budget

Whether you're thinking about hiring a PT to help you in the park, or to help you with your new home gym you've created, how do you know when it's a worthwhile investment, or not?

How do you quality control a personal trainer? It's a serious question and one that you should think about if you have hired, or are thinking of hiring, a personal trainer to help you with your workouts and exercise. With the rise in demand for personal trainers increasing, the number of courses available and the number of qualified trainers appearing on the market has also risen. But how do you know who is quality - and who is not?

Quality Control?

Is there such a thing as quality control of personal trainers? Well yes, and no! In the UK we have the Register of Exercise Professionals that oversees exercise and fitness professionals, including personal trainers. They have a strict framework that personal trainers' must achieve or better in order for them to call themselves personal trainer. Within this framework is on-going professional development - CPD for short. They must accrue a number of points each year to retina their status. This assures you the trainer is continuing their learning and knowledge - which benefits the clients they train hopefully.

However, does someone physically interview and test every trainer every year? No is the quick and short answer to that. Gyms are more likely to have a handle on quality control purely because the trainer is in close contact with other professionals and also the gym management team. Complaints or issues should therefore be quickly revealed.

Home Vs Gym

Whether you have bought equipment for your home, or are wanting to go into a commercial gym or studio environment for your workouts making sure you have the right personal trainer will still be important.

Buying your own fitness equipment can be a liberating affair. But you must choose what you buy and what your budget is going to be before you jump in with both feet and your wallet. We can help and guide you if you need us to, so read on.

Why Do You Need to Plan?

You want to be able to fill the room you have, with the best gym equipment you can afford. Be sure to plan ahead as investing in the right equipment will see you achieve your fitness objectives quicker and you'll also save money in the long term. You’re also likely to be left with a gym that will last a long time.

It is important to note that you can start with almost any home gym budget. The key part is making sure you choose machines/equipment that will get you the results you want to see - whether that's losing weight, getting fit or gaining muscle. There is no sense buying a bench and stacks of weights if you’re training for a marathon.

Do your research and find out the best way of spending your home gym budget.

New vs Used Equipment

It's the age old question, whether to buy new or used equipment. First off, are you serious about your fitness? If you are, then you should only really be considering new equipment, unless it's second hand from the manufacturer as a reconditioned piece of equipment (this will be higher end commercial stuff in reality).

Buying new allows you to buy exactly what you want, get a warranty and also know that the equipment has not sustained any damage or has been sold due to a defect. All we recommend is that you compare a

So you're now seriously thinking about a home gym. From the constraints of space and budget to the need to have a sufficient variety of equipment to make your workouts varied and effective, what's next to think about?

Plan Wisely

The best piece of advice we can give you is to start by thinking about what you enjoy doing and will use but as importantly what is practical in the space you have. That water rower may look amazing but will you use it enough to make it cost effective? You may love a treadmill but will it end up taking up too much space? So consider what you need and the space that you have available. To help your thought process we would suggest that the following are often seen as good essential gym equipment but as we have said this

If you’re anything like the average man or woman, then getting fit is right up there on your "to do" list and you’ve vowed to hit the gym as soon