Personal Training
General Fitness Training
General fitness training works towards broad goals of overall health and well-being, rather than narrow goals of sport competition, larger muscles or concerns over appearance.
A regular moderate workout regimen and healthy diet can improve general appearance markers of good health such as muscle tone, healthy skin, hair and nails, while preventing age or lifestyle-related reductions in health and the series of heart and organ failures that accompany inactivity and poor diet.
Diet itself helps to increase calorie burning by boosting metabolism, a process further enhanced while gaining more lean muscle. An aerobic exercise program can burn fat and increase the metabolic rate.
Personal trainer
A personal trainer is a fitness professional who develops and implements an individualized approach to physical fitness, generally working one-on-one with a client.
A trainer may also help an individual assess their level of physical fitness and help them work toward a personal fitness goal through proper exercise instruction and personal motivation. The scope of practice for personal trainers is to enhance the components of fitness for the general, healthy population.
The 5 classic components of fitness are muscular strength, muscular endurance, body composition, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility, although there are other subsets like power and speed. Trainers are generally needed to demonstrate various exercises and help clients improve their exercise techniques.
Due to the more interpersonal contact between a trainer and a client versus a general gym setting, a trainer is more readily able to provide motivation and support to an individual in an exercise program, in addition to proper technical instruction. A trainer can keep records of their clients’ exercise sessions to help monitor progress, and may also advise their clients on how to modify their lifestyle outside of the gym to improve their fitness.
Weight loss and muscle definition
General fitness training may be used to promote weight loss. Personal trainers work with a client's physician and/or therapist to construct a program centred around restructuring lifestyle while helping to provide the necessary motivation for its success.
General fitness training can also be used to promote "toning" or "building" of muscles, which are essentially the same physiological process. (However, "toning" implies moderate muscle definition, whereas "building" implies increasing musculature significantly.)