Michelle Pearl is a fitness expert and patient of CosMed Clinic who had reconstructive surgery with Dr. Quiroz after losing over 100 pounds.
By CosMed Guest Blogger, Michelle Pearl
If you are considering hiring a personal trainer to help you lose weight so that he or she can beat you up mentally and physically like the caustic personal trainers on “reality” weight loss shows do, you might want to come up with a plan B.
When I went through the coursework to become certified as a personal trainer, I never studied one lesson that told me to stand on my clients’ chests and scream derogatory comments at them to get them to perform grueling routines in order to lose weight.
Because of the distorted representations on TV, most people don’t realize that a personal trainer’s primary role is not to use a whip-sharp tongue and painful, punishing exercises to demean clients to get them into shape. A personal trainer’s job is to help people improve their physical ability to safely achieve their fitness goals; whether that means helping an older person strengthen his bones and increase his energy levels or helping an athlete improve his performance in a specific sport. For example, a personal trainer does not work with a tennis player on improving his serve and backhand. A personal trainer helps the player improve the bodily functions that the player needs to advance his performance in his sport by working on speed, agility and upper body strength.
Toward that end, if you hire a personal trainer to help you lose weight, a knowledgeable personal trainer will start by helping you get your body into optimum shape to assist you with reaching that goal. He or she will train you to ensure that you have adequate strength, proper balance, good alignment, sufficient cardiorespiratory endurance and excellent technique so that you can participate successfully in whichever cardiovascular and strength training exercises you enjoy, which will help you to burn calories and build lean muscle mass.
‘Enjoy’ is the most important word here. If you find yourself dreading the very thought of the form of exercise you have chosen to participate in, you need to try something different; sooner rather than later. If you hate it, your chances of sticking with it are about as good as a snowball’s chances of surviving in hell.
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About the Author:
Michelle Pearl, CPT, GFI, LWMC is a fitness expert, entrepreneur, former award-winning newspaper columnist and the author of Wake Up, You Are Probably Never Going to Look Like That; How to be Happier, Healthier and Imperfectly Fit. For more information visit: www.ImperfectFitness.com or visit her video blog at www.FedUpFemale.com
