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A personal trainer is the best investment I've made

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Re: A personal trainer is the best investment I've made

#61

Post by paulryanrogers »

_Algernon_ wrote: post #32
300bps wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too much emphasis is put on organised exercise. Organized exercise allows you to set a specific goal and do targeted exercise to accomplish that goal in the minimum amount of time with minimum risk of injury. why people pay to go to the gym and deadlift, then e.g. happily pay someone to move a load of soil around the backyard always confuses/amazes me It's math and risk. If I make $150 per hour and have unlimited cap…

Gotta love some good ol' post hoc rationalising.

This is needlessly dismissive. I have a lot of bushes and edges to trim in addition to the usual mowing and mulching. And had a bad sprain from trimming huge bushes. Intentional exercise had its own risks, though they're lower if following a guide or trainer. (I also have a small frame so have to take care not to overdue it regardless of activity.)

Of course I could pay someone to do the gardening or rearrange it to minimize the work. Yet that's not always an option.

Re: A personal trainer is the best investment I've made

#62

Post by whatsupdock96 »

herpaderp000 wrote: post #35

Tangent: does anyone know of any online platforms or apps where I can find an online personal trainer? Someone that helps make exercise plans and does regular check-ins?

I am biased, but I would highly recommend CoPilot coaching. They have a pretty solid experience. You'll have an onboarding call/consultation where the coach can learn about you. They have an app that the trainer sends you workouts in and the app guides you through them. The coach will message you in the app often and you'll have checkin calls with them. 6-10x less expensive than an in person trainer, but it's a lot more than a workout app (cause you get a real person), $99/mo. Here's my referral link https://go.mycopilot.com/-iRHbl7_0I , it gives us both a free month.

Re: A personal trainer is the best investment I've made

#63

Post by k__ »

tomxor wrote: post #26

> What keeps fit people going to the gym on a regular basis isn't wearing their running shoes to bed at night. It's discipline and accountability. There is an alternative, less resistant path which I believe is more sustainable and better for the soul... find something you love that involves exercise, not much discipline is needed once you do, because you probably wont be able to stop yourself from doing it when it's…

I did it that way.

I was a couch potato until 30 or so.

Then I stopped using public transport and biked everywhere. I lived on a hill, so every time I got back I had to get back up again.

After a few years, I added swimming, because it cools you in the summer. Full body excercise and you don't even notice the sweat.

Later, I added lifting. Got me a home gym and went 2-3 times a week. Not having to leave the house for a dedicated workout really helped.

Re: A personal trainer is the best investment I've made

#64

Post by noneeeed »

tomxor wrote: post #26

> What keeps fit people going to the gym on a regular basis isn't wearing their running shoes to bed at night. It's discipline and accountability. There is an alternative, less resistant path which I believe is more sustainable and better for the soul... find something you love that involves exercise, not much discipline is needed once you do, because you probably wont be able to stop yourself from doing it when it's…

Couldn't agree more.

I know a number of older/retired people who are in good health into their 70s and 80s. None of them "do exercise" in the sense of going to the gym, but all of them do sports/activity of some form and keep moving. They all walk places rather than taking the car (they have the time) and they do things like biking long distances with friends or playing tennis or badminton. If you're like one I know (84) you walk two miles each way to play badminton with your friends.

Sure there are health benefits, but they all do these things because of the intrinsic enjoyment and satisfaction.

Once my health is good enough to start running again I'll get back to running 20-30km a week, not for the health benefits, but because I get enjoyment from running in the countyside with a podcast on. I run because I love running. I walk a lot because I love to walk and more.

I want to be fit so I can run and walk, rather than the other way round, and I think that's the best long-term way to stay fit an healthy.

Re: A personal trainer is the best investment I've made

#65

Post by whatsupdock96 »

tomxor wrote: post #26

> What keeps fit people going to the gym on a regular basis isn't wearing their running shoes to bed at night. It's discipline and accountability. There is an alternative, less resistant path which I believe is more sustainable and better for the soul... find something you love that involves exercise, not much discipline is needed once you do, because you probably wont be able to stop yourself from doing it when it's…

Totally agree. Motivation is fickle so it really cannot be relied on. There are many ways to be active. Even if you do want to "go to the gym" there are ways to make it easier - so you need less motivation - and more enjoyable so it is a positive experience. That being said, a trainer can help get you to a specific goal extremely well, and help you kick start the "get to a point of liking it" stage.

Re: A personal trainer is the best investment I've made

#66

Post by [deleted] »

tomxor wrote: post #33
pjc50 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> then you are more likely to have more control over when and where you can do your activity. For me (also an unsporting nerd who came to exercise in midlife), having less control is actually a benefit: because I've got a booked timeslot with my PT, I have to go or it's embarrasing as well as a sunk cost. If I give myself control over when I go it's too easy for it to be mañana. Pre commitment is a real thing.

I would suggest that perhaps you have not found the thing you love to do yet? You could always dump your PT for a few weeks and spend the money on booking some taster activities to try to find something... the initial booking still forces an initial commitment to get you to try ;) even if you don't find something on the first round it's a good experience to try out different things and meet new people... I still do t…

[deleted]

Re: A personal trainer is the best investment I've made

#68

Post by pydry »

tomxor wrote: post #26

> What keeps fit people going to the gym on a regular basis isn't wearing their running shoes to bed at night. It's discipline and accountability. There is an alternative, less resistant path which I believe is more sustainable and better for the soul... find something you love that involves exercise, not much discipline is needed once you do, because you probably wont be able to stop yourself from doing it when it's…

>Examples: rock climbing, mountain biking, sailing, surfing, skating, skiing.

Doing those every day sounds both expensive and an organizational nightmare.

I love skiing and i do it every few years but I cant rely upon it for exercise.

I tried badminton / frisbee in the park but that still needs geographically close, willing partners who are willing to exert themselves with matching schedules and good weather.

In the end i solved the motivation/availability problem by being 25 seconds away from a reliable heavy HIIT cardio + anerobic workout - having a rowing machine at home. It's overall less fun than skiing perhaps but the barrier to entry being negligible makes all the difference.

Re: A personal trainer is the best investment I've made

#69

Post by Balgair »

Majestic121 wrote: post #8

> I've also passed the threshold of exercise feeling like a chore. It's now something I enjoy and even look forward to. This took over a year to achieve but it does happen, I promise. This was the most surprising part for me : I used to be the stereotypical anti sport nerd when I was young, and when I started training, even a bit, it was a proper chore and something that required motivation. But after running regular…

It took me until the pandemic to find an exercise routine that worked for me. When it all started, I knew that I had to get a healthy routine put in place or the WFH was going to really wreck me. So, I googled around a bit, tried some exercise routines, and found a good one. I've been on it since and look forward to doing it about 3x a week. The key for me was pairing it with a favorite podcast. I can only listen to that podcast when I'm exercising.

The routine is called the 'Deck of Pain': Choose 4 exercises (push-ups, squats, etc). Shuffle a deck of cards and take one from the top. For each suit, you do one of the exercises chosen, the number of pips being the how many of that exercise you do. So, for say, a 2 of clubs, you do 2 push-ups. For a 9 of diamonds, you do 9 squats. Etc. You chose your own workouts. Face and Ace are whatever you'd like, I choose 1 as the Ace, and 10 as the Face cards. Go though as many cards as you can. Do you heard that? That's the sound of your soul leaving your body.

It's real hard at first. I'd only start with a quarter deck and be wasted. It took me ~9 months to be able to get through all 54 cards. After ~2.25 years of it, I can get through a deck in about 45 minutes.

Re: A personal trainer is the best investment I've made

#70

Post by kritiko »

tomxor wrote: post #43
exabrial wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me that’s mountain biking. But I look like a Greek statue on the bottom and a bit of a melting ice cream cone on top.

:D thanks for the illustrative insight. I don't have much experience with that one, but can recommend rock climbing, which I've been doing for most of my life, it exercises pretty much everything. As something that demands good power to weight ratio you tend to drop the useless stuff.

Don't get me wrong, climbing can help you build muscle that's very aesthetic - arms, core, shoulders - but the "useless stuff" that people drop is what's useless for climbing, not other sports.

The conventional training wisdom (I learned about it from the Anderson Bros in RCTM, but others advocate it too) is to avoid carrying too much weight on your glutes/quads etc. I.e. skip leg day. So that's probably in conflict with also trying to maximize MTB performance.

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