National Personal Trainer Awareness Day is observed every year on January second with a day to honor the experts who assist us with keeping our goals high. 

As the new year begins, one of the most popular resolutions of every year is getting fit, and hence comes the popular demand for personal training comes for the rescue. Their tasks are not exclusively to inspire us, yet to ensure we figure out how to function our bodies securely. As much as lack of motivation keeps us from our goals, the inappropriate use of equipment can lead to injuries which again can become a reason for getting demotivated. 

So we have for you an exclusive series about the Best Personal Trainers sharing their views on fitness and health.

Binny Sreedharan, Fitness trainer and Owner, Peak Performanz has Over 20 years of experience in sports and fitness. He is also a proprietor of www.binnysfitnesslab.com.  

Importance of comprehensive fitness routine

Binny shares his views, “Every individual is different physically, physiologically and psychologically from one another, so the approach and the program will differ too. It is very important for one to know their strength, weakness, and the goal they want to achieve. To understand their health status and current fitness level, assessment and fitness tests are used as feedback. It also helps in designing an injury-free and comprehensive exercise program. A well-designed fitness program will help the client holistically from preventive lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension, CVD, Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis, etc to cognitive functioning & regulating the survival and growth of neurons. Regular exercise will help prevent many neurological disorders as well. Therefore intervention of a comprehensive fitness routine will help an individual lead a long and healthy life,” he says.

Quick fix always fails

Binny sheds light on the subject, “A good program is one which you can adhere to for a long period of time, a program which places adequate stress on the body and allows the body to adapt to that stress. This measured stress is increased periodically for progression.’’

Binny shares 2 reasons why a quick fix always fails:

1. Difficult program - Be it exercise or diet, it is always difficult to adhere to. Many studies have also shown adherence is one of the key factors for sustainable results and for good health. Like they always say slow and steady wins the race. From a psychological standpoint everyone looking out for quick results does not achieve what they plan for, hence these results in a higher dropout rate.   

2. Injury/side effects - Expecting very quick results will demand some strict measures. The body can only bear up to a certain limit when it comes to physical stress imparted during exercise. Often trainees looking out for quick results, tend to over-train to meet their goals resulting in fatigue and injury. An expectation of faster results pushes a person to take harmful ergogenic substances to optimize performance. In the long run, they do more damage than good.

An accreditation program is required to avoid quacks

Binny explains, “Since the wellness industry is not a regulated industry like the healthcare (medical/ curative) industry, there are no guidelines laid down for trainers to work. If someone has a decent physique and good communication skills then this industry pays well. But that shouldn’t be the only prerequisite to enter and practice in this industry but a good certification and 6 months of internship should be the main criteria. There should also be some accreditation programs like CME which we have for the doctors to keep them abreast with the latest knowledge. A student named Ranveer Allahbadia, has a YouTube channel by the name of Beer Biceps. He did my 3 months certification program, worked as a trainer for a couple of months, and only then started his Youtube channel. He does thorough research before making and putting his content online.  But the same kind of commitment, patience and R&D by some of the content creators on the digital platforms is not seen. It’s very sad to see so many of the YouTube trainers whose source of knowledge is only from YouTube videos and so many social media influencers spread wrong information to the masses. People should be careful resorting to information coming from the digital medium since information can be shared by anyone and everyone. Time will expose these pseudo-experts,” he says.

Choosing the right information becomes challenging

Binny puts forth his opinion, “I think digitization is both a boon and bane for the fitness industry. Information is in abundance and that confuses people since the majority of the information is incorrect and choosing the right information becomes challenging for one at times. The digital medium can be used to reach out to the masses but the quality will be definitely a compromised one. Physical ones will always have an upper hand as far as results are concerned. When we train people physically even a set program may have small tweaks depending on their energy levels on that particular day and the kind of motivation provided to get maximum output. Monitoring of exercise performed and providing verbal & visual cues are some of the major benefits of physically training something which lacks in digital consultation. On the flip side, many trainers making more money through digital consultation have more clients from across the globe. During the lockdown what serious trainees did at home with digital consultation is sub-optimal. If they want optimal results then my suggestion would be that they go to a well-equipped gym and a knowledgeable trainer,” he says.

(Edited by Rabia Mistry Mulla)