(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

When you think of personal trainers, what’s the first image that comes to mind?

Bored housewives fawning over ripped young men on the gym floor? Slobbish blokes being screamed at by mean beefcakes? Small groups of people being punished on some mats by some impossibly glamorous, fit torturer?

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Personal training can be quite contentious.

There are those who think that hiring a PT is cheating in some way – as if having someone on hand who actually knows how you can achieve your goals is sort of bypassing the aggro of working out how to get there.


And there are some – like my dad – who think that it’s a waste of time for those of us who know what we need to work on. We just need to get on with it!



I for one, have been embarrassed to talk about having a trainer, particularly to guys.

Although I know it’s ridiculous, I can’t seem to shake the feeling that people might judge me for not doing it all myself. Although of course, I am. My trainer can only guide me – he can’t get run my marathon for me or get the six-pack I’m after on my behalf.

So where does that feeling come from?

When you’re training for something in particular, having a trainer isn’t really that different from being coached in a sports team.

Perhaps it’s something to do with the money aspect – a feeling that those of us who are willing to pay on top of gym memberships are even vainer or more privileged than everyone else. After all, many PTs are very expensive – and when you’re paying £60 on top of a £100 a month gym membership, that’s quite a lot being spent on your image (or, you know, health).

But that kind of attitude is undoubtedly changing with the explosion of PTs on Instagram and general interest in fitness and gains.

My own body has changed quite a bit since I started seeing my trainer Rob. For a start, I’d probably be seriously injured had I continued training at the rate I am on my own – and that’s just running, let alone attempting to weightlift solo.

‘Every single athlete at an elite level or person that takes sport or fitness seriously has a coach – if Usain Bolt has a coach then why shouldn’t you?’ Rob tells Metro.co.uk.

‘A good trainer is not a trainer – they’re a “coach” who’ll take your training to the next level and show you the most efficient ways of doing things. A good coach should help with all aspects of your life and build you up to a place where you have a massively increased knowledge of training. A bad coach will just thrash their clients without helping them make any concrete progress.

(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

Once a week, he makes me weight train, do interval training, do mad amounts of warm up exercises, throwing in different techniques and exercises to keep me on my toes and make me more confident about continuing on my own.



My pal Andrew has a trainer after years of playing university sports.

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‘Whenever I tell people I’ve got a trainer, they always say how dedicated I must be…or how much money I must have,’ he tells Metro.co.uk.

‘I was at uni for best part of 10 years and played rugby league. Having a group of guys with a shared goal and shared plan helped and made going to the gym a social experience.

‘Essentially my motivation was external. Fast forward to two years sitting at a desk job and I no longer had anything remotely resembling fitness.

‘Posture and strength were poor, and my aerobic fitness was terrible. I joined about three gyms but didn’t make any progress on my own. Then I found a local CrossFit gym with personal trainers. The motivation and improvement combined with a plan made such a difference.

‘I had a reason to go to the gym, my form improved across the board and I am continuing to improve with everything. My trainer also checks up on me and makes sure I was making progress, points out where I’m going wrong and actively encourages me; even when I think I’ve made no progress, he points out how far I’ve come.’

But in my experience, Andrew is in the minority. Most of the guys I know wouldn’t want to see a trainer even if they were free.

Andrew says: ‘Most guys I know haven’t needed a PT. I need one as I don’t know what I’m doing. Still.’


Seriously? Is the average man so clocked on to posture and form that they require no extra intervention or help?

‘Guys are definitely more apprehensive about getting help…but that comes down to ego,’ says trainer Rob.

‘They’re too proud and egotistical to think that they actually need someone when in reality 90% of guys in the gym don’t have a clue what they are doing beyond basic sh*t.’

He claims that many of the injuries that happen come from guys teaching each other in the weights room – passing on dangerous techniques picked up from each other.

For me, it’s in the weight training room where having someone who knows what they’re doing has really helped. I was nervous about going in and lifting before because I wasn’t sure exactly how to do it and was apprehensive of all the hench guys judging me for being the Mr Burns weakling that I am.

‘I know some of my female friends get mansplained to when they go into free weights,’ says Andrew, ‘so for them, something like CrossFit or PT training is perfect.

‘I’m so glad I’m not a woman at the gym.’

In reality, Rob is always telling me that there’s no need to be intimidated because he’s taught me better technique than most of the dudes in there. And of course he would say that… but I never have any aches or pains from our sessions so he might have a point.


But PTs don’t just help those of us who are training for events or are in pursuit of the ever unachievable summer bod.

They also work with more complicated situations – from injuries to pregnancies.

Liz is 30 weeks pregnant with her second child and she took on a PT when her son had turned one ‘and I felt the need to really get a grip on my new, post-baby body’.

‘I’ve had a weekly PT session for the last 18 months. It’s only because of my PT that I’ve been able to carry on exercising and stay in decent shape as I approach due date for the second time,’ she tells Metro.co.uk.

‘The run up to this pregnancy was a rocky road so I was incredibly nervous about doing anything active, thinking I might harm an early pregnancy – going it alone in the gym or to group classes just wouldn’t have happened for me.

‘It’s the expertise and the one-on-one element that has made the difference between being a couch potato and a fit and healthy prenatal mum – and that’s before we get to all the benefits to my mental health which is more important than ever for me with the prospect of being a mum of two.

‘For all of those reasons, worth every penny if you ask me!’

Of course, you could just follow one of the programmes available online from the likes of Joe Wicks or Kayla Itsines. Some people absolutely swear by them.

They’re cheap. They’re accessible. They require next to no gym equipment. And you can do them in your living room for as long or as little as you want.

But the obvious difference is that these programmes and packages are made with a marketing end game in mind. While someone like Joe might make HIIT feel accessible for many who would never get off the sofa, he’s selling an easy fix that’s not tailored to individual needs.

We should be careful not to diminish the positive roles these highly accessible plans play in people’s lives but at the same time, they can’t give the same kind of support a real life trainer can.

Trainers will text you when you’re about to duck out of a session. They’ll make you do things you really don’t want to do. They won’t let you walk out when you’ve had enough. And those facts alone – if you’re serious about improving – are worth their weight in gold.

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