Ok, so you have decided to take a proactive step in your physical health by joining a gym and working out to get back into shape. Every day thousands of people decide to try working out in a gym to get back into shape and may or may not go about it the right way. Whether you were an avid athlete in your earlier years or not as your body ages you may need some guidance as you re-acquaint yourself with the gym and the many new machines they have to work out on.
The gym that I belong to has several new people starting their memberships everyday. The new enrollees are given two free hours with a personal trainer to help them get started off on the right foot. They are shown different techniques depending on what their goals are, either weight loss and/or strength training.
After the new members have been going to the gym for a while they begin to develop bad habits or try things that they shouldn’t do until they have worked up to them. Those individuals usually start showing up with knee or back braces because they over stressed various parts of their bodies. I found myself developing some bad habits because I didn’t want to spend the extra money to hire a personal trainer. My penny wise and pound foolish attitude caused me to strain my lower back to where I couldn’t bend down or walk right for two weeks. It nearly caused me to miss work which would have ended up costing much more that it would have had I hired a personal trainer in the first place.
Realizing the error of my ways, and not really wanting to quit the gym because I was really starting to slim down, I decided to consult a personal trainer. He charged an hourly rate so I hired him for an hour at a time when I was going to start a new training regimen.
He introduced me to the equipment that I would be using to accomplish my goals and the correct way to use it. Some of the equipment looks like it’s a “no brainer” to use but that is misleading. There is a correct technique for using each piece of equipment depending on your weight, height, and present physical condition. Using the exercise equipment incorrectly causes many people get hurt or cause strains where they shouldn’t.
So if you are just beginning your gym membership, been a member for a while, or thinking about joining one it is a good idea to consider hiring a personal trainer occasionally to help you stay on the right track with your workout. If money is a concern ask the managers in your gym if they offer classes on your subject of interest. They are usually much cheaper than hiring a personal trainer for yourself.
Bob Crane is the author of www.heartadvantages.com [http://www.heartadvantages.com] a website that helps you find what you need for keeping in shape. He also runs a blog at: www.fixnkeep.com [http://www.fixnkeep.com/] The blog discusses preventative maintenance and corrective fixes on cars and things around the house. “Why buy new if you can fix what you already have.”
