So which is better and which should you choose: one hour vs 30 minute Personal Training sessions?
As always, it depends. What are your goals, how much time do you have, how many times per week can you train?
If you are looking for General health, fitness, strength, cardio vascular/respiratory improvements for all round preventative health care then the 30 minute sessions performed two or three times per week is plenty for the majority of people and can be fitted into almost any lifestyle. That’s is the beauty of the half an hour sessions: fast fitness in 60 to 90 minutes per week.
For example, I have recently been working with a young woman that has been struggling with her endurance and stamina whilst riding her horse, we focused on her cardio endurance and local muscular stamina with three half hour sessions per week and after just four weeks she is riding farther for longer and harder than ever before. Magic stuff.
If however, your goals are more aesthetics based and you are looking to transform you physique and build more muscle, lose a significant amount of weight or both to look better naked/on the beach then the longer one hour Personal Training sessions may well be required.
If you have a sports specific goal then one hour with me as your Personal Trainer may be required.
The amount of work we perform, the level of skill practice required for a goal, the training programme required for long term muscle growth (hypertrophy) are parts of the personal programming to be considered for more complex goals outside of general strength and conditioning for health and fitness.
Who should choose 30 minute Personal Training sessions?
Those looking for general all round improvements in:
- Health
- Cardiovascular function
- Respiratory function
- Base strength
I call this G.S.A.C: general strength and conditioning and is best achieved with two to three sessions per week as the metabolic adaptations that occur for this are faster created and also lost so must be trained and maintained more frequently than other goals with more structural adaptations which take a longer duration to manifest.
With the Covid 19 scares of the last 18 months it is prudent that your health be at the forefront of your mind these days. Improving your cardio respiratory and vascular system is the simplest way to help enhance your immunity and resilience to illness in the future…prevention IS better than cure after all.
What most people consider “fitness” can be thought of as the bodies ability to efficiently transport and utilise metabolic fuel and clear out this fuel once it has been used and turned to waste. These metabolic processes can be enhanced drastically through personal training but do demand frequent efforts to realise.
If you’re not breathing heavily at least two to three times per week then you’re not improving the health and function of your heart and lungs.
Who should choose the one hour Personal Training sessions?
The longer sessions are more suitable for goals which require more structural, physical alterations such as: body transformations involving large scale fat loss and muscle building in the appropriate places around a persons body.
Muscle building aka body building, combined with a smart diet is the single most effective way to reshape the human body for the better. Not to be confused with bloated super lean body builders drenched in steroids.
Body building in it’s original term is just a way to improve your strength, aesthetics and functional fitness abilities through strategic addition of muscle tissue and reduction of excess fat. This usually leads to an athletic and leaner physique in natural trainees.
Some of these goals can be achieved with a single one hour Personal Training session per week, others need up to three if more skill practice is required and depending on your age, longer recovery between sessions may be needed as the structural changes that happen during soft tissue growth can take days at a time.
A natural physique with traditional body building front and centre
In short: 30 minute sessions for general health and fitness, one hour sessions for more serious reshaping and function goals.
If you have an idea whether you should choose One Hour vs 30 Minute Personal Training and are ready to start then contact me here