As many of you reading this will know, in 2020 I opened The Coopers Hill Training Club, a specialist small group personal training (SGPT) facility based in Englefield Green, Surrey.
While many of you might be aware of the fact that I have largely moved away from the one-to-one personal training model in favour of SGPT, you might not know why, so within this post, I will go into detail as to why I believe 90% of people would be better off with SGPT instead of one-to-one personal training.
So how does SGPT work and why would you choose it over being coached one-to-one?
At The Coopers Hill Training Club, we operate our SGPT sessions as a four-to-one model, so that involves one personal trainer taking up to four clients through a personal training session.
I know what you're thinking:
"What if I'm not of the same fitness levels as other people in my session?"
"What if I'm new to strength training and don't know how to perform certain lifts?"
None of these things matter.
A skilled coach will be able to manipulate a programme to suit all levels based on a variety of factors, assessments and screens which are carried out prior to the first session of your 30-day trial.
This means you won't necessarily be doing the same exercise as other people in your group. It's important to remember that SGPT is not a group exercise class where you all perform exactly the same routine as each other, there will be variances for each individual, this is a personal training session, with just a few other people being coached at the same time.
In my experience, I've found that most people tend to work best in a group environment, not only is the atmosphere more exciting, but you are naturally motivated to push yourself harder when you're training with others around.
When you're around a group of hard-working individuals it will inspire you to do the same and you'll be less likely to try and spend half your time just having a chat with your coach, instead you'll be focussed and you'll get so much more out of each session.
Reminder: Your coach is there to make sure you're training safely, efficiently and effectively, they're not there to count your reps and gossip.
Do you really need a specialist strength programme?
If you're like 99% of the people who have walked into my gym over the last 15 years it's unlikely that you need a specialist strength training programme.
Most people need very similar strength programmes with slight iterations. Ones that work on correcting posture and alignment (blame the hours hunched over a keyboard for that), a lot of unilateral (one-sided) work to help with muscular imbalances, some shoulder and core stabilisation exercises, a decent amount of posterior chain (backside of the body) work and just enough training of the mirror muscles to let everyone know that you workout!
When would someone need one-to-one personal training?
One-to-one personal training is ideal if you are an athlete training for a competition or are recovering from a serious injury or illness. In these cases, your needs are so individual that a general strength and conditioning programme might not be appropriate for your current you and/or your goals.
If you're aiming to improve your strength, physique and fitness and are considering using personal training consider whether SGPT might be what you are looking for instead, 9 times out of 10 it usually is.
SGPT at Coopers Hill
Everybody starts their journey with a 30-day trial. This is your chance to experience our unique approach to personal training for yourself and test drive everything we have to offer before making a longer-term commitment. It also gives us a chance to understand you, your body, your fitness goals and provides a strong foundation for us to build upon together.
While we want to help as many people as possible, we also want to maintain the highest of standards and quality for all our members, so for this reason we only release five trials per month. If you're interested in receiving your 30-day trial click here to apply now.
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