Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2385: Five Reasons Why You Should Hire a Trainer

Episode Date: July 22, 2024

 5 Reasons Why You Should Hire a Trainer Drastically improve your odds of success by hiring a trainer. (1:38) The misconception of the challenge and difficulty of getting fit and STAYING fit. (6:22) You don’t know what you DON’T know. (8:40) The resurgence of being a personal trainer. (11:08) Why don’t most people invest in a personal trainer when they get a gym membership? (12:59) How do I get a good trainer? (16:22) 5 Reasons Why You Should Hire a Trainer #1 - They understand proper exercise. (17:23) #2 - They can guide you through pitfalls. (22:27) #3 – Accountability. (27:32) #4 – Objectivity. (32:02) #5 - It’s more enjoyable. (36:44) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit NASM for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Buy CPT Self Study and Get CNC for Free (A savings of $899!) ** July Promotion: MAPS Split | Sexy Athlete Bundle 50% off! ** Code JULY50 at checkout ** Mind Pump #2172: Five Commandments For Successful Personal Trainers Mind Pump #1492: Five Things To Look For In An Online Coach With Jason Phillips Mind Pump #2262: Six Reasons Trainers Fail Mind Pump #2317: Success Tips From World Class Trainers Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources

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your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump with your hosts, Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast in history, right? This is mind pumped. Now today's episode, we talk about the five reasons why you should hire a trainer if you want to get fit. You want to build muscle, burn body fat, improve your health. Almost nothing will get you the same results or the consistency of results

or the longevity of results as working with a good trainer. So that's what we talk about in today's episode. Now this episode is brought to you by a sponsor, NASM. This is the world's premier national certification for personal trainers and coaches. It's literally the best in the world. And we are very privileged to be working with them. And if you go through our link nasmpt.com

right now if you get their certified personal training certification you can get their certified nutrition coach for free so you'll get that with that certification on that link also we have a sale this month on workout programs maps split is half off and the sexy athlete bundle of workout programs is also half off. If you go to MAPSFitnessProducts.com and then use the code JULY50, you can get that hookup. All right, here comes the show. If you're looking to improve your fitness, your health, you want to lose body fat, build muscle, just feel a lot better.

One of the best possible things you could do is hire a good trainer. Today's episode, we're talking about the five reasons why most people should hire one. Like it. Yeah. This is a good one because when you look at the data on people's success rate and really the best data we have is in regards to weight loss because that's what tends to be tracked. The fail rate with weight loss is incredibly high. Incredibly high. It's like some estimates put it at like 90%. It's like 10% of the people that lose

weight will keep it off. Whereas 90% gain it back. And if you're watching listening to this right now, odds are you've experienced that yourself. Now working with a trainer dramatically improves the odds that you'll succeed. Dramatically. At the very least it's going to triple your success. In my experience working with good trainers and I know all of us that did this for a long time, your success rate is even

higher than that, far higher than that. So it's one of the best things you can invest in and of all the things that people invest in to improve their odds of fat loss or changing the way they look or their health, I can't think of a single thing that has a better return on investment. I can't think of a single anything. There's nothing that you can invest in. And people spend a lot of money on this, a lot of money on supplements and diet plans and all that kind of stuff.

But really it's like, if you have a guide, you have a trainer, there's nothing better you can do for yourself to ensure that success. 24 hour fitness used to have a stat that was in regards to this and very useful for those of us that were managing gyms. And I remember it was the reason, the main reason why they started to include five personal training sessions with the purchase of a KeyFit Plus membership, which was like their lifetime membership or membership that you prepaid for three years, right? And they found that the average person that bought a membership and got started, uh, would use the membership consistently for the first two months, then fall off,

but continue paying for seven months. So the person would use the gym for two months consistently fall off to where it was sporadic or not anymore at all. And then for seven months after that continue paying and then. So nine months, you got someone. Right. And they found that the client that bought a membership that also got a member or also got a personal trainer, even if it was for just five personal training

sessions would stay for three plus years of consistency. Yeah. And so that was a major pivot for that company to start to include five personal training sessions with, and I really attribute a lot of the growth and success that 24 hour fitness had back in its hey days to figuring this out of realizing, wow, if we just got, you know, these members in front of a trainer for five visits, their longevity in the business or in coming to the gym substantially increased. And of course, I mean, it makes sense because, and there's other factors that I think play

into this too, because I forget what the stat is on injury in the first couple of months. It's really high too. So not only is this because people are probably thinking, well, that's not me. I'm motivated and I'm not the person that's going to quit. Well, it's not always just because people quit a high percentage get hurt from doing things improperly. And so having that personal trainer, especially when you're first getting started. And I would make the case, regardless of where you're at in your journey, but especially when you get started is paramount.

Well, how you open it up, I think the biggest distinction is that people end up gaining the weight back. And the easy part, well, I guess not the easy part, the one that's marketed to people the most is that if you, you could come in and you can you can basically lose weight if you throw the kitchen sink at it if you do all these things at once if you just put

hard work into it and you show up but after a while if you don't have the right plan if you don't have you know the right programming for you to sustain and to create like a longevity to this weight loss journey. The psychological piece to that is so much, it's a lot more than I think people give weight to and to have a personal trainer there to really like coach you through a lot of the pitfalls to keep you going and realize that there's going to be setbacks, there's going to be challenges that you didn't foresee, really helps to keep you going and keep you on the right path. Yeah, look, it's interesting because I think people get, you kind of tapped into this a

little bit, Justin. There's this misconception on the challenge and difficulty of getting fit and then staying fit. I think there's a huge misconception or misunderstanding. I think the understanding is, well, if I just go sweat and move, and then if I just eat less, then it's all good. I'm going to succeed. But again, the data shows you probably won't. And it's actually one of the more, of all the things that people attempt, it's actually in terms of the data, it's actually one of the most

challenging things. I don't know if people would try other things knowing how challenging it was based off of data and not hire someone to help them. You know, it's very interesting. I think there's a misconception around exercise too where, well, if I just move, that's good. That's better than nothing.

But, um, if you, if you move properly, it makes a profound impact on your success. Here's the, I mean, the top reason is why people stop. I'll tell you what they are. One, injury is always there. Two, I feel like I'm putting way more effort and getting very little return.

If you feel like you're putting a ton of effort into something and you're getting very little back, you're going to want to stop. It doesn't make any sense. It's very discouraging. It's very discouraging. Like any relationship, remember this is a relationship that you build with fitness. Imagine having a relationship where you put all the effort in, you do everything to nourish and help this relationship flourish,

and the other person is not returning your calls, they don't wanna show up, they don't, so you're like, this is a waste of time, I'm not gonna, you might try for a month or two, if you really care about this person, be like, you know, this is not worth it. That's a big one. Imagine going to work for 40 hours

and getting your paycheck and it says zero dollars on it. Exactly. Because this is laborious, right? This isn't just a relationship where I gotta call you on the phone or send a letter to you or nothing. I gotta show up to the gym and put labor in. And so imagine going to work for 40 hours, opening up your paycheck and then the weekend.

It's a dollar. Yeah and you show up and you're in pain while you're going. Like so to your other point of like people just not knowing how to address certain issues that they have before they even get started. I think a personal trainer is so invaluable in that regard. Another reason why people quit is they don't know what they don't know in terms of the challenge. An experienced trainer knows what you're going to experience. So people who

embark on a fitness journey think that the biggest challenge is getting to their fitness goal. It's not the biggest challenge is not getting your fitness. Well, that's a challenge. It's one of them. It's not the biggest one, but they think if I can get to my goal, I'm done. I'm there. I won. I succeeded.

No, maintaining it is far bigger challenge. In fact, far more people will lose weight than keep it off. Lots of people lose weight. It happens all the time. lose weight than keep it off. Lots of people lose weight. It happens all the time. People don't keep it off. And then third, once you get there, there are other challenges that you come upon. For example, okay, now I'm here. Now what?

How do I keep this going? This is great, but it's not what I thought it would be. Or you hit stumbling blocks along the way and maybe the first stumbling block you hit, you could overcome by simply doing more and eating less. But then at some point that doesn't become feasible. I can't do more. This isn't part of a family. I can't work out more than I am now.

I don't want it or eat less than I currently am. I'm already feeling like I'm super deprived and I can't even enjoy myself on a date night with my spouse. And so it's just the fail rate is super high. So hiring a guide, a trainer who knows what they're doing, they're going to forecast the challenges to you. They're going to tell you, here's what you're going to experience. That makes a big difference. They know how to properly train you and they can take you along this. So imagine this challenging journey that you're on. You're going to try and go from here to somewhere else. And then after you get there, you're going to keep walking anyway. You don't know what the directions are.

You don't know if you need to climb a mountain, if you need to wade through a river, you don't need if you're going to drive, take a boat. There's a cliff on the other side of that. You don't know if there's a dragon around the corner. You don't know what is going on. But then there's this person that's like, oh, that journey, I've walked that journey myself and I've walked and taken hundreds of people on that exact journey.

I know what the path looks like. I'm going to walk you through it. I'm going to make sure we don't take a wrong turn. I'm going to show you how to avoid those pitfalls. And then by the way, some of them you can't. You're going to fall in. I'm going to make sure we don't take a wrong turn. I'm going to show you how to avoid those pitfalls. And then by the way, some of them you can't, you're going to fall in. I'm going to be there to put a ladder down, help you climb out. I'm going to help you through this journey. So you can always look to me as we move through this.

That's why the success rate is so much higher, uh, working with a good trainer. Has the interest in personal training, uh, increased or stay the same? Or it's always growing. Is it? Is it always growing? Ever since they were tracking it. Yeah. It's personal training is or stay the same? It's always growing. Is it? Is it always growing? Ever since they were tracking it, yeah. Personal training has always grown nice and consistently over the years. I think it's more and more people realize the value in it, that the interest seems to be going up.

There seems to be a resurgence, especially too with everybody going back to the gyms. I think that that's the first step always, as we always saw people like this rush to get into the gym, but now it's like, what do I do? There's a little bit of a confusion there. The interest and personal trainer to at least spend a few sessions, so it's like, okay, I can navigate through here. That's at least your your second step people find, but yeah, there has to be like this need for people to understand like, how do I do this?

How do I resistance train? Because I'm hearing all these great benefits from it and a personal trainer will really help you with that. Well, I used to tell people this when I would talk to them when I was a gym manager, because managing a gym, you sell memberships, but then you sell services in there, including personal training. A membership, the investment for a membership is far less than the investment for personal training.

One session with a trainer will cost you more than three months of access to the gym, just one session, typically, sometimes even more than that. And so when I would talk to people about training, they would bring that up and say, look, let of access to the gym, just one session typically, sometimes even more than that. And so when I would talk to people about training and they would bring that up and say, look, let me put it this way. Would you rather take $20 out of your pocket and light it on fire or would you rather spend a thousand dollars and get $2,000 in return, right? One is a larger investment, but you get twice your money back. The other one, you just light on fire.

So yes, it costs more money to work with a good trainer, but you're gonna get what you want. If you don't, you're not going to. You're not gonna do anything. Yeah. Do you think that that's the number one reason? Why if, like we're gonna go over all these five important reasons and we can make all these cases,

we laid the, set the table with the stats on how much, so why is it that still a majority of people don't invest in a personal trainer when they get a gym membership? Because they say, I can, oh, oh, it's, I don't know, $100 an hour, $80 an hour, whatever. So you think money. I can do it on my own. Yeah, I think it's hard for them to justify.

Yeah, I can do it on my own. What do you mean? I don't need a trainer. I'll just go work out. They think they just need to lose weight and it's just about movement. Yeah, so I would make the argument that it's less about money, it's more about they actually think

they think it's easier than what it really is. That's what I mean, so they look at the money and it's just not, I mean if I sold you a house for $1. Which is really interesting to me because when you understand the complexity of the metabolism, the brain, you know, like, and you are attempting to solve that equation, it's far more difficult than popping the hood of your car

and fixing the engine. I mean, that's actually way more straightforward to fix. And you could literally YouTube the exact car, the exact problem and have a step-by-step with it. Yet, nobody does that. No, and nobody does that. You take it to a mechanic, right? Yet, with your own body, which is far more complex. So you can't YouTube, I weigh 230 pounds on this and that, I can't lose weight, fix it and actually get the answer. That's how great, that's how complex it is because there's so many variables

with the individual. It's like, imagine if that's what fixing the car was like, yet we have no hesitation of taking our car into a mechanic when something goes down, but yet, and we don't have the audacity or arrogance to think, oh, I could fix it easily, even though I know nothing really about engines, but I could totally, you still take that in.

So it's so interesting to me that we don't perceive. Yeah, exactly. People's expectations are completely off because of how we've marketed to them. And we know, we know that the most effective way to capture their attention is to market that we're going to solve their problem in a shorter amount of time. And it only is going to take X, Y, Z to get you there. And you know, any good trainer that has any weight knows that it's much longer journey than that.

And, okay, okay. Yes. The human body is far more of a complex machine than a car, but it's also not just the machine. It's also a feeling, breathing behavior, uh, creature. So a trainer is, although they are gonna know what to do, they also have to know how to guide you because you are gonna get in your own way. And this is why I said the metabolism and the brain. Yeah. Right? Because within the brain comes the

emotions and all the trauma and all the other things. And so if you think, like why can't I stop eating like this? If the brain is one of the most complex things that we know of and the Gut is one of the metabolism is one of the most complex things you have to you have to Work with both of those to to have somebody successful at weight loss or building muscle or health, right? And yet we have this arrogance of oh, yeah, I could do this. I could figure it out No problem, but with something as as simple, I would say as complex, but as simple as a engine to your car, we don't even think about troubleshooting that. We'll just take that right into the mix.

Now, before we get into some of the most important reasons, because someone might be listening and say, okay, well, how do I get a good trainer? We've done other episodes on this, but just a couple easy things. A good trainer is typically educated and experienced. If somebody's been training clients who are like you, so if they're like an athletic trainer and you're just an everyday person, maybe find someone that works with someone like you. But experienced, probably a couple years, at least two or three years, and educated.

They're certified maybe once or twice. But they're experienced. Experience shows one, they know what they're certified maybe once or twice. But their experience, experience shows one, they know what they're doing because they can last. The training business, it's hard to last as a trainer longer than a year if you don't do a decent job. It's a tough job. If you made it beyond five years as a personal trainer, you're probably pretty good.

You're pretty good, yeah. Probably doing something right. Yeah, yeah. At what level of great you are yet, I don't know, but if you've made it five years, uh, you've, you're probably pretty good at what you're doing. That's right. So experience and education.

And then obviously, um, you know, those are the two biggest things you want to look at. All right. So the first reason why you want to work with a trainer, um, is they understand proper exercise. Now there's a lot of misconceptions around exercise. Now, there's a lot of misconceptions around exercise. So some people think trainers know exercises and that they know proper form to exercises and that's their value. That is a small part of their value.

Yes, if you're a trainer, you need to know exercises and yes, if you're a trainer, you need to know proper exercises, but that's not the hard part. The hard part is applying them and programming workouts and using the right combination of exercises for the individual that you're working for. I mean, it's, it could be as, as simple as here's a, here's proper form for a barbell row, which is a great exercise generally speaking, but depending on

the person wrong exercise for you, we're not going to do this one or right exercise for you. We're going to do this one. And a good trainer knows when that exercise, even done properly is wrong for the wrong, for the, it's not the right exercise. And the only way they know that is by a proper assessment. So that's the first key, a red flag. I should say, if you are interviewing a personal trainer and you're going through the process and they don't take you through a proper assessment where they're really getting all those details and information, not just what you're telling them in terms of past injuries and all that kind of stuff, but they're taking you through movements. And they're really like absorbing a lot of this information from having you move and observing. Yes. They also know how to take you as an individual, have you pick the right exercise, and we'll get into programming in a second, but take the right exercise for you.

We'll just keep it to one movement. Watch you do that exercise, show you, watch you, and then coach you on how to move properly. Now you might be thinking, what's so hard about that? I watched them do it and I copy it. Oh, really? Have you seen a golf swing? Can you go swing. Oh really? Have you seen a golf swing? Can you go swing a golf club? Have you seen someone throw a baseball?

Can you go throw a baseball like they do? It's the same thing with exercise. They're all skills and a very good trainer knows how to teach a skill of an exercise effectively. It is not at all. One of the other misunderstandings is that, oh, I just watched the exercise and I can copy it. This, by the way, for new trainers is always a shock. I remember Justin talking about this.

You walk in, you're like, oh, here's how you do it. Here you go, Ms. Johnson. And then you're like, why aren't you doing what I showed you? They can't. Doesn't look anything like I just did. They can't. What do I do with this?

Their body doesn't move that way. They don't know how to get their body to move that way. And then your skill comes into play on how do I get this person to move properly? How do I pick the right movements to train their body to move this way? How do I cue them properly? What am I telling them to do? Why can't they move properly? Okay, let me figure this out.

And then they teach you the skill. It's so important that people understand this too because your return on your investment is dependent on this. So if you just like investing in the stock market, like anybody can go put money in the stock market, but having a professional teach you how to do it really dictates the return on investment of that money. Like anybody can go out and go do the movement, but how well you perform the movement really dictates the return on that investment. And so I can't stress enough that it isn't as simple as going in and just doing the movements. It's how effectively do the movements dictates how much muscle you build, how much body fat you take off. That's

the stuff that matters. If you don't do it properly, then you don't get the same return on your investment. And so I think it's important to recognize that, yeah, of course you can go under there and go try and just do a bench press, but having somebody who's a professional who's going to teach you how to do that properly makes a huge difference on the return on the investment. By the way, I use the golf swing as an example. I like that one because an expert would see two golf swings and could tell if one is good and one isn't, whereas the average person might look at both of them and say they kind of look the same. Like a small change in a movement can take it from being effective to dangerous. No joke, especially with some of the most effective exercises out there.

Well, and sticking with that analogy, Sal, that same professional can look at that golf swing and give you the slightest detail of, oh, open up your grip a tiny bit and it makes all the difference. of, oh, open up your grip a tiny bit and it makes all the difference. Versus like the average person looking at it and just like, yeah, both swings look pretty bad. Trying to hit it to the right. Yeah, right. Both swings look pretty bad. Try this, try that, try this. And it's like, you know where you, a coach goes, oh, widen your stance by two inches. And a trainer also knows proper intensity. Everybody thinks hard is what you need to do.

That's not true. Intensity has to be individualized. If it's not, you will fail. They also understand volume, how many exercises, how many reps for the individual. I keep saying the individual because one of the values of working with a trainer is they train you, not a million of a bunch of people. You as an individual need to be trained as an individual. They also know order of exercises, combinations of exercises, what we're

doing through the week, through the month, how we progress, how we regress, how we move through the workout. That's what I mean by they understand proper exercise. Now, the second thing is that this one's really important is they can guide you through pitfalls. There are going to be pitfalls. You are going to plateau and you are going to be challenged. Now you might be thinking, I just need someone to kick my ass.

I hear this. I see here this all the time. I want a higher trainer just to kick my ass and motivate me. No, you don't. This is not effective period. End of story. If it was as if, if all you needed was somebody to yell at you, to get in shape, then, uh, you know, everybody with an abusive partner or parent

or whatever would do just fine. It'd be Jack. It doesn't work. It only works when you're in those early stages of motivation. Believe me, it makes things so undesirable, so crappy. It fills you full of shame as you fail. And eventually you just don't want to do it anymore because why are you telling me just to be motivated?

Like this is a good trainer knows how to guide you through those pitfalls and those challenges for when the scale doesn't move for when you feel a particular way for when you're not motivated. That's when it's hard. I never ever had a challenge getting a client to show up who was motivated. They would show up on their own. It was when they weren't motivated that a lot of my skills came into play. This is what a good trainer will do. Yeah, and a lot of times too, a good trainer is going to be able to simplify a lot of things

for you. So it's going to be able to make things relatable and really be able to peer into your personality and how to steer you based off of a lot of behaviors that you observe as a coach that's gonna move the needle the most. And so, for the most part, it's just like very simple, very direct kind of cues and things, whether it's your exercising or whether it's with your nutrition

to focus on for those few days or for that week. And it's a very deliberate targeted approach, which, you know, it helps, I think, a lot of the stress and the anxiety over working out is because of, it's actually a lot. Once you get into it, there's a lot of variables, a lot of factors to it. And to be able to just have clarity of like,

this is the simple thing to focus on, it goes so far. The art of forecasting is so unbelievably powerful. It reminds me of what just happened to me recently with, my wife does this to me with things, right? So, and it's so funny how I can clearly see the difference of how I respond in these situations. And right away I connect the dots to, oh, this is so much like coaching a client

through a weight loss journey. And that is we just got back from a trip where we were down in Universal Studios during the 4th of July weekend. So you can imagine how just over the top ridiculous crowds are and so that. And Katrina tells me at the end of the day, she's like, God, you were so good, honey, like through the whole day, like just patient and this and that. But so much of that was her because she mentally prepped me going into that. You know, it's going to be busy. Yes. Yeah. Tell me, honey, you know,

we're going to have this. Honey, you know that someone's going to bump into you when we're doing this. You know, there's going to be times we're in the sun and it's like, she's like, like, yeah, yeah. And I'm going, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I know. I got it. And yet when it happens, it's still, but then it had this calming, this sense of calm that comes over me because it's like, I knew this was coming. I knew this was coming. And so it doesn't bother me as much. This is just like when you're taking somebody

through their journey in fitness because it will have pitfalls, it will have challenges, it will have setbacks, it will have plateaus. And a good coach and a trainer has the ability to forecast that for you. And boy, it's such a different experience. When you worked your ass off for two weeks, you get on the scale and it didn't move anywhere and you knew that was a possibility coming because your coach said, hey, there's

a good chance this might happen and this might happen because we're doing X, Y and Z. So be prepared for it. That's okay. It doesn't mean we're doing a bad job. I'm prepared for that. I expect that to happen during this journey. Now when you set that expectation for the client and that happens, the feeling that they get the result from that is so different than if it is like out of the blue where you're just coaching your client on their 30 pounds of weight loss. You don't forecast anything. The first two weeks of the scale not moving comes and now they're pissed.

Now they're distraught. Now they don't. Now they don't trust you. Now they don't have faith in where you're getting unexpected problems. Or worse, they don't have you and they this happened to themselves and they go oh my god I quit I don't want to do this or they overcorrect because they think oh I'm not doing the right thing so now I need to do this thing. That right there is so so powerful. And back to Justin's point too, a lot of it is not just telling you where to place your focus, because those are the areas where you're going to see the most movement, but also where not to place your focus.

Because a lot of people place their focus in the wrong area and a good trainer will say, actually, that's not going to help you that much. I know you think adding hours of whatever, cardio or doing this other thing is going to help you, so we're not going to make a big difference. Let's put your focus over here and here's why. It's good to have somebody there that can guide you through that process versus blindly going through as somebody and really only using your own past experience as a guide and your past experience was failure. So that's a terrible guide.

Next up is accountability. Um, this makes a big difference, especially in those early days of showing up, you know, especially if you're not comfortable in the fitness environment or gym environment. Um, and it's easy for you to come up with reasons why you shouldn't go, but you have an appointment and, you know, a good trainer is also someone you look forward to seeing, by the way, um, and we'll get more of that a little later, but this is somebody look forward to seeing. So, you know, one thing I got good at later in my career was helping people

who'd never really gotten comfortable working in a gym, but I knew they would show up because they had me there with them. Whereas if they came in by themselves, they'd probably not show up as often. So when you have those appointments with a trainer, if you're trained with them twice a week, the odds are you're going to exercise properly twice a week versus kind of having to count on yourself.

And this is shown in the data. When people have an appointment with an instructor, the odds that they're going to show up and not quote unquote flake are far higher than if they don't have anybody there Helping them at all. I actually found a large percentage of my clientele base Hired me just for this. Yes, so I tend I had quite a bit of Professionals that I train right type-a personalities CEOs founders Business executives, right the people that were professionals.

That type of archetype I found really appreciated the accountability piece. In fact, many times I'd have them for years. I had taught them everything I knew. They could totally go do them, but because they knew the way they ran their life that they don't miss meetings, they don't miss phone calls, they're very professional that if they have a meeting with me, that accountability piece was so powerful that they knew they just wouldn't miss. Whereas if they didn't have me to hold them accountable or to be there for a meeting, they would justify all the other things that are so busy in their life to why they can't make that appointment. But just by having that commitment, even though they had the knowledge and an experience now

of doing it, they still would do that. So this is a really powerful piece when you understand the values, especially if you know you're that type of person, you know that, like, I mean, I remember leaning into this when I started my Instagram page. And part of that was I was going to use my body transformation as my way of garnering attention.

And I knew that if I announced it publicly that I'm going to do this, I would have this weight of like, gotta fall through because I said, I'm going to do this accountability piece. And I'm sure there would have been many times during that journey, had I not announced it, had I not put that accountability on me, that I probably would have made an excuse of, oh, I'm so busy right now or I'm sick,

I can't do it. It's like, oh, but no, because I have this accountability piece, I've followed through and execute. Many people were like this that I trained and it was something that they leaned into. Well, and I think too, a lot of people think of accountability like they could find like a workout buddy or they can riff with know, riff with their spouse or, uh, you know, be part of like a group that kind of does this. Uh, and you know, the reason why, like a personal trainer is very professional is very detailed in terms of your individual needs. And, um, the thing you always consider is like, uh, people that love you, they love you.

And, and, um, you know, a lot of times they'll times they'll kind of go with when you have that chatter in your head of like, well, I don't know if I should go. And like, yeah, maybe you shouldn't go. And like- You end up influencing them. You end up influencing each other. And then it just kind of- So to have somebody that's just kind of professional and just keep you on track and we'll steer it and you trust them.'ll, we'll, we'll steer it. And you trust them. Like this is where, like a personal trainer just totally trumps all the rest.

Here's how powerful accountability is. Uh, some of the most ineffective forms of exercise are in group classes. We've talked about this before on podcasts. It's a big, uh, you're instructing a giant class of, uh, lots of different individuals, the workout is going to be inappropriate for 90% of them because it's not individualized. And yet people like them because of the accountability. And Jim data shows this. People that go to classes are more consistent than people who try to go in on their own.

Now I'm not advocating to go do a group exercise class. My point is to show the power of accountability. Of course with a personal trainer, it's individualized so you also get the added benefit of a proper appropriate workout just for you that's individualized for you versus one that's written for a group of 30 people. Next up is that trainers are objective. Now, why is someone that's objective important? I'll tell you why. Your mind will play games on you on this journey so much it's not even funny. The two biggest liars in your life when it

comes to fitness are the scale and the mirror. The scale and the mirror are the two biggest liars. The scale tells you mass, doesn't tell you fat loss, doesn't tell you muscle gain, doesn't tell you performance, doesn't tell you improved health or hormone profile or libido or energy or anything else. It just says weight. So cut your foot off, you lost weight, you know put on a heavy jacket, you gained weight. I mean I'm being silly here but it lies to you in terms of what's actually happened. The mirror lies to you as well. I'll give you a great example. I'm sure most people

can relate to this. There was a point in your life when you thought you looked so terrible and you know, and oh my God, I don't look good. And now it's 15 years later, you look back at those pictures and you go, what was I thinking? I looked amazing, but I was so insecure about how I looked, I thought I didn't look good in a bikini or in my bathing suit. I was tripping, but you believed it.

You believed it in that moment. Both those things lie to you. So it's really nice to have a coach or a trainer be was tripping, but you believed it. You believed it in that moment. Both those things lie to you. So it's really nice to have a coach or a trainer be objective. So when you weigh yourself and the scale goes up a little bit, and then you do a body fat test, it's body fat loss, muscle gain. You're like, yeah, but my weight went up and they go, yeah, you look amazing. Your strength is higher.

You've got more energy. We're talking about this. Look at the curve in your hamstrings and you go, you know what? I think it kind of makes sense. I think you're right. Having that objective person inform you of the successes you had when you're focusing on maybe the one failure is also another reason to have somebody who's objective.

It's great to have that person there who's an expert and a professional to help calm that part of you that lies and is often fed by, like I said, the mirror and the scale. I wish I remember exactly at what point in my career that I really pieced this together. I don't remember when it was, but I do remember what I did because of it. It became this conversation that I would be having with my clients, and I'm looking at it and I'm going like, I know they look better. I can see it, but they would be having with my clients and I'm looking at it and I'm going like, I know they look better. I can see it, but they would be telling me no. Like, oh, I look worse.

I don't feel it. I'm like, God, it's good. And then I started to do this where I said, okay, every Friday morning you are to take a photo front side and back in the same outfit every morning, every Friday morning through this journey. And that became a mandatory thing that I did with all my clients. And it was for me. And it was for me so that when we had these conversations- You could pull them up. I would pull them up.

And I can't tell you how many times I literally had to do this. I put them side by side on my phone and be like, this was you four weeks ago. This is you right now. Can you not see the definition in your shoulder here? Do you see how much your weight? And I'd have to like literally point to the, all the areas on their body that I could show them improvement. And then, and then they would go, uh, okay, I guess I kind of see it.

And it's like, wow. Like that's, that's how important the, uh, having a trainer for the objectivity of this is because so many of these clients, they have this distorted view of themselves because of whatever said insecurity from their past. And a lot of times they can't even see when they're moving in the right direction. So having that trainer to be able to point that out. And then again, this is where I started, this was the purpose of the photos was I recognize this and it was happening to me. And I try getting in that argument without the pictures

where they're telling you, I see myself at them every day. I don't look better today than I did when we first started. And I'm going like, no, I think you do. Like, no, I don't. Like, okay, I lose. I don't have anything. But once I had the photos, and then I could break it down and be like, look, look, look, look,

and then they would go, and it would, even then it was like, oh, okay, I guess I kinda see it. It was like, wow. You look like, that's how distorted some people's views of themselves are. Well, I mean, we all experience this. I mean, we got us into fitness, we're these insecurities.

I thought I was this super, super skinny kid. I look at pictures now when I was 15, 16 years old and I looked like a normal kid. Wasn't this extreme, but I felt that way and it would have been nice to have a coach that I trusted be objective and tell me, actually you're doing pretty good and here's what's happening, here's what's happening here.

And maybe use the method like you said, Adam, but that objectivity can be very valuable because you lie to yourself. You lie to yourself about this fitness journey and then those lies lead you to making decisions that don't help you, that actually counter what you're after. Now finally, and I don't want to understate this because this is, I think, one of the most important parts of working with a good trainer is this whole process is far more enjoyable. Now it's enjoyable for a lot of different reasons. One, your workouts are effective. It's great to, this is one of the best feelings in the world is when you feel like your return

is greater than your investment. That's how you should feel with a proper workout. In fact, one of my favorite comments I would get from clients is they'd come to me and say, I can't believe we're getting these results. It kind of feels like I'm not putting a ton of effort into it. I mean, I'm putting effort, but not like I feel like I should be for what I'm getting. Then I knew like, oh, this is great. Like we're doing the right stuff. That makes it more enjoyable. Exercising properly is more enjoyable than exercising improperly.

It doesn't hurt the same way. There's definitely pain with proper exercise, but it's a good kind of pain. You don't feel like you're dead leaving the gym. You're not walking for three days afterwards because you did it properly. That also makes it more enjoyable. Feeling better at the end of your workout than you did at the beginning of your workout is a hallmark of a proper workout. That's great.

That's enjoyable. And then one of the final things is the person you're working with, the coach that you're working with, if you work with someone good, you look forward to seeing them. Now, why is this such an important factor? Well, it makes you come and train with them and do all this stuff, but what you're developing, because remember, like I said at the beginning of this episode, 90% of people gain the weight back. This is a relationship that you're trying to develop for the rest of your life.

So if you get fit, you want to stay fit, it's actually more important that you stay fit as you get older than it is even right now. So hopefully you're doing this in your 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and if you're lucky in your 90s, you want to do this for the rest of your life. The relationship builds and especially is dependent on how it starts. Right? So if it starts off in this enjoyable way, not that the workouts are fun and exciting themselves, but rather they give you more than you invest. You feel good about it.

You start to understand your body. You get through those pitfalls. You know how to do this after you're done with the trainer on your own. Well, now the odds that you'll have this relationship for the rest of your life. Go through the roof. That's why it's so important to have that enjoyable. Oh yeah. I can't stress like how important that is in the beginning to really take your time of observing these trainers and coaches with their clients and how they interact. Because you want to look forward to it. You want to come in and know that you're going to have a

great conversation in between sets. You're going to learn something probably. You're going to grow. You're going to really look forward to coming back and relating with this person because it's not just like a few, it's not like a month's worth time. For the most part, you're gonna be connected to this person through this journey for a while. And so to be able to have that kind of rapport, you can really kind of sense that when you observe somebody for long enough. Totally.

Listen, if you listen to this podcast consistently, you understand this is part of the formula. This is what, what we knew going into this podcast was we couldn't just tell people the science and information. Like they had to enjoy the process of listening to the show or else it wouldn't be a show. It wouldn't continually get people back, come back and listen. And that we learned that from this part of the journey with clients is that yeah, I got to know the science. Yeah, I got to know the nutrition, but they also have to enjoy

this process. If I'm going to keep them coming. Yeah, I got to know the nutrition, but they also have to enjoy this process. If I'm going to keep them coming back, it's no different than the formula that you see in the podcast is like, yeah, we could just read studies and break down the science of, of nutrition and exercise. We absolutely can do that. But boy, it wouldn't be the show that it is today because it has to have a piece of it that makes people like, you know what, I actually enjoy learning about this process through listening to these guys,

because there's an element that we've tried to build into it that's enjoyable for the listener. It's no different when you're going inside the gym. And a good trainer understands this piece of like, I got to help this client change their relationship with exercise and nutrition and make it more fun, make it more enjoyable if I'm gonna make it a lifelong pursuit.

Bottom line is this, the really good trainers are not the trainers that get the most clients. They also get the most clients, but that's not what makes them really good. They're not the trainers that get people the best results, although that's a part of it. They're the trainers that get people to do this after they're done working with them and staying consistent forever. This is a big piece of it. And again, if you invest, uh, you know, uh, in some cases, it could be a few thousand dollars, sounds like a ton of money, but if it turns into this

lifelong relationship, appropriate relationship with proper exercise and nutrition, where you improve your health, you improve your fitness, and then it's something you want to do for the rest of your life. I can't think of anything that costs a few thousand dollars that'll improve the quality of life more than that. Literally it'll improve every aspect. A healthy you and fit you is better in every aspect of your life. I don't care what thing you point out. So again one of the greatest investments you can make. Look if you love the show go to mindpumpfree.com. I have a free fat loss guide there. It's totally free. It breaks

down the basic steps for fat loss. Again, it's mindpumpfree.com. You can also find all of us on Instagram. Justin is at mind pump Justin. I'm at mind pump DeStefano and Adam is at mind pump Adam. Thank you for listening to mind pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes maps anabolic, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform

the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a 5-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is MindPump.