Personal Training - The Energy Coach

How much training do I do?

How much training do I do?

I get asked this quite often by my clients who are curious to find out what exactly I do and how I find the time for my own training. Like most people I coach, I find it a real challenge to find the time to fit in my own exercise, especially as I’m my own boss and can dictate my own working hours and client sessions often take priority in my diary. But it wouldn’t be right of me, as a fitness expert, to not practice what I preach. And I know first-hand just how important regular exercise is for my mental wellbeing as well as my physical health and being able to maintain a high level of productivity consistently over time.

As many assume, I don’t spend hours in my studio lifting weights, or running 3 hours at a time or riding 5 hours at the weekend. I just don’t have the time nor the inclination to want to do this. And, it’s not necessary for what I want.

My aim with exercise is to be in the best overall state I can be in, as often as possible. And I need to be efficient with my exercise because I’m really busy. And so…. I do the least amount of exercise possible to achieve the results I want. I know that by doing 30 minutes exercise every day of the week I attain 80% of the benefits I’m looking for. Perhaps if I trained an hour a day I’d get attain an extra 20% benefit but that’s not smart because I’d be overtraining, not recovering enough and doubling the time I train for only a 20% gain.

I tend to run 3 to 4 times a week and work on my strength on the other days and it works really well. I gradually build my fitness and strength and still allow my body the time it needs to recover and rest to be in optimal health as consistently as possible.

People ask me how much exercise they should be doing, I’ve answered this in another blog. But in short ideally 30 minutes daily, however, be realistic and set yourself up for success by setting a weekly target that you are 100% guaranteed certain to be able to achieve and build on from there by increasing the exercise sessions each week or two.

Matt Jordan – the Energy Coach

How Much Exercise Should I do?

How Much Exercise Should I do?

My short answer is as much as you can do within reason. I know what I’ve just said is pretty vague and, for some, not much help at all. But bear with me, by the end of this blog, I promise you will have a definitive answer.

99% of the people I personally train lead busy lives and have many other commitments that have taken priority above their health and fitness which is one of the reasons they come to me; to be their health and fitness enforcer. A personal training session or two with me per week is a great start having not partaken in any regular exercise for a while. It’s not optimal for health and fitness, but it’s a damn sight better than zilch. 

When trying to set and form new habits it’s more effective and more likely to work if you start by making it extremely easy to achieve, so I give my clients the jurisdiction to set their own weekly target. I ask “how many exercise sessions can you absolutely guarantee you can do this week?” The answer varies depending on each individual, but most say between 2 and 3 sessions. This way I ensure that my clients succeed along every step of their journey by letting them set very realistic and achievable goals.

Ideally, to see the best results, they would need to be exercising for 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day (for optimal health and longevity that is, and not necessarily peak cardiovascular fitness). But that would be totally unrealistic and unachievable, leading to de-motivation and a feeling of failure (yet again) at trying to be healthier and fitter.

My answer for you is to strive for 30 minutes of daily activity such as walking, swimming, jogging, cycling, sports and to start off by committing to a weekly goal that is so easy it’s a no-brainer, for example, a couple of 15-minute exercise sessions a week and build up the duration and frequency from there. This way, not only will you be forming a habit, building success upon success and consequently feeling motivated, but it also will give your body (muscles, bones and connective tissue) the time to adapt to more activity. A marathon runner does not start out running 70 miles in the first week of their training plan for good reason, they build slowly and progressively!

Matt Jordan – the Energy Coach

What To Expect From a Personal Training Session

What To Expect From a Personal Training Session

For me, a good personal training session should be as unique as the client. Going back 15 years when the health and wellbeing industry was beginning to really pick up, a cookie-cutter approach to personal training would be classed as the norm. Today the fitness industry is massive and only growing and it seems that everyone wants to be a coach or personal trainer, so the standards have risen quite dramatically. Although having said that you will still find lazy, uninspiring trainers all over the UK, often they won’t last in the job more than a few months and only the best have a fulfilling career from it.

For me, a personal training session is more than just exercise and that’s why I like to call them coaching sessions. I have one, sometimes two hours, each week with someone to help them as much as possible and making them sweat hard for that hour when in-between personal training sessions they’re eating and lifestyle habits suck is not a good way to spend the time. And so in my coaching sessions we might exercise, we might stretch, I might do some sports massage, we might set goals, we might reflect on success and failures and plan for the week ahead, we might even just talk rubbish for an hour!  

Coaching sessions with me last anywhere between 30-60 minutes as sometimes you don’t need 60 minutes to have a great session that accomplished everything you set out to achieve. Would you be happier if you got the same great haircut but in less time? Exactly. Providing my client has left their session feeling it was the best, most productive time spent on their goals and needs, it was a success.

I gauge what the most productive things to do with our time together by asking a question. After greeting a client, the first thing I ask is “what would you like to get out of today’s session with me?” And we do just that. Sometimes I will ask to offer my opinion and make some suggestions that I feel would best suit their needs and so the session might be made up of both the wants but also the needs of the client.

I think it is vital to start a session with a blank canvas, no preconceived perceptions, or judgements whatsoever. Approaching the session like I’ve never met the person before and know nothing about them. Because what I’ve learned in the last 15 years is that people’s wants change from day-to-day.

We end the session with a couple of powerful questions; “what was your biggest lesson or take home from today’s session?” which is a great question to help my client leave with the key point of the session firmly in the forefront of their mind and secondly “if we were to do it again what would we do differently?” Only by asking this question will I know how to make their session even better next time.

Matt Jordan – the Energy Coach