I was at the gym today (Xsport Fitness) and realized that there were about as many personal trainers in the gym as there were members. The things is, I see these same personal trainers with the same clients day after day for months on end. I worked out here last year, and there are still many people who are still working with a personal trainer.

I guess the thing that confuses me about this is that a personal trainer isn’t really a necessity after you get started. To me, it is like the “teach a man to fish” quote that we’ve all heard. As long as a personal trainer sets down a basic program and teaches a client the appropriate places to look for new fitness information, they surely don’t have to continue training them after a month or two. So why are these clients still with the same trainer?

I suspect there are a couple of reasons that people hire personal trainers:

• Attractiveness — Personal trainers are, in general, very fit people and their physiques are appealing to the opposite sex. Some clients may be hiring trainers just to spend time with good looking individuals they wouldn’t otherwise be able to attract. A shallow reason, but one I suspect is more common then even I think.
• Motivation — Some people just don’t have the willpower to get off their butts and get into the gym 4-5 times a week. However, if you’re paying someone to meet you there and train you, and because money is so important to most people, you’ll be more motivated to go. I feel that most of the middle-aged guys that I see in the gym being trained fall into this category.
• Laziness — This is a personal view on the issue, but I feel that people who rely completely on another person for their health and fitness are just lazy. Coming up with a workout program isn’t that hard once you learn the basics, but some people just seem to refuse to learn even that much. They develop a dependency on their trainer because they don’t know what the exercises they’re performing do to their body.

If you’re currently paying for a personal trainer, I urge you to reconsider it. There is no reason to, quite frankly, and I think you’ll get more out of your exercise if you devote your time and effort into perfecting the plan that works for you and adjusting it yourself.

Note: Elite athletes who need specialized training are exempt from the points in this post.

In a recent post, I reflected on my accomplishments and important personal events in 2007. Now that 2008 is almost a third of the way done, I think it’s high time to lay out my plans and goals for the year. For your convenience I’ve separated the goals into three loose groupings.

Personal

2008 is going to be a very important year in my process of personal development. First, I’m going to be graduating from college with a degree in computer science and taking the next steps into adulthood. Also, I’ll be moving to Seattle with my fiancee sometime after graduation.

I will be attempting to blog here more, focusing on programming tutorials and similar articles. I’ve been furthering my programming skills a lot over the past year, and I’m excited to share the techniques I’ve learned with others.

Finally, I’ll be helping to plan my wedding to the most amazing girl on the planet. We’ll be together permanently this summer and then we get down to the dirty work of finding the things we need to get the ball rolling. I’m excited for this more than anything.

Professional

My professional life is at an intersection right now. I’m still trying to decide if I want to seek a traditional job for post-graduation life or if I prefer the free wheeling life of running my own business. I have a number of different options when it comes to making money after obtaining my degree:

Traditional Job

Computer science majors are in demand, and my skills are quite mature in a variety of technologies. I’m a fast learner and I enjoy a challenge. A traditional job would not be difficult to obtain, in my mind. The concerns come from what I would be giving up: flexible hours, being my own boss, and always working on the things that I want to work on. Is the security worth those tradeoffs?

Contractor

This is what I did all last year, and it was a blast. I enjoyed working from home and making my own hours. Because I didn’t have to commute, I was able to put in more hours on actual work and still have time for the fun stuff in life. This is one option that I have experience with and would love to do it again.

Personal Trainer

I’m a pseudo personal trainer as it stands. I make sure my floor exercises and I’ve gotten a lot of people started on exercise programs this year. I know I could make a living personal training, and its something that i would enjoy doing. The only problem is that they don’t make that much money unless they can establish a loyal and somewhat affluent clientèle.

Independent Software Vendor

This is the option I’m really leaning towards. I want to create software to fulfill a need that I know exists, primarily in the sports and fitness world. I have so many ideas, but I’m not sure how to market the products that I create.

So, you can see I’m being pulled in a number of different directions. I have no idea, right now, what my plan is, but I’m sure it’ll work out in the end.

Fitness

My fitness level is an integral part of my life. I’m an active exercise enthusiast and I find that I work best when I have particular fitness goals to strive for. As such, by the end of 2008 I plan to have achieved each of the following at some point in the year:

• 5% body fat while weighing more than 200 pounds
• Dead lift 585 pounds
• Barbell bench press 325 pounds
• Become a certified personal trainer

I have a pretty thorough plan for the next 6 weeks to attempt to decrease my bodyfat to a point where I may be able to start fitness modeling. You can download the Workout and Nutrition Plan I’ve put together.