In the fitness world, there are many different types of personal trainers and fitness coaches. But, surely you want to choose an individual with as much knowledge as possible.
The health, vitality and wellness industry has been growing over the last several years. An increasing number of people are hiring a trainer who understands not only how to train them effectively, but also how to guide them to a healthier life.
Anyone can stand next to you and count reps. Gym buddies do it all the time when they are swapping exercises and taking turns whilst working out. But, a real trainer – who has your best interests and goals in mind – wants to do more than just stand next to you screaming at you to do another rep.
Instead, they want to help you improve your body. This is similar to what a sculptor does with clay. They will coach you to form the shape you want by trimming a little here and adding a little there, whether your goal is slimming your fat belly or having a firmer butt (one you’ll look forward to looking at in the mirror).
But, what use is looking great when you feel exhausted because you’ve either done too much or you’ve knackered your back? Sure, you want to go to the gym and feel like you’ve worked, but at the same time you want to move forward. The point is to improve your body and feel awesome, not just beat the crap out of it. That’s where a CHEK health professional helps.
Enter the CHEK trainer
If there’s one thing that CHEK-qualified specialists understand it is the value of their education (especially when they become a CHEK Practitioner).
This is one of the reasons why they tend to be a little more experienced at working with clients to help them achieve their fit body goals.
The courses are hard and not cheap. Some of the foundational courses cost more than what some individuals spend on their actual personal training course!
CHEK professionals also undergo regular updates of their qualifications and re-certify every two years. This means continual professional development to keep themselves qualified, and they need to prove to the CHEK Institute that they really want to help people and invest in themselves.
After all, if a health and fitness professional isn’t going to invest in him or herself, why should you invest in them as a client?
Education
The Institute is very good at providing practical situations where you learn to help people. During the course, you will spend a lot of time assessing people and learning to understand what’s going on with their bodies. So, by the time you start interacting with clients, it has become second nature.
Before you think, “Yeah… but these are all personal trainers who are super fit!”, think again. Many people who complete the courses do so because they have serious issues themselves, which have led them to the CHEK world to seek advice.
After working with a practitioner who has helped them, they often want to learn more to keep up with the practices, as practitioners tend to have a lot of clinical experience.
Holistic Approach
It’s not all just exercise-based. After all, the “H” in CHEK stands for holistic – the “whole”: we don’t ‘just’ focus on the physical part of your body (exercises). Many individuals come to see us because the physical-only approach has failed them.
These days people need a lot more than to simply be “battered” or follow a military diet. The CHEK system educates individuals about how the human organs are connected to the muscles, and how a muscle can actually shut down because one of your organs is inflamed.
For example, ask someone who is gluten-sensitive to eat a bowl of cereal and then try to switch on their abdominal muscles (by clenching them). Most people know what it’s like to feel bloated, but they haven’t put two and two together. They believe the problem is caused by something they are eating, so taking an anti-bloating drug isn’t the answer.
Now, you might be wondering how we do all this. After all, we’re just personal trainers, right? Well, that’s what separates us from most personal trainers in Lancashire.
We’re not MOST trainers, we’re CHEK-trained MPT trainers. One of the systems we’re taught to employ is Paul Chek’s four doctors approach.
This can get a little technical, but I’m going to keep it simple and clear.
Ready?
Let’s jump in.
The Four Doctors
These are known as the last four doctors you’ll ever need. Why? Because if something is wrong in your body, you can usually attribute it to one of the following four doctors:
- Happy
- Quiet
- Diet
- Movement
See a video about the four doctors.
Doctor Happy
Why happy? Well, if you’re not happy about something, you’re going to be miserable about something. Being in that state isn’t good for anyone.
It leads to comfort eating and drugging yourself on pain killers in one form or another (like taking headache tablets).
Doctor Quiet
Governs rest, relaxation and sleep. I’m sure you often wish you could get a better quality sleep. Well, not sleeping properly leads to poor recovery and illness. And poor recovery means…lower fat loss!
There’s nothing that can’t be improved by a good night’s sleep.
Also, you’d be surprised about how much activities like meditation can help. Some people believe that meditation is only for yoga masters. But many top actors and sports professionals dedicate time each day to meditation and introspection.
Meditation is basically concentrating on what your inner self is actually trying to tell you. But, you need to slow things down in order to listen to it.
Doctor Diet
This is simple: it involves everything you eat and absorb, which includes any skin creams or supplements, regardless of their quality. Everything you put into or on your body should be quality: if you put rubbish in, then you’ll get rubbish out.
This also means eating more organic and less commercially reared crops and meats. After all, if the chemicals and sprays are bad for the bugs, imagine what the residues are doing to your system
The food you eat is integral to your health and vitality. If you want to start exercising more and putting your body under more stress, you must consider what types of building blocks you’re giving your body to use!
Remember, it’s Dr. Diet, not Dr. Dieting. You aren’t supposed to be on a diet, you’re supposed to eat a healthy diet.
Doctor Movement
This one is my favourite.
It’s related to the movements of the body (internal and external), exercise, and your biological rhythms (like your digestive cycle).
If this is out of balance, you can end up constipated, fatigued, or ill. Ask anyone who has ever suffered with a digestive issue about how they feel. They’ll tell you “not good!”
The four doctors approach was designed as a guide to help individuals adopt a holistic approach when deciding how to help people like you.
For example, someone wants to lose weight so they stop eating junk food. But if they do that, they don’t feel happy most of the time. Even though this may help them to lose weight, they’ll probably revert to eating junk food when they hit a low to cheer themselves up.
This is called yo-yo dieting. Is the issue that they need to suck it up or should they find out why eating junk food makes them feel happy?
CHEK at Masters Fitness
As you can probably see, there’s a lot more to CHEK-qualified personal trainers and fitness coaches than you may have realized.
At Masters Fitness, Daniel has qualifications from the CHEK Institute in Europe.
Read more about how working with a CHEK-qualified personal trainer can help you excel better than the rest.
