What Happens On Your First PT Session?

Blood, sweat and tears. The end...

Ok, I made that up. I will banish all notions of such things right now, to me personal training has never been about pushing someone beyond what is reasonably necessary.

Most people overeat (without realising it) and don't move enough, so even the lightest of PT sessions will yield great results. In fact I've trained committed gym goers in the past, and found just increasing the intensity by a small percentage is enough to initiate a change.

What you see on the telly on The Biggest Loser is all for show, no one needs to train like that, unless the choose to.

So, back to the original point - what happens on your first PT session?

Three main things, benchmarking, exercise initiation, and your first new habit.

To establish a benchmark we can measure your progress against is really important, it will act to provide further motivation as your fitness journey continues to open up. Assuming the client is comfortable, what I do is the following:

- Tape measure measurements of waist, hips, chest/back, upper thigh, and upper arm

- Body fat %. This is done using skin fold calipers (not as nasty as it sounds) at four sites on the body 1.Bicep 2.Tricep 3.Side of hip 4.Under shoulder blade. This is the most accurate way of determining body fat %

- Blood pressure

- Resting heart rate

These measurements usually take about half an hour to do fully, which means we then have half an hour to start your exercise. I find this works really well as it gives you a gentler introduction to the exercise, as opposed to going straight into a 60 minute session.

The first new habit will really be determined by you, where you're currently at, and what I feel would benefit you the quickest, and support our training goals straight away.

I will now have a better idea of how easily your body moves, whether there are any joint restrictions, tight muscles, or areas that may cause a problem. This is really important as I can then plan corrective exercise to add in so you not only continue to move towards your goals, but you do it in a safe and sustainable way.