Personal training is often highly rewarding. There’s nothing better than helping an individual get motivated, fit, and healthy. Making people feel good about themselves and confident in their health and happiness is second to none. Here at Entire Training, we have a variety of courses available for those seeking a prime, industry-leading personal trainer course.

Top tips and best practices for building an effective personal training plan

We will discuss what makes a good personal training session and go through some basic advice on how to put together an effective personal training plan that is tailored to the individual strengths, weaknesses and potential issues (injury, health problems etc.) of your client.

Understanding your client’s strengths, weaknesses and injuries

People are different. We all know this. So it’s common sense that your training plan will vary from client to client. The things you need to consider when building a personal training plan for any client are:

1. Experience

Is your client a beginner or a seasoned athlete, or somewhere in between? Will you need to start with the basics or go straight into specialised exercises? This is all stuff to consider when building your personal training plan

2. Body Type

Is your client an endomorph or a mesomorph? Different body types react differently to exercise and diet. If your client is an endomorph and naturally holds fat, then more cardio may be necessary to help them trim it down. If they’re a mesomorph then they may not need to do as much cardio to get to their desired weight.

3. Injuries

Does your client suffer from any previous injuries? Maybe they have pins in their right ankle which would mean they can’t run on a treadmill due to the high impact on the affected area. You could swap out treadmill exercise with less high impact training such as cycling, maintaining cardio exercises but without risking further injury.

4. Lifestyle

Does your client live a busy, active lifestyle? Is frequent walking a part of their job? If so, they may not need to do as much cardio as others. Are they lifting heavy loads throughout their workday? Then they may not need as much strength training as someone who works in an office.

5. Diet

Perhaps the most crucial thing to consider is the client’s diet. What people put into their bodies plays a large part in exercise. If the client consumes a lot of protein then this will help foster muscle development, so weight training may greatly benefit them. Maybe the client eats a lot of carbs, this would mean that they would do well in prolonged cardio sessions like running or HIIT circuit training. Diet also plays into the point about body types; different body types process foods differently, and a person who has lots of natural muscle may need more protein to maintain it, whereas an ectomorph may require even more protein in order to achieve their desired muscle growth.

It’s incredibly important to consider all of these factors when formulating a diet plan that is tailored to the specific needs of your client.

Use a variety of different exercises

Another aspect you need to consider is what kind of exercises your client will benefit the most from. Using the above bullet-pointed list as a guide to determining what exercises your client should be doing. There are a number of questions to ask before coming to a conclusion. What are your client’s fitness goals? Are they looking to build muscle or improve their cardio? Are they getting ready to compete in a marathon or a bodybuilding contest?

Each person is different, with different goals and aspirations. For those training to run a marathon, it’s best to incorporate cardio heavy exercises like HIIT training that build their cardiovascular endurance. If your client is training to build muscle and strength, it’s essential to include both weight training exercises as well as core strengthening exercises.

Cardio

Cardio is great for improving blood flow, burning fat and getting the heart ready and warmed up for more intensive exercises. Any of your clients, regardless of overall fitness goals, will benefit from cardio exercises and will soon feel great fitness gains. Cardio is a great way to improve your health all around. You may look like Arnie, but if you can’t walk a mile without being out of breath, what does it matter?

Not only is cardio a great way to improve overall fitness and health, but it’s also an incredibly effective way of destressing and shutting off, even for a little while. The effects that cardio has on mental health are well documented, and mental health goes hand in hand with physical and general wellbeing. It’s a self-serving cycle; those who reap the mental health benefits are more inclined to work out, further improving their physical fitness.

Strength

Weight training greatly improves peoples strength whilst also creating more muscle mass. Lots of people use weight training for the aesthetic benefits; becoming more ripped or getting bigger arms, but it also allows them to increase their strength.

That being said, weight training isn’t just for people who want to look buff. Performance athletes also reap significant benefits of improving their strength. Take a tennis player, for example, as they will need considerable strength in their arms, so taking part in weight training that strengthens their forearms will make all the difference in their tennis performance.

Bodyweight Exercises

Probably the best method of building raw core and overall strength is bodyweight exercises. As opposed to weight-based strength training, bodyweight exercises do not require any equipment at all, allowing your client to easily practice them at home without the need for purchasing any weights. After all, in today’s fast-paced world, convenience is king.

Including these bodyweight exercises in your personal training plan will benefit all clients, regardless of their end goals. Things like press-ups, sit-ups, the plank, tricep dips, burpees and other forms of core strength bodyweight exercises all go toward helping your client condition themselves and get their bodies well-conditioned for further, more advanced exercises down the road.

Gain The Knowledge To Create Expert Plans for Clients

If you like the idea of becoming a personal trainer and helping others achieve their fitness goals then take a look at our comprehensive range of health and fitness courses available from Entire Training. We can help you kickstart your career in personal training with our Level 2 Gym Instructor Course.

Get in touch with us for further information by calling 01772 910950 (North) or 0203 8418880 (South), or alternatively fill out the form on our contact us page and we will get back to you as soon as we can.