A personal trainer breaks down what you need to consider if exercising solo

A personal trainer in Toronto is here to help

This is an article talking specifically about what you need to think about if you are working out without a personal trainer at your side. my hope is that this will be able to offer some guidance (and guidelines) that will help to ensure that your workouts are as safe and effective as they can be and that your fitness blossoms accordingly. In a separate article I will link some of my favorite internet resources for fitness. To be honest, this is something I could write a book on so let’s say that this is the first article of what will, over time grow. Let’s get to it.

A personal trainer in Toronto says first things first

The first thing that you need to focus on is technique. Technique is critical, full stop. By focusing on technique you will crucially avoid injuries and make whatever it is you are doing as effective as possible and your overall fitness will thank you for it. But as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, not all articles and youtube videos are created equal and there is a lot of junk out there. Check out my links at the bottom for some folks that are legit great at their jobs (and that personal trainers use a lot to get ideas and advice).

Takeaway: Make good technique a hallmark of your training and be prepared to put in the work.

A personal trainer in Toronto talks adherence

Adherence is something personal trainers have to think a lot about and if you are going it on your own this should be top of your mind as well. There is absolutely no sense in saying that you are going to go to the local gym in Toronto five days a week if you know you are only going to get there twice. Adherence is very pragmatic. It’s not about what you want to do, it’s about what you will do. It is oftentimes a compromise between your fitness dreams and the reality of your life and that is fine. It’s better to go to the gym once a week and slowly build up to twice a week then thinking you should immediately start going three times a week and not going at all. Adherence is about winning. Set winnable goals for yourself. Saying you will do something and then not doing it erodes your confidence in a way that is really detrimental to your fitness journey.

Takeaway: set winnable goals based on the reality of your life.

A personal trainer in Toronto underlines nutrition

Whether your goal is sizing down or sizing up, just getting into better shape or wanting some serious strength gains, nutrition is equal to the time you spend in the gym, if not more so.

A bit that is hard for people to hear is that whatever your fitness goal, if it’s serious and you are serious about it, it’s a 24 hour a day job. And most of that job is diet. The particulars I will leave for another article and there will be some resources at the bottom of this article but just know, whatever you wanna do in a gym, that is only half the story. The other half is nutrition.

Takeaway: if you are not feeding yourself adequately and in line with your goals, no amount of gym time will truly make up the difference.

A personal trainer in Toronto cannot get enough mobility

It is a simple truth that if you can’t move well, you can’t lift well. Most of us are stiff from long periods of sitting and that can (and does) cause massive problems throughout gyms all across Toronto. Mobility is key to good, effective workouts. It also feels amazing. There are a lot of reasons people come to see personal trainers and one of the underlying ones is almost always people simply wanting to feel more comfortable in their bodies. Like not in a how-they-look way but in a how-they-feel way. One of the fundamentals of feeling better in your body is getting more mobility. Unchecked mobility issues are one of the biggest causes of injuries and if you’re injured you’re going to have a much harder time on your fitness journey.

Takeaway: learn what mobility means and how it looks. Plan to spend approximately ten minutes a day (outside of the gym) working on it.

A personal trainer in Toronto is serious about their warm-ups

And you should be too. Do not overlook your warm-ups. An effective warm-up gets all of your muscles ready for the exercise that lies ahead while working on underlying mobility and strength discrepancies. It primes the body for what is to come from a variety of angles, meaning you can get the absolute best out of your workout, really improve and avoid injury. Your fitness will increase with a good warm-up. As a personal trainer they are indispensable to getting the most out of my clients.

Warm-ups should happen in two phases within the workout: at the very beginning and then during the session. It will depend on what you are doing specifically but as a general rule, warm-up with a light weight at the top of each movement first (for one or two sets, depending) before diving into deeper, harder sets.

Your overall fitness, mobility and joints will thank you. If you don’t have a personal trainer at your side, a thorough, serious warm-up is one of the best ways you can be a solid personal trainer to yourself.

Takeaway: seriously your warm-ups are as important as your workout. Take it that seriously.

• Just a random note here: as a personal trainer in Toronto tooling around gyms I see a lot of people using the rollers that have no edges to them, they are just flat. These aren’t very effective. With the roller you want to be almost fluffing your muscles and fascia. The rollers with no edges just flatten things down and possibly cause more stickiness which is what you are trying to work out. Hop on the rollers with edges, breathe deep and steady (this is a really important step) and move slow and consciously. I also catch a lot of people going light and quick and you just really aren’t doing very much good there. Either do it deep and slow or you might as well skip it all together. As a personal trainer I find the rollers indispensable in my practice.

That’s it for me! I’ll be back next time talking more from the perspective of a Queer personal trainer in Toronto and after that I will be back to finish off this personal trainer series with an article on what to look for / how to find a personal trainer if that is the route you choose to go. Be well!