Setting goals for personal training

Motivation and commitment count for a lot in achieving your fitness goals with a personal trainer. Dogged determination and an inspirational go-getting attitude are impressive and it is only the naive who believe that personal training requires no input from themselves at all. However, what cannot be overlooked is just how vital it is that as you power away you are working toward the right results.

It doesn't take a genius to realize that fitness success is linked to inspiration and perspiration. Any personal trainer will tell you that to realize your ambitions and change your lifestyle you have to put in physical effort. That does not mean that training has to be a chore. Far from it. One of the great benefits of one-to-one training is that your trainer can help create engaging exercises and exhilarating sessions that leave you feeling energized.

To get the best results you also need to define clear ambitions and aims and this is something you should be able to establish at the start of your personal training sessions if the right approach is taken:

• Get a personal trainer - Unless you are au fait with all fitness trends and an expert in training techniques then personal training can be just the ticket you need to access your goals, as well as set them in the first place. Customized training is about creating a program that directly works toward a specific focus. A personal trainer can offer valuable advice on how to get to your fitness destination in the most effective way.

• Remember a PT is not a mind reader - While a personal trainer will look at your current fitness status and improve on what is lacking, you may have specific goals in mind. For example, if you want to improve your performance in a sport or compete in a triathlon, then you will need to be clear and speak up about your aims and ambitions. One-to-one training is not a one way street, so communication is vital.

• Short, medium and long term goals - Bringing clarity to goals and going some way to creating a strategy, is found in categorizing what you want in to a timeline. Tomorrow never comes and future aims can continue to shift to the horizon unless you define a deadline. Do you want to run a marathon next year or in six months? Do you want to compete in the Olympic Games in 2016 or 2020?

• Stepping stones lead the way - Small steps still take you there and if you try and leap forward with only wishful thinking then you may find that you fall flat on your face. Once you have worked out what your goals are and when you want to reach them, let your personal trainer guide you through each stage of your fitness journey. You are less likely to fail or be injured in the process.

• Learning to remember - Often what is clear at the start can begin to blur at the edges as time goes by. Learn to remember your ambitions by keeping goals in mind and understanding why your personal trainer is designing your workout in a certain way. Grasping the point of each exercise and the reason you are following a specific strategy can help keep goals in focus. Write your ideas down and don't veer off course.

• Monitor - As you progress your end point should come into sharper focus. A great positive of working with a personal trainer is that a fitness expert is logging your development and adjusting your program to suit. If there is too rigid a plan and no room for flexibility then your way forward may become blocked or too arduous. Allow room for maneuver.

You wouldn't set off on a big journey without a route mapped out to a known destination and the provisions you needed to face any challenges along the way. A personal trainer is the perfect companion to take along with you and the sense of achievement when you reach the end will be a shared one