You’ve been training for years and developed a great physique as a result of your toiling. You know how to eat, and you know how to train. Supplements are a breeze and you surely take care of yourself. Still, you might benefit from the short-term use of an advanced personal trainer who could offer a wealth of ideas on how to improve upon your current training methods, and perhaps isolate some mistakes you’ve been making without knowing.
Granted, you have to choose the right trainer. Nothing against the 16-year old kid with pimples holding down the chair at the front of the gym playing Halo, but you probably have forgotten more about bodybuilding than he might even know. Skip his tutelage and seek out the best trainer in your area – someone who has worked with advanced athletes and seen advanced results. You’re paying for it, so a few extra bucks for someone stellar is perfectly acceptable. Remember, you don’t need a rep counter – you need someone to challenge your current set of beliefs and practices so that you might improve and deliver a better physique to the world than you otherwise would be able to do.
As humans, we are continually challenged to find ways to make things easier in life. We take shortcuts at work. We shave time by handing off tasks. We benefit financially and with more time by cutting corners. Over time, we may have applied these practices to the gym as well! Stop taking shortcuts by challenging a highly qualified personal trainer to dissect your current training form to decide if you are cheating yourself out of results. You might justify swinging the weight a bit when doing biceps curls, or arching your back when benching so you can move 20 more pounds. But the trainer won’t have the ego you will – and he/she will be able to correct your small mistakes so that you can enjoy better gains.
Don’t forget to have the trainer take a look at your diet. Be completely honest about serving sizes and cheat meals. Try their system of eating for a few weeks, and you may discover some diet discipline was in order for you. Or, you might reaffirm that your own understanding of how your body responds to certain foods was right, after all!
Make sure your trainer is certified with NASM, ISSA, ACE, IDEA, or one of the other highly credible and recognized organizations. Shop around to ensure you aren’t overpaying, but expect to pay a bit more to get the best results possible. Learn everything you can, take a year to grow, then try again with another trainer who can challenge you to continue making improvements!
