Why It’s Essential For Personal Trainers To Know About Nutrition

personal trainers and nutrition

It’s a well-known fact that in order for professional athletes to perform at their peak, they need to eat the right foods and take the right supplements in order to give them the energy that they need in order to give them that boost.

However, just because you’re not a professional athlete doesn’t mean that you’re let off the hook when it comes to healthy eating. You still need to eat properly and stick to good nutrition principles if you want to have a fit and healthy body and you want to attain your fitness goals.

A personal trainer is your guide to getting to a state of health and fitness. He or she has done many, many personal training courses and has had loads of experience in order to help their clients reach their goals in terms of their health. Because a trainer has this knowledge, they know that if you want to reach the fitness goals you need to take in the right nutrition in order to help to make this happen.

personal trainers and nutrition

This then begs the question: what are the correct nutrition principles that personal trainers need to advise their clients on in order that they can reach their health and fitness goals?

One size doesn’t fit all

As a personal trainer, you’ll be very clued up on how to assess clients before they start training with you. You’ll assess their fitness levels so that you know where the person is at currently – fitness wise – and that you can start building from there.

The same is true for nutrition. Yes, there are a number of solid nutrition principles that everyone should follow however, these can be adapted according to the particular person’s physiological make-up. For example, we all know that dairy products are a great source of calcium that is essential for building bones and teeth. However, if a person is a lactose intolerant they will have to take in the required calcium via other sources of calcium such as seeds, sardines, and salmon as well as almonds.

Protein and lean muscle mass

One of the goals of a personal trainer is to help their clients build lean muscle mass and to get rid of fat around areas such as the mid-section of the body, hips, and thighs. There are a number of reasons why it’s a good idea to have a significant amount of lean muscle mass:

  • First of all, lean muscle mass takes up less space in the body than fat does. So if you have more of this type of muscle than fat, you’ll end up have a sleeker physique than if you had more fat stores.
  • One of the big bonuses of lean muscle mass is that it burns calories even when you’re at rest. As men naturally have more muscle than women do, they are able to burn calories faster than their female counterparts which is why they see faster results, when going on a diet, as opposed to women.

When you exercise, your muscles microscopically tear. As the fibers of the muscle are made up of protein, the muscles will need this nutrient in order to rebuild. The more protein you have in your body, the stronger and more defined your muscles will become. This is why your personal trainer will advise you to eat a protein-rich meal – such as eggs, lean chicken breasts or fish – or take a protein shake after you’ve worked out. Remember that the body doesn’t store protein so it’s up to you to make sure that you take in adequate amounts of protein to withhold your fitness routine.

Carbohydrates and energy

Carbohydrates are essential for providing energy. So when you’re doing a hectic workout, you need more energy to make sure that you can do the exercises that your personal trainer gives you to the best of your ability.

This means that a personal trainer needs to know what types of carbohydrates to advise their clients to eat. For example, slow-release carbohydrates will give you a sustained flow of energy during your workout. Carbs that are quick release (such as white bread and pasta made from white flour) will give you a super burst of energy and will very quickly after this leave you feeling tired and listless.

Many personal trainers have actually done a nutrition course themselves so that they can properly advise their clients about good nutrition principles. If you don’t eat properly, chances are very good that you’ll not achieve the fitness goals that you want to…

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