Everyone has a different view of what personal training (PT) should be like, especially if you’ve decided to sign up for a new PT package or have been through one before without knowing what’s coming. When expectations are not properly aligned between the personal trainer and client, it usually leads to unpleasant experiences, unhappy people and zero results.

I am both a personal trainer and PT client myself - I had to go through 4 personal trainers before I found the right one. It was exhausting and total waste of my money and time. Before you dive into your training, whether you are looking to get fast results or lose weight within a short period of time, know what you need to commit on your end to achieve results. Here are a few things you should never expect out of personal training programmes.

1. Magical results

It’s not realistic to come into the gym, sit down with your new-found trainer, and expect to lose 15kg in a month. With so many transformative before-and-afters everywhere we go, we form unrealistic goals and expectations of ourselves. If you ever meet trainers who say they can help you do that, be very cautious as there are 2 things that may be happening:

• You achieve a dramatic weight loss but feel hungry, deprived, low in energy, and unhappy by the end of the month. You’ll also start indulging in all the food in sight after reaching your goal and rebounding back to the same starting weight

• Your trainer is trying to sell you more sessions to help you achieve your unrealistic goal by the end of the month

Realistically, a sustainable fitness plan should only be helping you lose up to 2kg in a month by training 2 to 3 times a week while catering to your food choices. This may be a little less true for bigger-sized people who tend to lose weight faster as they are burning a lot more while working out but always remember, PT isn’t MAGIC and you shouldn’t expect to be paying for fast results.

2. Fully depending on just PT sessions

What personal trainers can offer is their expertise in your personal growth, telling you what exactly you should be feeling in an exercise, or making sure you’re doing it safely. For example, if you were supposed to do 100 squats, you’ll probably tire out only your front thighs like most people but in fact, it’s supposed to work on your back thighs, butt, core, and outer thighs. Your personal trainer is able to watch how you’re doing it and break it down for you to correct your movements while keeping an eye out for possible injuries. However, to achieve your fitness goals, if you are only seeing your trainer once or twice a week, you should be ready to commit extra days to exercise outside of your PT sessions (Read: 5 Exercises To Do At Home or 3 Dumbbell Exercises for a Perkier Butt).

3. 24/7 hotline

Passionate and committed trainers (like our team :P) welcome questions from our clients - we really couldn’t be happier to share our knowledge. But be very mindful that we also have many other clients besides you so we will sometimes be bombarded with more than just fitness-related conversations, receiving private messages from clients about advice on their lives. I’m not saying you can’t ask us questions or communicate with us outside of your PT sessions, but do try to keep the questions related to your current fitness goals, training program and within the trainer’s specializations. Also, try collating your questions and asking them at scheduled training to keep it professional and respect our jobs!

At SgFitFam, our personal training sessions are located in boutique gyms island-wide but are not restricted to gym equipment only. Our personal trainers can travel to your home and also do outdoor training sessions if you prefer. We strongly recommend investing in at least a few sessions to get your basic movements before you move on to heavier weights or higher intensity. Prevention is better than cure; wouldn’t it be better to avoid injuries and pain entirely than regretting it later and spending even more money on rehabilitation?

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This article is written by our founder and personal trainer, Gina Chan, who specialises in bodybuilding, functional training, weight management, and re-conditioning. She is also a certified Pilates and aqua aerobics instructor.

Edited by the SgFitFam Team.