5 Fitness Secrets from the Diaries of the Best Personality Trainers

Your fitness level is directly proportional to how hard and how often you work out.

Everyone knows this. Yet, it is not easy to maintain the kind of motivation level it needs to work out regularly. Personal trainers can help you remain motivated (and protect you from the external and internal negativity that prevents you from reaching your fitness goals). Besides, an experienced personal trainer can also assist you or guide you in deciding the best and most effective fitness or workout routine for you.

Naturally, personal trainers need to be their personal best – fit and strong – to remain at the top of their game. Hence, we dug into the diaries of some of the best personality trainers to find their fitness secrets.

Sweet potatoes, eggs, and honeydew melon are your friends when you are trying to lose weight ~ Shaun T. Fitness

Shaun T. Fitness is a personal trainer, motivational speaker and also a choreographer. His home fitness programs, such as T25, Hip-Hop Abs and Insanity, are quite popular. He has firsthand experience of being a fat boy as a freshman in college. It’s not a surprise that he proposes a delicious diet plan to go with your fitness routine.

Shaun T. advises that sweet potatoes make a great post-workout snack as they are rich in fiber, have a low glycemic index, and help to tame your appetite. He also suggests incorporating eggs in your weekly diet. The egg’s yolk has choline that helps your body fight fat.

Similarly, the honeydew melon is said to have a compound called Cucumis Melo which has diuretic properties. So, if you are bloated because your body has a water retention problem, this is the fruit you must eat.

Celebrity and movie-themed workouts need to be tailored to the client’s needs and goals ~ Taylor Ramsdell

Taylor Ramsdell is a NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine) certified personal trainer who has trained many celebrities – from renowned actors to professional athletes to Hollywood stuntmen.

“If your client joins the gym because he was inspired by the Dwayne Johnson’s intense ‘300’ workout for the movie ‘Hercules’ or  Jessica Alba’s dance-based routine, you need to tailor their program according to their body type, fitness level, strength, and mobility”, says Taylor.

Many times, people don’t realize that their body type might be different from the celebrity who inspires them. They do not understand the level of commitment stars put forth in their workout routines to prepare for the roles they do.

Workouts need to be fun and entertaining. So, a personal trainer might add a few moves or the music from the themed workout of client’s choice and come up with routines that push the clients to try their best – without facing injuries or muscle loss.

Do the exercises you love and keep your workout routine interesting ~ Jillian Michaels

Jillian Michaels is a celebrity personal trainer from Los Angeles, California – best known for her appearances on the popular NBC weight-loss show ‘The Biggest Loser’.

She says that the fads are ‘fads’. They pass on. The only thing that remains constant is your commitment and determination to meet your goals. And the motivation to do a consistent workout only comes when you love the exercises you do.

No matter what anyone tells you, if you don’t like an exercise, you are going to drop it sooner or later. So, list out the exercises you like, mix them up and introduce a little variation in your routine now and then.

70 percent is better than nothing ~ Tony Horton

Tony Horton (aka Anthony Sawyer Horton Jr.) is best known as the creator of the P90X (Power 90 Extreme) – a commercial home exercise regimen which proved to be a great hit with the fitness enthusiasts. His clientele includes celebrities like Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, and Usher.

He says that there are days when it feels hard to do yoga and brutal to do mixed martial arts or plyometrics. At such times, people might want to skip the class altogether because they feel that they will not be able to do the routine they know like the back of their hand.

In such cases, Tony suggests that they should still show up. “Doing 70 percent is always better than doing nothing,” he says. When you do nothing, you get nothing. Every day cannot be your peak day. Go easy on yourself on such days and do what you can. In the end, consistency wins.

Embrace pain and do resistance practice ~ Bob Greene

Bob Greene is a certified personal trainer with a specialization in fitness, metabolism and weight loss. He is also an exercise physiologist and the creator of Best Life (a highly popular diet and fitness plan) as well as Best Life Foods (which sells a whole range of butter substitutes).

This old-timer hit right in the bull-eye when he says that it is a human tendency to shrink from anything that seems painful or difficult. “Resist the temptation to be nice to yourself”, he emphasizes. According to Bob, we need to be self-aware and be our own worst critic. When we focus on what we are doing, it becomes easier for us to find our weaknesses and meet the standards we decide for ourselves.