Selecting someone to help you to achieve your fitness goals can be a challenging process, but even when you’ve chosen someone, there can still be struggles to face. Feeling that your personal trainer is pushing too hard can be a major part of those tough points.
After all, if your personal trainer is pushing too hard, it will only hold you back over time, through any of several different ways. These include increasing your risk of injury and taking any joy out of your workouts, causing your motivation level to plummet. Indeed, your personal trainer is supposed to push you. A professional can understand when you still have another set in you but you need that extra drive to get yourself through it.
That said, there’s a difference between encouraging you to reach your potential and when a personal trainer is pushing too hard. Do you know how to tell the difference? Is your trainer just encouraging you to try harder than you naturally would, or are you being driven to do too much?
Here are a 3 signs that your trainer is expecting you to push yourself too hard:
1. You are pushed to the max right from the very first day
On your first day with a new personal trainer, even the most experienced trainer doesn’t yet know what you can and cannot do. It’s impossible to make that determination in a single session. Pushing you as hard as possible on that first day can risk injury and annihilate motivation. The first few sessions should allow a trainer to evaluate your unique needs and abilities. This will allow you to build rapport and give you confidence in each other. Assessment of strength, flexibility and mobility is a gradual process requiring time. Anyone pushing you to the limit from the very beginning is doing you a disservice.
2. You vomit after every workout
On occasion, it can be normal to feel nauseated or even throw up if you’ve just tried a new and very intense workout, particularly if you’re working on endurance and strength. However, your trainer should take that into account and adjust your workout so that you’re being pushed to the limit and not beyond it. You should not get sick from your workouts on a regular basis.
3. Your trainer pushes you to handle more than your comfort level
Trying something new and more difficult can be challenging and even intimidating but it shouldn’t make you genuinely uncomfortable. If you don’t feel ready to do a certain move, lift a certain load or complete a certain workout, say so. If your trainer isn’t willing to discuss that with you and respect that you need more time before moving up to that next level, you should see this as a red flag. After all, there’s no need to crash your car to find out its top speed and there’s no need to injure yourself to see how much you can lift.
