Are Personal Trainers Obsolete?
There comes a time when we all must ask tough questions:
- Where do we come from and where are we going?
- What is the meaning of life?
- Who are you and how did you get into my house?
For some questions, there are no easy answers. Others, however, are a tad easier to answer.
One that gets asked more and more these days is:
“Do I really NEED a personal trainer?”
The answer to that — like most things in this field — is that it depends.
(and incidentally, if you are the self-directed type when it comes to training, you enjoy kettlebells and calisthenics, and you want to be every bit as resilient as you are strong, you’ll want to make sure you read to the end of this article — can’t spoil the surprise right now, but suffice it to say I think you’ll dig it)
Let’s be honest: personal training is expensive — especially if your trainer is any good.
A worthy investment, of course, but an investment nonetheless.
If you’re really serious about your results, then I would say yes, you absolutely owe it to yourself to invest the money in a quality coach and reap the benefits that come along with it (there are ways you can still screw that up, which I’ll get to in a second).
However…
Getting a personal trainer is no guarantee of success either.
The only real guarantee of success is your willingness to work hard, starting with where you currently are, and continue moving in the direction of your goal until you get there.
That’s it.
I’ve seen people hire personal trainers and then do everything in their power to sabotage the work that trainer does throughout the rest of the week. I’ll give you an anecdote shortly, but first, here’s a brief overview of the various degrees of “learning commitment” (as I like to call it).
- Prefers self-guidance, but won’t seek help or insight from others.
- Hires a trainer (for group or 1-on-1 training), will do nothing on their own.
- Prefers self-guidance, but diligently seeks help, insight, and guidance from others.
- Hires a trainer (for group or 1-on-1 training), willing to do extra work on their own.
Category #1 people often look back at their efforts over the months and years and are disappointed to see how little they have to show for it. The plus side is that when they trade up a level or two, they get great results because they’ve already got the important habit of consistency down pat.
Category #2 people will usually see good results in their strength and fitness, but will ultimately be disappointed that they haven’t gotten as far as they had hoped. But if you think about it, if you put 2–3 hours of work per week in the right direction and then 165–166 hours per week in the WRONG direction, is it really that big of a surprise that you didn’t get as far as you’d like?
Category #3 & #4 people are by far the most successful, because of that last little bit: they are willing to do the work on their own!
Fun story:
I had a student once who was quite literally one of the most brilliant men I had ever met. Ph.D. in philosophy, insanely successful businessman, got into politics for the hell of it, and just an all-around swell dude. But he was strongly in category #2 — wouldn’t do a dang thing I told him outside of our sessions.
And it was a real bummer too because even with his category #2 mindset, I still helped him double his chin-up numbers in 4 weeks, improve his all-around fitness, and do a lot of other things he couldn’t before. I’m really convinced he could have achieved anything, and if he had made the switch to category #4 he would have been unstoppable.
Long story short:
I’m not convinced that everybody needs a personal trainer.
I’m really not. I’ve had category #4 students before, and they’re a dream to work with (Example: I had one guy, mid-40s, never done a pullup in his life, and I helped him build himself up to doing 11 clean pullups in a row, injury-free).
But even if you are not a #4, you absolutely SHOULD seek to be at #3, because that’s where the magic happens for your personal transformation.
The takeaway:
No matter whether or not you’d prefer to work with a trainer or take the bold path forward on your own, the #1 most important element will always be YOU taking the reins and charging boldly forward toward your goals with the right mix of proper habits, patience, and good planning.
On that note, if you like training that:
- Gives you more strength than it takes from you
- Improves your stamina and resilience simultaneously
- Powers-up every nook, cranny, crevice, and corner of your Soft Machine
Then you just might like my 9-Minute Kettlebell and Bodyweight Challenge.
It’s a challenge designed to be done alongside your regular workouts (NOT instead of them) that uses super simple, full-body movements that can be learned in mere minutes — moves like crawling, kettlebell carries, and more — and is designed to help tap into some of your body’s little known reflexes and inner storehouses of power, so you can expand your brute strength, build cyborg stamina, and forge unbreakable physical and mental resilience.
Even cooler:
Each session will leave you feeling like you’ve made gains — NOT like you’ve been drained.
Plus, the workouts are built to be done daily without sucking up tons of time or energy, so you can take on the rest of each day with a new surge of power and confidence.
Many people find that these moves help amplify their strength in their favorite kettlebell and bodyweight moves while also crafting a lean, hard, and functional physique.
Example:
· Lewis from Singapore nailed his first 1-arm pushup after doing a bodyweight drill called ‘Dead Bugs’ (which is also covered in the Challenge)
· Busy mom Lina from Sweden used crawling to not only improve her full-body strength and resilience but also shredded so much body flab that she could see her abs for the first time in ages
· Barak from Israel saw his pull-ups go from 6 reps to 8 reps just by doing daily kettlebell carries
And best of all, it’s free.
How free?
I’m talkin’ freer than the 4th of July, my friend.
Get thee thine own copy here => www.9MinuteChallenge.com
Have fun and happy training!
Aleks Salkin
