Instead of having to flip through phone directories or newspaper ads to search for a personal trainer, fitness clubs are the most common resource of personal trainers. Clubs like Planet Fitness, California Fitness and those in hotels and country clubs usually have a team of qualified and experienced personal trainers to guide and motivate you. All you need is a quick guide to pick out a personal trainer.

---------------------------------------------------------- By Angelene Wong

[eastciti.com, October 14]
Not everyone who has a good bod qualifies to be a personal trainer. What you should pay attention to are the following:

What's His/her Cred? ACE, ACSM, AFPA, FISAF, ISSA - do these mean anything to you? They are all certifications that a qualified personal trainer should possess. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) are two widely-known and respected certification programmes.

Abbreviations:
ACE: American Council of Exercise
ACSM: American College of Sports Medicine
AFPA: American Fitness Professionals & Associates
FISAF: Federation Int'l Des Sports Aerobics Et Fitness
ISSA: International Sports Science Association
NASM: National Academy of Sports Medicine
NFPT: National Fitness Professional Trainer
NYP: Nanyang Yang Polytechnic
RSA: Royal School Of Arts
SCDF: Singapore Civil Defence Force
SSC: Singapore Sports Council
SAAA: Singapore Amateur Athletic Association)

One thing to note, though, is that CPR is compulsory or if not, basic first aid, so that when injuries do occur, the personal trainer would know what to do.

Can We Click?

Like any relationship, you need to find out if you can get along. Spend some time talking to him/her, perhaps while asking for his/her credentials or experience. Maybe you're someone who prefers a slave-driver or maybe you'd prefer a personal trainer like Gary, who believes in striking a good rapport with his clients. And to do that, having a good sense of humour certainly helps. Sometimes, he feels more like a confidante, a listener, a friend than a trainer. "It's more like a friend-friend basis. Most of my client are regulars who have been with me for more than a year-plus," he says.

While the trainer may have the necessary certification, it is also important to find someone who possesses enough experience to teach all the skills. Experience depends on the number of hours of training per year. The minimum requirement for an experienced trainer is 100 hours of coaching per month or 1,200 hours per year.

The benefits of having an experienced trainer? He will be able to design alternative exercises for clients should they not work out. Says Gary, "If the trainer has personally tried out the exercises, he will know which are the best exercises for his client. A trainer can claim to know the theory by heart, but he might not have experience to know what works best if he hasn't tried them himself."

Your first training session with your personal trainer will involve no training. Yes, you heard it right. Instead, it will be a chance for him/her to assess your fitness goals and levels. But before the assessment, Gary advises his clients not to consume food 4 hours before the appointment, no coffee and no strenuous physical activities (no morning sex!), as all these will raise blood pressure, thus rendering the assessment inaccurate. At Planet Fitness, the 1 hour assessment that I had included the following:

Goal-setting
Here's your chance to let your personal fitness trainer know what you hope to achieve out of your sessions with him or her. Is it your lifelong pursuit to get rid of your flabby arms? Or you are you concerned about your weight? Or are you hoping to be ambidextrous? I mean, maybe you hope to beat your forgettable sit and reach test records?

Says Gary, "Goals can be divided into short-term and long-term goals. An example of a short-term goal is to lose 2 kg in a month, whereas a long-term goal might be to slim down. One thing we advise our clients is that their goals be realistic." By talking it over with your personal trainer, he would be able to advise you based on your fitness level and level of commitment (how many hours per week are you able & willing to spend per week?).

I filled up a questionnaire, which asked for my personal particulars and medical history (Any heart condition? Any pains in chest when exercising? Pregnancy? Recent surgery?). The reasons for highlighting any physical ailments are self-explanatory. After the factual nitty gritty details, it was on to lifestyle- and fitness-related questions, like "Do you smoke?", "How many hours do you sleep at night?", "On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your nutrition? Your stress level?"

I fidgeted a bit while doing this section as my eyes went down the list of questions. "How often do you take part in physical activities?", "If your participation level is lower than you would like it to be, what are the reasons?" These questions are not to point a finger at you and say, "You are a slob", but are an indication of your level of fitness.

If that level is less than ideal, your personal trainer would start you off on a less intensive programme for both realistic and motivational reasons. Rome wasn't built in a day and so your love handles won't go away with a mere workout. Plus, if you meet with mountains on your first few workouts, most likely your motivation would go down the hill. If it is a lack of time that's preventing you from maintaining a regular exercise regime, Gary advises a minimum of 45 minutes of work out. Or if a lack of interest is the real problem, he would design an interesting workout with varying exercises to keep your interest from waning.

Your current involvement in particular activities or sports is also taken into account when a personal trainer tailors your work out session. If you are an avid golfer, then the personal trainer would concentrate on strength training of your back, hips, arms and shoulders as a good swing utilises the following areas most. Based on your answers to questions like "How would you prefer to exercise? (indoor, outdoor, combi, large groups, small groups, alone, combination)", "How many times a week would you like to exercise?", "What are the best days during the week for you to commit to your exercise regime?", a personal fitness plan will be laid out for you.

Measurement
Here's the fun but reality-biting bit.

On this wondrous machine called the Body Composition Analyser, your fears about whether or not you are flabby or not are finally, yes, confirmed. This machine calculates digitally (by entering all personal info like gender, age, height, weight) whether the fat level in your body is acceptable or not. Where body fat composition can be calculated manually using a pair of calipers, I just had to step on the computerised machine and a chit was printed out with a list of technical terms BMI (Body Mass Index), TBW (Total Body Water), which Gary patiently explained to me. At least I now know that I fall within the desirable range for fat levels in my body.

You would also need to take a blood pressure test to ensure that your pressure is normal before you embark on any strenuous exercises. People with high blood pressure or who are obese are advised to visit their doctors to get clearance before they start on any exercise regime.

Few people actually consider flexibility as an important issue when working out, but it is. How flexible you are will help your trainer identify and determine which are the exercises that he should arrange for you to increase your flexibility. "It is important for us to know where you stand in terms of flexibility so that we can tailor a suitable programme. If we find that you seem to have difficulty in one motion, we will try to find alternative exercises for you," he says.

With the necessary measurements and lifestyle profile taken, the personal trainer will sit down with you and answer any queries you might have about what the results mean for you and advise appropriately. For example, if you are found to have high fat levels, the trainer would try to find out the cause of it - is it because of your diet or your inactive lifestyle? After determining the cause, he'll offer some advice and work out a programme especially to suit your needs.

Warm-up
Well, before you start any exercise, it is wise to warm up your muscles adequately. I did some stretching for about 10 minutes. As Gary explains, for those who are not so fit, they will not be put through too strenuous a warm-up for fear they'll be tired out even before the workout begins!

Big Muscles First
The bigger muscle groups are usually worked on first. The rationale is that working on these would also involve the small muscle groups as well. This is what Gary calls multiple joint movements. The bigger muscle group would include the chest, shoulders, back and legs. The smaller muscle groups would be your abs and lower back. He adds, "It's not necessarily the same sequence all the time, depending on who the trainer is. It is also dependent on the goals of our clients. Say if the client wants to target the arms, then that will be our focus."

Your personal trainer would work out which are the exercises that you would do in 1 session. All these would be jotted down on a card and in detail, from the sequence (whether it is hitting the treadmill first or working the biceps) to the number of sets you would have to do. For me and I guess many of us, having a 'To do' list helps to break down a seemingly arduous task at hand. It's a psychological thing as well. When I ticked off a set of completed exercises, the going wasn't that tough, after all! Moreover, the fitness report card (as I call it) helps to chart your progress over the sessions.

Basically, there is no fixed itinerary of the types of exercises that one should follow but basically to lose weight and tone up, the workout should consist of both cardiovascular exercises and strength training. Cardiovascular exercises are those that involve the heart and the blood vessels. In a nutshell, exercises that work or make the heart pump harder would fall under this category.

Strength Training Exercises
These would include the use of weight machines and free weights. It was here that I truly relished having a personal trainer by my side. Previously, I used to stand around staring foolishly at the instructions and then, when I finally understood them, I'd give up after 2 bicep curls. With a personal trainer to guide you, you can be sure that you are doing your tricep extensions correctly and breathing properly while at it. He will also be there to egg you on should you try to give up too easily.

Besides your 1-on-1 sessions, sometimes your personal trainer will schedule you to go for group exercise classes to add variety to the workout sessions, if you belong to a fitness club. In Planet Fitness, there are several classes that one could go for, from Body Balance (yoga), Body Combat (taiqi, karate and kickboxing), kickboxing, powerstep (aerobics) amongst others. I attended the Body Pump session, which is a very focused weight- training session accompanied by music. At the end of it all, I felt that I'd picked up a tip or two about weight training and my muscles seemed more toned!

Evaluation
As mentioned earlier, the beauty of having a personal trainer is that he helps to chart your progress through a report card. He will sit down with you and evaluate your progress every 2 months. Gary cautions against keeping track of your progress after every workout as it is unrealistic and may serve to discourage rather than encourage. After the evaluation, depending on the results, he may either keep or modify your training programme.

Having gone through a session of personal training, what's my verdict? The advantages of having a personal trainer are apparent. Besides having a clearer, more focused and time-framed fitness regime, an undisputed advantage is the encouragement and motivation that a personal trainer provides. Oh, OK. He/She is your babysitter, guardian, teacher, slave-driver and friend all rolled into one.

All said and done, personal training is not the means to the end to achieving and maintaining a svelte body. Gary says, "Some clients blame us when they are not happy with the rate of their progress. They blame us when they haven't managed to lose the weight that they desire. But what they should know that results vary from person to person depending on many factors such as diet, genes, body structure and muscle composition. Finally, it also boils down to how disciplined and committed you are, not just in the gym but also at home. After all, we can offer all the tips and advice on the diet and exercises to be done at home, but once they return home, we don't know if they keep to it or not."

Planet Fitness offers free trial sessions of personal training for new members who join the club. Personal training come in sessions of 5, 10 and 20. But if you are unsure of whether or not you need a personal trainer, fear not. There are introductory sessions prized at a special rate of $195. When you first sign up with Planet Fitness, you get 3 free trial sessions. Five introductory introductory lessons are now going at a special rate of $195.

Far East Square #01-01/02 & #02-01/02, 26 China Street Singapore 049568 Tel: 438 3833

For more information on Planet Fitness, log on to their official website.

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