This is a question that a lot of people have before they start with a 1 on 1 coaching program.
When you work with a coach the training is ALL about you. Everything from the exercise selection, weights, and rep ranges to meal planning tips and scheduling are all about what will get you to your goals. You aren't just given a $20 cookie cutter online program and left to figure it out on your own. Your coach is on your team to provide guidance and answer your questions. They are also there to help you set achievable realistic goals, as well as to keep you on the path to success. With a personal coach, you know that someone is invested in seeing you make progress and that there is at least 1 hour in your day that is 100% focused on only you.
Having a coach has proven to deliver better results than going it alone. In a study done to test this, 34 men were broken into 2 groups and trained 3 days per week for 12 weeks. Group 1 trained with a coach and group 2 trained on their own. The group who had the coach showed an increase in lean body mass, a larger increase in strength, and better aerobic capacity compared to the non-coached group.
The link to the study is provided at the bottom.
Another reason to get a coach is that having a set of eyes on your form is going to keep you safe by checking for movement imbalances that could lead to injuries.This is important for both beginners and advanced athletes to keep them healthy and prevent training set backs. Having a coach can also help with working around any existing injuries and potentially getting to their root cause. Things like a "bad back" can be caused by muscular imbalances which won't show up on any MRI or CT scan. A pre-program movement screening can help determine if the "bad back" that so may people have is potentially being caused by intolerance to flexion, extension, or compression in the spine or from another part of the body entirely that is being compensated for because of movement and flexibility issues. Coaches have wealth of knowledge on how the human body moves and which movements use which muscles and may have suggestions that you can discuss with your doctor for strengthening the painful areas to decrease pain and increase range of motion.
Working with a coach also gives you access to exercises and equipment that you won't find in a commercial gym environment. Most big box gyms don't have heavy kettlebells, specialty bars, reverse hyper machines, or macebells. Big box gyms also don't typically have anyone doing Turkish get ups, airdyne sprints, or utilizing bands and chains for accommodating resistance. With a 1 on 1 coach you get specialized programming using a variety of exercises and equipment depending on your personal goals and abilities. Your coach can utilize everything from minimalist body weight and kettlebell programs up to more complex equipment heavy programs. You also have someone to walk you thru every stage of a new movement. Something as simple as a pull up or a push up is not so simple if you have never done one before. Your coach can take you from 0 to your 1st rep by scaling things in stages that build upon each other.
Our bodies are amazing structures. With proper programming and instruction we can make them function at the peak of their ability for years and years.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24276303/
