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Tailor Your Goals With Fitness Trainer

Posted on: Tuesday, 6 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

Before you spend money for a trainer, it's a good idea to have an idea of what you're looking for. Kristen Cook, a personal trainer at DAC in Southaven, offers a few tips:

Know your goals. For example, do you want to lose weight, increase cardiovascular capacity or increase flexibility? Being clear on what you want will help your gym decide which trainer is best for you.

Decide if you'll be more comfortable working out with a male of female trainer, or whether it makes a difference to you at all.

Look for someone with a personality that matches your style. "Some trainers will want to kill you, to really, really push," Cook said. "That's fine if it's right for you, but it won't be if it's not."

Tell your potential trainer what you're looking for and see how they feel about it. If you want a cardio workout but don't want to use the elliptical trainer, say so. If the trainer keeps telling you how you'll come to love it, he or she might not be listening to you and you might want to consider someone else.

On the other hand, listen with an open mind. So you hate the elliptical. You won't want someone who's going to force you to spend an hour on it, but you want a challenge, too.

"If you don't like to do the elliptical, it's for a reason and it might mean you need it," Cook said.

A trainer just isn't in the budget? Here are a few tips to help get you started.

First thing you have to do is check with your doctor and get cleared for exercise, says Duane Dickerson at DAC in Southaven.

"The best thing to do is get a complete physical," he said. "You want to make sure you're not going to have a heart attack or something."

Maybe you want to get an exercise buddy who will hold you accountable, Cook said.

Or find a class that you enjoy.

"If you don't enjoy what you do, you just won't want to stick with it," she said.

What you want to do is do something every day, Dickerson said - no big surprises here.

Walk, lift light weights, ride a bike or whatever. Just do it consistently.

"Choose a sport if you want to, like racquetball maybe," Dickerson said. "Or get your walking in by taking your dog on a walk. Just make sure you do it."

He recommends buying a light set of dumbbells and using them three times a week, but Garey Shirley, a personal trainer and the fitness director at the East Memphis YMCA, recommends starting with cardiovascular exercise.

"If you're going to do just one thing, do cardio to get started," he said.

In the gym, that would be the elliptical trainer, the treadmill or a bike, for example - anything that gets your heart rate up.

If you join a gym, make sure you go to the orientation where you learn how to operate the equipment. If you already belong to a gym and need a refresher or want to try a new piece of equipment, ask someone to help you.

The main thing is sticking with it.

"You've got to find a routine you can do consistently," Shirley said. "Make time to do 30 minutes of regular exercise. If that means you have to TiVo your TV show, then do it."

-Jennifer Biggs: 529-5223

Source: Commercial Appeal, The

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