Sometimes, Your Goals Aren’t Realistic

Your Personal Trainer will help you assess your current situation, and set realistic goals.  One of the major problems that people run into is that they set goals that are unrealistic and unachievable.  The fact is many people don’t know what is truly achievable in health and fitness.  People see these amazing headlines in magazines and radio commercials, etc. “Lose 30 pounds in 30 days,” and expect spectacular results, in minimal time, with little effort.  Realistically, the only person who could really lose 30 pounds in 30 days would have a starting weight of 400+ pounds and the majority of that 30 pounds would be water.  Below are other examples of unrealistic expectations:

• Running a marathon with 12 weeks of training, or shaving more than 10 minutes off that marathon
• Losing more than 2 pounds a week.  (1-2 is most common)
• Adding more than 20-30 pounds to any particular exercise/lift (i.e. Bench Press)
• Mastering any sport in less than a year
• Building more than 1-2 pounds of muscle per week.
• Fitting into those “skinny jeans” in less than 3 weeks.

All of the above may be possible, but most often they aren’t likely.  And setting unrealistic goals only sets you up for discouragement and failure.

Sometimes your goals won’t be what you think, at least not at first.  If you want to lose weight, but you have a knee injury, or your shoulder hurts when you try to scratch your head, you’re going to have a hard time training at a high enough intensity to lose weight until that knee is taken care of.  You need to learn to walk, before you can run.

Some people may not actually need to “lose weight.” In some cases people tell me they want to lose weight, and I’ll ask “from where?”  Sometimes your problem is not what you think it is.  I’ve met with women who didn’t necessarily need to lose weight, but may in fact need to gain weight to be healthy and look better.  One particular woman I’ve worked with started training and eating better, went from 118 lb to 123 pounds, but was astonished that her pants fit looser!  What happened? She added about 7 pounds of lean tissue (i.e. muscle which increases resting metabolism) while losing about 2 pounds of fat. The end result was a much leaner, fitter, and healthier woman.

Or in another case, a guy may come to me and say “I want to add muscle” and I may say “you need to get lean first.”  Why?  It’s actually easier to train and build quality muscle, when you’re lean.  And often, you’ll build some muscle as you get leaner if you do the right things.

A good trainer will help you find out what you need for your body.  They will also be able to show you measurably (with bodyfat tests, tape measurements and fitness assessments) how you’re making progress.

Guaranteed Results

With the above taken care of, any trainer worth his salt will guarantee his results.  If he can show you where you are, and give you a realistic goals that will help you toward your dream, then he should be willing to back that promise up.  If you show up, do what your trainer tells you to, and do your homework (diet, supplements, etc), there is no reason why you shouldn’t be seeing results.