Top 10 Frequently Asked Questions to Personal Trainers and How to Answer Them

1.How do I lose weight on my bum?

Unfortunately we cannot target the area where we lose weight, weight training can help change body shapes but genetics play a huge part in body shape. Analyse your body shape and work with what you have.

2.Will weight training make my arms big?( from all women)

All women are terrified of turning into Madonna or Serena, it takes a lot of hard work and serious dieting to look like those two. If you feel like you are bulking up cut down on the weight and increase thereps.

3.How do I get a six pack?

You go to the bottle store and buy one. Just kidding, you need to get very lean to have a distinct six pack, diet and genetics play a huge role here. Your training routine needs to be a whole body routine and your diet needs to be 100%, ladies it is even harder for us as our essential body fat is higher.

4.Are carbs bad for me?

Some people struggle to metabolise carbs while others cannot do without them. The "no carb" diet is the craze at the moment so carbs are getting a bad rap. The best advice when it comes to anything is get as much information as you can about everything related to the topic and then decide what is going to work for you. There are millions of diets out thereone of them will work for you.

5.Must I keep my training in my "fat burning zone"?

Every individual is so different that I believe it is impossible to develop a standardised measure for a "fat burning" zone. The bottom line is that the harder you work the faster your heart beats, the more calories you burn or the fitter you get (depending on the reason for your exercising). The question is how long can you work at that intensity for. You need to get the balance between time and intensity. I would say push yourself as hard asyou can for 20 minutes with a 5 minute warm up and cool down on either side. If you are training for endurance see what your optimal heart rate is for the length of time you need to exercise for.

6.How often should I work out?

You need to train at least four times a week to get the optimal benefit of your exercise; the key here is that it doesn’t have to be for longer than 30 minutes at a time. Longer is better but rather get 4 x 30 minutes sessions than one 3 hour session in a week.

7.How do I get rid of my "wings" (flabby arms)

Unfortunately as woman this is another one of our curses. The good news is the leaner you get the less flabby your arms should get. I still believe that if we all did 20 push ups every morning we would all have fantastic arms. But until we get there keep up those tricep exercises.

8.How many reps should I do?

One of my Personal Training colleagues does not believe in reps. The exercise should be done to failure. As a good trainer you should be able to match the reps to the weight so that your client fatigues on the last two reps. Ina less perfect world keep the reps to a maximum for toning, be careful to avoid boredom, and a minimum for building. I also find that increasing the sets is sometimes better than increasing the reps to more than 20.

9.What supplements should I take?

The word supplement provides an exact description of what they are. They are supplements that need to be added to a perfect diet. Analyse your diet first and then figure out what your diet is missing. Then you can add supplements. They are not a quick fix, go to a nutritionist so that you can get a holistic opinion on your diet and what supplements you need.

10.Can I just do cardio?

You can just do cardio and you will have a very healthy cardiovascular system. This is equivalent to just doing bicep curls, you will have great biceps but the rest of your body won’t be so good. Try and do a big variety of exercises so that you have a completely healthy body, this includes stretching, weight training and flexibility.

Lisa Kowen has 20 years experience in the fitness industry in South Africa American Council on Exercise (Ace) representative in South Africa, co-owner and developer of a href=http://fitnessconnect.co.za/http://fitnessconnect.co.za/