If you’re just getting started with exercise, or you’ve already been working out but not seeing the results you’d like, you might be surprised at just how much a personal trainer can help you look and feel more in shape—and quite quickly, too! Here are five reasons why hiring a qualified personal trainer could be the best move you’ll ever make toward achieving better health and fitness. 

1. You'll Actually Show Up

Some fitness experts recommend scheduling workouts into your calendar like appointments. Now for the truth: If you’re not in the mood to exercise on your own, it’s easy to hit delete on a workout because it’s kind of a fake appointment.

What’s not so easy is cancelling a workout you’ve already paid a personal trainer for. It’s a real appointment that your trainer scheduled into his or her packed workday just for you. Wasting money is painful, and wasting someone else’s time is embarrassing. Hiring a personal trainer puts someone in your court to keep you accountable.

2. You’ll Get More Out of Your Goals

You might hire an accountant to prepare your taxes because you know that a skilled professional helps you achieve the best outcome. It’s a fact that experts (e.g., personal trainers) in a given field (e.g., fitness) know a bunch of stuff other people don’t. Leveraging their knowledge saves you time and frustration.

When you hire a personal trainer, you put yourself on a fast-track to getting more of what you want from fitness, including being able to define and refine your goals in ways you might not have considered. Trainers know the best exercises, best equipment and best programming for plenty of client goals. It’s what they do for a living.

3. You’ll Sometimes Do What You Didn’t Know You Could Do

Chances are, your personal trainer is going to occasionally, or frequently, suggest an exercise you’re unsure of or hand over a set of dumbbells that are heavier than what you’d ever pick up. You might be surprised to discover that what’s being asked of you is doable!

With your abilities and goals in mind, a personal trainer will push you more than you'd push yourself. And it’s enough to make a difference in how fit you look and feel. Worried about it being too intense? A skilled, credentialed personal trainer knows just how far to safely take a client outside his or her comfort zone to achieve the best results.

4. You’ll Gain More Confidence With Working Out

Hiring a personal trainer helps you avoid a big workout blunder: Guessing at how to do an exercise or use a piece of equipment. At best, this wastes your time; at worst, it sets you up for injury.

With a trainer by your side, you gain access to “inside information” about how to properly perform exercises and make the most of equipment. When someone’s watching out for you—checking your form and providing personalized feedback—you can feel confident that you’re exercising like the pros.

5. You’ll Lay the Foundation for Lifelong Fitness

If you’ve hired the right personal trainer—one who meshes with your personality, is attentive to your abilities and goals, and is skilled at his or her job—a funny thing happens: You look forward to your training sessions! Hanging out with your trainer during sessions can be quite social, which creates a stronger commitment to exercise for a lot of people. The more motivated you feel to get to the gym, the closer you become to making fitness a lifelong habit.

If you're looking for a qualified health and fitness professional to help you on your journey, use our Find an ACE Pro tool to located one in your area.