. An online personal trainer, on the other hand, is much more reasonable and you can get a much broader service. A subscription can cost as little as £19.99 per month and your coach is available to help you with any issues 24/7. This way you can get fit without breaking the bank!
Team
“Do I need a lot of equipment to get a good workout?” This is a question I hear very often. The short answer is no! A fully equipped gym is great, but not essential. The truth of the matter is that if your trainer (online or in person) is properly trained and trained, they should be able to design an effective and challenging program for you that uses nothing but your own body weight. No team, no excuses. An online personal trainer will consider everything you have available, from a jump rope to a treadmill.
Responsibility
This is a big one. The results, in the end, are everything. So if you choose an online fitness trainer, will you be as responsible for your success (or failure) as an “in-person” trainer? The answer should always be a resounding yes. Just because your coach isn’t by your side doesn’t mean he’s not responsible for your results. A good online personal training service should be flexible to your needs and goals, if you are unhappy with something you should be able to discuss it with them and resolve it as easily as if they were in the room with you.
Knowledge
One of the main concepts of online personal training is that, due to the distance between you and your trainer, it focuses on developing your knowledge of health and fitness so that, in a reasonable period of time, you can motivate, encourage and account for yourself and you can achieve your goals by yourself.
A study by the Journal of Medical Internet Research on the effectiveness of web-based versus non-web-based interventions found that those who chose online options showed results including increased exercise time, increased knowledge of nutritional status, greater knowledge of asthma treatment, greater participation in medical care, slower decline in health, improved perception of body shape, and maintenance of weight loss over 18 months compared with those who chose no option web-based. That is a revelation.
Looking at the long term, if you want to lose or manage your weight, improve your fitness, improve your athletic performance, eat a better diet, and generally become a healthier person, then the most critical component is knowledge. As the old saying goes, “knowledge is power” and online personal training certainly has the ability to give you that power.
If anything, online personal training can be a more comprehensive service than the “in-person” option and you just might find that it’s the affordable and effective missing link in your health and fitness that you’ve been looking for.
enjoy your health
Chris