FAQs
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
As an ACE Certified Personal Trainer, I am required to do a minimum of 2.0 Continuing Education Credits in order to renew my certification. So, yes, I am constantly learning, reading, and researching to become the best personal trainer I can be for my clients. I have also been trained at the longest standing exclusively personal training studio in South Carolina, Personally Fit, which has been in business for more than 25 years.
- What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?
Make sure your trainer is certified. Just because your friend has muscles and knows how to workout does not mean that he/she knows how to develop a program that will safely get you on their level. Everyone is different, genetics play a role, and yes, there is a right way and wrong way to exercise.
- What questions should customers think through before talking to professionals about their project?
First, ask yourself what exactly it is you hope to achieve by hiring a personal trainer. Set yourself a goal and remember to follow the rules of a S.M.A.R.T. goal: 1. Specific. Your goal should be clear and easy to understand. A common goal, “get healthy,” is too general. There are so many ways to get healthy. How do you want to do it? Is it losing weight? Start exercising? Stop smoking? Break it down and it will be easier to manage. Let’s pick weight loss and make a SMART goal out of it together. For example, “I will lose weight.” 2. Measurable. A goal to “lose weight” is not enough. How will you track your progress and how you will know when you have reached your goal? Making your goal measurable means adding a number. 3. Attainable. Before you can add a number, you have to know how high or low you want to go. It’s good to ‘shoot for the stars’, but don’t be too extreme. Likewise, a goal that is too easy is also not very motivating. Only you know your limits. Let’s take our goal above. What percentage is attainable for you? Research suggests that a 5-10% weight loss is attainable for most overweight people. A measurable, attainable goal could be, “I will lose 7% of my body weight.” 4. Relevant. Set goals that are important to where you are in your life right now. Don’t set a goal that someone else is pressuring you to attain-that isn’t very motivating. Examine our goal so far. Does it seem relevant to you? If so, let’s keep going. If you are not concerned about weight loss or this is not a good time in your life to focus on that, choose something that IS motivating to you. 5. Time-bound. Include an end-point. Knowing that you have a deadline motivates you to get started. Since healthy weight loss is about 1-2 pounds per week, set your deadline accordingly. For our example we can use 3 months. “I will lose 7% of my body weight in 3 months.” Finally, ask yourself how badly you want to achieve your goal. Are you willing to come in and put in the effort and hard work it takes? While I am not your drill sergeant, I do expect a level of effort from my clients. Trust me to know when you need to be pushed and when you need to take it a little easier. Not all days will be hards as nails, but don't expect the weight to fall off, or your muscles to grow just because you walked through the door.