By Diana Chaloux – LaCerte
Diana and her husband Micah LaCerte are co-owners of Hitch Fit offering customized online personal training programs to clients globally. Currently serving in 65 countries. Hitch Fit focuses on total life and body transformation. It is a lifestyle program, incorporating elements of spiritual, mental, emotional and physical fitness.
Personal training is a familiar concept for most. But there’s a new kid on the block in the world of fitness. A training method which has gained popularity over the last few years. Picking up speed as the age of technology and social media interaction increased, and as the recession hit forcing people to seek out more affordable options to achieve their health goals. What is this new phenomenon? Online Personal Training.
This article is organized into the following six sections:
WHAT IS ONLINE PERSONAL TRAINING AND IS IT RIGHT FOR ME?
HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT ONLINE PERSONAL TRAINING
IS SPIRITUAL GROWTH POSSIBLE IN AN ONLINE TRAINING PROGRAM?
HOW ONLINE TRAINING CAN HELP YOU TAP INTO THE SPIRITUAL
AN EXAMPLE OF ONLINE PERSONAL TRAINING: HITCH FIT
WHAT IS ONLINE PERSONAL TRAINING AND IS IT RIGHT FOR ME?
Online personal training eliminates the one-on-one component in the traditional sense. Rather than a trainer standing with you during your workout, you receive workouts, nutrition and cardio guidance via an online source, which you are able to follow on your own in order to achieve results.
All online personal training systems are not created equal. It has become more popular as it meets more needs in different ways. There are a wide variety of features and benefits from which to choose. Some systems are completely automated, some have interaction with a qualified fitness professional. Some require monthly membership, some a one-time fee. Some systems include DVD’s or video workouts, some may include telephone chats or Skype talks. The choices are vast, and the quality of the guidance you receive can vary greatly.
With so many options and even conflicting information [because so many are simply marketing to get your money], how can you make a good choice? How do you know if online training is even a good option for you in the first place?
Before you purchase an online personal training service it is important to determine if you are someone who is capable of following a plan. Any plan that you receive is worthless if you aren’t willing to take action and follow through with it. *RETURN TO TOP*.
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When shopping for online personal training, there are at least six key factors to look for:
1. RESULTS – Look for real pictures, real people, real stories, real testimonials. BE AWARE that many training systems PAY people who have lost weight via something else, to use their before and after pictures in ads (think supplement ads with fitness models holding up a protein bar, or AB machine advertisements with people professing to lose loads of weight due to doing crunches for 3 minutes – Always false, FYI, visual abdominals are made in the kitchen, not the gym).
2. CREDENTIALS – Look for trainers with certifications and education regarding fitness and nutrition.
3. CUSTOMIZATION – God has created each of us to be different and unique. So, the same program is not going to work for everyone. The most effective program for you will be one that takes into consideration your unique situation.
4. ACCOUNTABILITY – You will typically have a higher success rate if you are being held accountable in some way. That could be a required check in with your trainer each week, or a call or update. Choose a program that has a way for you to stay accountable.
5. LIFESTYLE – Is it a fad or a lifestyle? Stay away from fad diets or programs that claim high scale losses in very short periods of time. These are temporary, quick fix programs. When someone loses scale weight quickly, they are nearly always going to gain scale weight back again very quickly. If you do a program that cuts out major food groups or severely cuts calories, or has you eating just one or two foods only for a long period of time. These are BIG red flags to stay away from. It may seem like a great idea to lose loads of weight quickly, but you can cause great damage to your body by yo-yoing back and forth.
When someone says they lost twenty pounds in a week, your response should be, “Twenty pounds of what?” A fast weight loss indicates water, muscle and fat loss not JUST fat loss. The result is actually negative. Your loss of lean muscle tissue by fad dieting combined with a return to old eating habits may result in you gaining back even MORE fat than you had before the fad diet. Muscles require energy to be maintained. Your body metabolizes food better when it supplies energy to muscles. If you have less muscle then your metabolism is slower. Slower metabolisms contribute to excess food energy being converted to fat.
You increase fat every time you put your body through a yo-yo diet. What you want to look for in an online program, is something that focuses on lifestyle change. The ONLY way to change your physical body, and then keep those changes for life, is by developing and maintaining new lifestyle habits. You want to learn an eating style and build a healthy menu of foods that you can maintain for the rest of your life.
6. WHOLISTIC – Does it go beyond the physical component? It must. You are far more than just a physical body. “Faith” isn’t about being religious it is about being ALL that God has created you to be. An effective online training program is one that is truly personalized by regularly helping you improve in the spiritual, mental and emotional areas of your life.*RETURN TO TOP*
IS SPIRITUAL GROWTH POSSIBLE IN AN ONLINE TRAINING PROGRAM?
The answer is, yes!
Spiritual fitness requires you to find and embrace something you already have. It has been given to you by God – the capacity to HOPE and BELIEVE. Finding that spiritual nature in you can be difficult. Like adding too many apps on your mobile phone, you can allow a lot of things to take time and space in your life. They don’t just compete, they clutter and make it difficult to find the most basic components of life. Growing in faith is about first finding it then developing habits and daily discipline in much the same way you do for physical fitness. In other words, online personal training should help you build and maintain both a physical and spiritual routine.
To achieve spiritual growth as part of your online personal training you want a trainer that can translate the discipline of physical training into your spiritual and mental activities. This is important to achieve a whole transformation that is lasting. There is freedom in discipline and there is a direct correlation between our physical and spiritual fitness levels. True transformation starts in the spirit and the mind. I’m not talking about just losing some pounds on the scale. This transformation gets you where you want physically. More importantly it fills you with joy, brings you closer to God and allows you to more effectively fulfill your life purpose.
Do you view exercise, healthy eating and spiritual discipline as a painful sacrifice? If so, you need to understand that you sacrifice the full potential God has for you when you don’t make healthy choices. You miss being the best version of you that God has envisioned. You achieve true transformation when you allow your mind to be renewed. That is healthy living. Making healthy choices is a willful and joyous offering to God not a “sacrifice”.
The body is a gift. We only get one body during our time here on earth. It was created for movement, and it was created to function at its highest level when it is fed and trained properly. It’s evident that the physical body was not intended for overeating and loading up on junk foods. To see that evidence, all you have to do is take a look at the high levels of disease and physical deterioration associated with these choices.
Physical transformation begins in the mind and spirit. Online personal training that is truly personal includes regularly prepping these two for the journey. For the Christian, within whom the Holy Spirit resides, that means allowing God’s Holy Spirit to take control rather than the desires of the flesh. Flesh (your self-will and your physical body) wants no boundaries, no rules and no consequences when it comes to food or exercise. Spirit is stronger than the flesh. There is nothing that can stand in the way when we decide to let that immense strength of God take the reins and move within us.
Not only can you strengthen your spiritual walk through physical discipline and actions, but true transformation, can’t be achieved WITHOUT spiritual transformation. If you just lose scale weight or go on a quick fix diet you are not going to reap the inner peace, joy and fulfillment that come from training the body, spirit and mind simultaneously.*RETURN TO TOP*
ONLINE PERSONAL TRAINING SHOULD HELP YOU TAP INTO THE SPIRIT
Your search for a truly personal online personal training experience should examine how the service will help you in the following three ways:
1. PRAYER DEVELOPMENT – We’re not talking about a service that copies and pastes some pretty little eloquent prayer from a book or daily prayer web site. You want a trainer that will push you to go hard, be diligent and make prayer a serious daily activity. You need to develop how to pray during your workouts.
2. BIBLE STUDY – This is the spiritual nutrition component. You want a trainer that can really help you dig into the Scriptures with balance, intention and in a way that you can digest it. Make sure online personal training helps you create a healthy diet plan for feeding on the Bible. It should include memorization so that you hide God’s Word in your heart so it will penetrate you to the core.
3. FELLOWSHIP – This is where online personal training should really get personal. It is one thing to say that you are going to “lean on your brothers and sisters in Christ” for regular motivation and support. Entering into an agreement with an online personal trainer can really empower you to discover how God intends for fellowship to be an important part of your life. You want an online personal trainer that goes way beyond helping you be candid. You want conversation that gets to root issues, challenges you and encourages you with genuine compassion and understanding.*RETURN TO TOP*
HITCH FIT – ONE EXAMPLE OF TRULY PERSONAL ONLINE PERSONAL TRAINING
At Hitch Fit we work to model, further develop and refine this style of online personal training. We preach a healthy lifestyle, no fad diets or quick fixes. We believe in hard work, dedication and discipline to achieve a physical goal. We believe in teaching a system that can be incorporated not just during your transformation period, but for the rest of your life. As clients go through this physical transformation, what we see shift on the inside is more powerful in the end. Accepting personal responsibility for your choices, is empowering. Developing discipline, is empowering. Too often we see people going through life believing that outside factors control them and there is nothing they can do. We use Hitch Fit as a tool to show them a different way of thinking and believing.
When a client first signs up with Hitch Fit, we gather a lot of information about them. It can include current weight, height, body fat, age, nutrition, medical condition or injuries (if any), pictures (so we can “see” them, and track physical progress over time), current training etc. With this content in hand we personally assemble a nutrition plan, workouts, cardio guidelines and include a load of information on healthy living, tips for eating out or on the go, mental preparation guide, and a guide for maintenance and letting them know what they will need to do post transformation to maintain their physical progress.
Our clients are from all around the globe and from all walks of life, with all types of fitness goals. We are thankful to have an impact on people we have never met. Sometimes we get to help them share their transformation journey on our website. Their stories in turn inspire others to make positive changes based on our motto of Believe – Transform – Inspire.
We are open about our beliefs, we express them in our book “Hitch Fit: Keys to Transforming Your Life”. We also have an additional resource that is available for our Christian clients “A Daily Dose of Hitch Fit: 365 Days of Inspiration”. This is a journal of sorts, our way of helping them get their mind and spirit in a powerful and positive place each morning. Each daily reading is on a topic of either spiritual, physical, mental or emotional health, and includes a space at the bottom for them to write out their thoughts.
In addition to these reading resources, we now have a powerful group which has been an incredible blessing not only to the clients, but to us as well. The Hitch Fit Prayer Team is a private group on Facebook. Our Christian clients are invited to join. It is a place where we share scriptures, but more powerfully, it is a place where they share their prayer requests. This allows us to specifically pray for the needs of clients. We keep a journal and write down each request and this has been an incredible way to connect and encourage our clients on a far deeper level!
How to get the most out of your online training program:
1. Be ready 100% before signing up.
2. Follow the plan, throw away excuses!
3. Do all the work, the physical, spiritual, mental and emotional.
4. Take advantage of the support team available to you!
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