When you train with a personal trainer, the highest-quality training sessions of your week will be those done with your PT. That being said, most people will only train with their coach once or twice per week, meanwhile some form of daily movement is best practice if you want to lose weight or maintain an excellent level of general health.
The question a lot of people have is what should they be doing between sessions? How best can they spend their time to make sure their exercise is productive, without detracting from what they’re trying to achieve with their personal trainer?
In this article we’re going to look at the kind of activity you could do in the time between your personal training sessions…
Work on Your Weaknesses or Goals
In a personal training session you typically have an hour or so to work through a session plan and that will take care of the main goals, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t benefit from some extra homework. Whether you’re an olympic athlete or just starting out on your fitness journey, you are going to have weaknesses when it comes to your fitness.
For some of us our weakness is flexibility, for others its cardio, some might have a weak core - we’re all different. You can identify your particular weakness and spend time working on it between sessions. If you’re not sure where best to focus your attention, as your personal trainer for their opinion and they can help you determine what you should be doing.
Here’s a list of useful activities you can do in your time between sessions, depending on your weakness…
If your weakness is cardio…
The obvious ones here are running, walking and cycling. All of them are excellent choices, but chat with your trainer about the most effective way to train them.
Following a Hight Intensity Interval Training plan is known to be an incredibly effective way to boost stamina quickly and can easily be done on a bike or running. The truth is that any kind of progressive endurance training will improve your cardio capabilities, but if you want to make quicker, more dramatic improvements then following a good quality HIIT will be the most effective way to go.
You can use sprints, hills, short burst ‘Tabata’ style training for HIIT work. If it isn’t your thing, go with steady state work, but it’ll take you longer!
If your goal is outright weight loss…
If your goal is overall weight loss, high calorie burn is the name of the game. Your PT might not put any kind of leash on you and encourage you to do as much cardio as you like, in order to get those calories burned!
Low intensity, long duration cardio can be a huge help for anyone looking to lose weight. It doesn’t push you too hard and keeps you fresher and with more energy for your personal training sessions, whilst still burning a lot of calories. It’s also a great option for people who are unable to run or ride for whatever reason, plus it’s a great way of burning calories whilst preserving muscle.
When compared, walking burns around 75% of the calories that running does. Of course this won’t help you improve your stamina, but it’ll certainly help with your fat loss efforts!
If your weakness is flexibility…
This is the easiest of all to work on at home, because all you need is room for a mat and a bit of time to stretch!
The reality is that most of us are lacking in flexibility and modern life doesn’t help - we spend a lot of time sat down in front of computers, driving cars, sat on the tube, sat in front of the TV. We never really stretch, so after a while we become stiffer and more injury prone.
Thankfully, we have access to a huge array of online yoga classes that can be done in the comfort of your own home. You can foam roll, or you can even do standard stretching. Whatever you decide, you can do it at home.
To make it a bit more interesting, I’d suggest you follow online yoga classes - they’ll make stretching feel more like exercise.
If your weakness is core strength…
You can do a lot of basic core strengthening work at home - bodyweight exercise, Swiss Ball work and online Pilates classes can be fantastic.
A lot of people suffer from lower back issues that can be effectively treated and relieved with core exercises and Pilates-based movements. So effective is this approach that it is recommended by physiotherapists and repeatedly proves its effectiveness in a lab setting. You may be able to treat your own back issues with a home-based core exercise programme.
Speak to your trainer about exercises they think will be the most effective for you to make sure you can compliment your programming and general health and fitness.
Complimenting your personal training…
The first port of call is with your personal trainer - they will have a plan in mind for your training, so you want to make sure the exercising you’re doing between personal training sessions is complimentary to your overall goal.
If you give yourself an absolute beating whilst away from your personal trainer, then arrive at your session drained, weak and under-recovered you’ll have impacted their work. By having a chat with your PT, you can improve your overall health and fitness rapidly!
Give these ideas a try and you’ll not only help yourself get fitter, you’ll also keep yourself occupied in the lockdown!
At AdMac Fitness we’re not about fads, fashions and short term fixes. We want you to succeed properly over the long term, so with our help and advice you can get your fitness back on track! If you’d like us to help you, contact us on 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
AdMac Fitness: Arch 457 Robeson St, London E3 4JA
AdMac Fitness South Woodford: Unit 4 Marlborough Business Centre, 96 George Lane, South Woodford, London, E18 1AD