What can you expect from your first Personal Training Session?

What can you expect from your first Personal Training Session?

For many, the hardest Personal Training session is the very first one. This rarely has anything to do with the level of difficulty of the exercise itself but simply because it’s the first session.

This is completely normal and today’s blog aims to help alleviate any nerves or concerns you may have ahead of your first session with Fundamentally FIT. You have nothing to worry about and we’re confident you will have a blast by the end of the sixty minutes.

Health Screening

The very first thing we will do in your initial session is some health screening, designed to help start the process of shaping your training plan. We will asses your blood pressure, weight, Body mass index (BMI), take body measurements and take photographs where required and happy to do so.

Understanding the relationship between your weight, blood pressure and body measurements helps to understand the key health factors involved in your transformation. Whether you need to lose three or more stone as many of our clients do, or you are seeking to hit a body fat percentage for sporting performance, these numbers mean we can track your progress. Importantly these are never shared.

Strength Assessments

Next, we perform a number of strength-based assessments to see how your upper and lower body compare to your age group. We use a wide range of assessments for these tests and we have something for everyone. For example, a typical beginner client might perform a press-up test. If this is too challenging we would do the same test on the knees. If this was too challenging, we would perform it standing against a wall. If this was still too challenging then we would perform a bicep curl test.

We always have a test that can be tailored to fit a person’s needs. Equally, if the press up test was to easy we have a series of strength assessments that can be performed on the bench. These range from intermediate tests right up to the more advanced submaximal one Rep Maximum Testing.

Wherever you fit on the scale we have an assessment that will fit your needs, and this is not something to worry about. Each test allows us to tailor your program. This not only allows us to address any relative weaknesses but also identify some of the causes of common injuries like back pain for example.

Cardiovascular Assessments

The cardiovascular assessment is the test that most people worry about, or think of when you say “fitness testing”. Like all our assessments this is also tailored to the individuals starting needs. This often starts with a three-minute step test or a 1-mile walking test. If you are a keen jogger or a runner then we have the one-mile jog or run test and the military eight-minute run test. If you are a serving member of the police or fire service, we also use the industry standard Bleep Test.

With this test, we are looking to achieve a few things. Firstly, we want to select a test that best reflects your daily life or activity you aim to train for. For example, if you work remotely from home and have low activity levels we would likely start with the walking test which is a timed effort to cover the distance.

If, however, you are a keen runner looking to improve performance we would look at the one-mile run test. This is a time effort against the clock with a heart rate reading taken upon completion to asses your fitness levels.

All the fitness testing is completed alongside your trainer for maximum support and guidance. They will expertly guide you through the session. Your score will be converted into a predicted VO2 score (a measure of cardiovascular fitness relating to breathing rate). This score is then compared to your age category and where your current fitness lies. This information is vitally important when writing your training program as it means we can cater for your exacting starting fitness and this avoids sessions which are too hard or too easy.

For example, a training plan for a runner completing for a 10K with below average cardiovascular fitness will be very different to a training plan for a client who has above average cardiovascular fitness. This is why our tailored programming delivers so many quality results time and time again. Your plan is not an off the shelf generic plan followed by everyone.

Core Stability & Balance Testing

Strength and cardiovascular assessments done, now its time to take a look at your balance and core stability skills. This also incorporates aspects of posture screening and biomechanics (how you move).

As always these are tailored to your needs but aim to highlight the impact of your day to day lifestyle on your body. From prolonged time spent sitting during our commutes, working long hours in front of the computer, lower back, shoulder and neck complaints are at an all-time high and all too common in the clients we work with.

Highlighting these issues and any muscular imbalances mean we can provide corrective exercises to help alleviate them. Where required we also refer clients on to relevant health professionals who can address more deep-rooted issues. We then work alongside them to help get you the best treatment and rehabilitation possible.

Flexibility Assessments

Finally, we have a series of flexibility testing to complete. This is the final piece of the puzzle before we can write your tailored training plan. Many injuries and niggles can be traced back to muscular tightness’s. Assessing this area also makes sure the exercises we select for your program are safe and will improve your fitness, not cause an injury. This such an important yet often overlooked component of program writing.

We test whole body flexibility and build the results into any corrective exercises we provide for you and directly into our Personal Training sessions.

As you can see we cover a lot in your initial session and everything needed to get your training off to the very best start possible. No guesswork just tailored advice and programming. The whole session is tailored to your needs and has delivered hundreds of these sessions you have nothing to worry about, we have an assessment for everyone at every stage of the process.

If this feels like a lot to remember, then don’t worry we write the whole assessment process up into a comprehensive report of all your results, along with our recommendations moving forward.

If you are reading this and will be attending your first session soon then we recommend you bring a bottle of water, some small towel and wear clothes that allow for good flexibility. If you are to perform an outdoor walk or running test, then please dress accordingly.

Avoid alcohol in the 24 hours prior to the first session and reframe from drinking caffeine on the day of the assessments. Finally, please come to your first session hydrated and having had your last meal two hours previous wherever possible.

If your reading this and you don’t have any session booked with Fundamentally FIT then why not get in touch to talk with us about your goals? We offer a free consultation to learn more about your motivations and goals and to help you understand more about our training programs.

Andy Strong

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