NederlandsFAQ Personal Training & Coaching
Still have questions regarding Personal Training & Coaching? We've answered some of the most frequently asked questions below.
What are RT Training & Coaching's qualifications?
- Master of Science in Physical Education and Movement Sciences (KULeuven - Cum Laude)
- Specific Teacher Training Programme in Physical Education (KULeuven - Cum Laude)
- Lecturer KULeuven : Strength Training - Practica
- Fitness Trainer en Personal & Group Coach KULeuven University Sports Centre
- AALO Personal Training Teacher
- Professional Clubs General Manager Education
- Eleiko Strength Coach
- Fitness Instructor Sportoase Leuven
- Personal Coach Nike
- Personal Coach ING Belgium
- Personal Coach Powermove
- Olympic Weight Lifting (Ton Leenders)
What are the benefits of working out with a Personal Trainer?
Working with a Personal Trainer has numerous benefits:
- One of the main reasons that working out with a Personal Trainer is beneficial is that a Personal Trainer is trained in teaching others how to exercise and move.
- If you do not know which exercises are most effective for the athletic goals you have, it is unlikely that you will achieve those goals. A simple example : For example, if your goal is to build strength, but you spend all your time on cardio exercises, you will not achieve your goal!
- Explanation and corrective action when performing exercises is essential to reduce the risk of injury. Many people are seriously injured each year by performing exercises for which they have received no explanation or training. A Personal Trainer will significantly reduce the level of risk and greatly increase the effectiveness of your fitness routine.
- Having a Personal Trainer beside you to demonstrate the right posture and technique is invaluable. A Personal Trainer ensures that clients perform exercises correctly and efficiently to maximize results. If your form during exercise is not correct, you are at increased risk of injury and not achieving your goals.
- Everyone is different, and that means everyone's exercise skills and requirements are different. This could be anything from an old injury that requires special exercises to a phobia that may affect where or how you exercise. For example, if you have an old knee injury that required surgery, but have done nothing since then to rebuild muscle or improve mobility, you will need different exercises and goals than an athlete training to run a marathon. This is where a Personal Trainer can make a huge difference to your training program.
- A Personal Trainer not only helps you set realistic goals for yourself that you can achieve - if you make the effort, of course - but also keeps you on track to achieve those goals effectively. For example, if you want to achieve a "bikini body" for the summer, it's not about doing abdominal exercises every day exclusively for your six-pack, it's about changing your diet, mixing cardio and strength training correctly to work the right muscles, and setting a realistic time frame in which this can be achieved.
- A Personal Trainer is critical to ensuring that you commit and stick to your fitness goals. If you have made an appointment to meet your trainer for a workout, you are much more likely to go anyway than if you just tell yourself to go to the gym.
- A Personal Trainer can tailor your exercise plan to your physical abilities as well as which exercises you enjoy, and encourage you to do the exercises that are best to achieve your goals.
Is my physical condition good enough to work with a Personal Trainer?
How many times a week should I train with a Personal Trainer?
How long does a training session last?
What do I bring to a training session?
When can I stop by for an intake interview?
We work by appointment only so we ask that you make an appointment first via phone or our contact form.
I have bad knees/shoulders/elbows/back etc....
We specialize in the assessment, training and continued rehabilitation of people of all ages and athletes at all levels who are hindered by injuries, limited range of motion, back and joint problems, or are simply struggling to achieve their desired level of fitness or performance.
Questions about (strength) training
and its (health) effects?
We have summarized below some studies
about the effects of training.
Strength & life expectancy
In a study of 333 male over-65s in a nursing home, researchers saw that both poor diet and low hand grip strength increased the risk of death.
When the researchers looked at the combination of nutrition and muscle strength, they saw that the effects of those two factors reinforced each other. Over the duration of the study (4 years), study participants with both low muscle strength and a poor diet had a factor of 3.4 more chance of dying than study participants with high muscle strength and a healthy diet.
Synergistic effect of low handgrip strength and malnutrition on 4-year all-cause mortality in older males: A prospective longitudinal cohort study, Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2019 Jul-Aug;83:217-22.
Strength & life expectancy
In a somewhat older 2002 French study involving 7608 men, French epidemiologists determined fat percentage via skinfold measurements, muscle mass by the size of the upper arms and thighs, and abdominal fat by abdominal girth.
Tummy fat increased the risk of (fatal) cancer and (fatal) cardiovascular disease. The more muscle the men had, the lower their chances of dying in general and their chances of dying from cancer in particular. The researchers also looked separately at the mortality risk of the smokers: Muscle mass protected the smokers from mortality, a wide waist circumference increased the risk of mortality.
Anthropometric estimates of muscle and fat mass in relation to cardiac and cancer mortality in men: the Paris Prospective Study, Am J Clin Nutr. 2002 Jun;75(6):1107-13.
Strength & life expectancy
Also in people in their twenties and thirties, (muscle) strength reduces the risk of death. A 2012 study determined the muscle strength of more than one million Swedish boys ages 16 to 19, and followed these boys for 24 years. Baseline tests consisted of knee extension, handgrip and elbow flexion strength tests, as well as measurements of diastolic and systolic blood pressure and body mass index.
Overweight and high blood pressure increased the risk of premature death. Muscle strength reduced the risk of premature death. The effect of muscle strength was of the same order as obesity and high blood pressure, and it was also independent.
Muscular strength in male adolescents and premature death: cohort study of one million participants, BMJ. 2012;345:e7279.
Strength & life expectancy
The researchers, affiliated with the University of Sydney, used data from 80,306 people over 30 collected in the Health Survey for England and the Scottish Health Survey in 1994-2008.
The study participants who did strength training were 23% less likely to die of all causes and 31% less likely to die of cancer than study participants who did not. Strength training did not protect against death from cardiovascular disease in this study. Aerobic exercise did : the study participants who met the World Health Organization standard (needing to walk or cycle for half an hour at least five days a week) reduced their risk of cardiovascular mortality by 22 percent, but effects on cancer mortality were not found.
Does Strength-Promoting Exercise Confer Unique Health Benefits? A Pooled Analysis of Data on 11 Population Cohorts With All-Cause, Cancer, and Cardiovascular Mortality Endpoints
Training & study results
A U.S. study from 2013 examined whether a correlation could be found between the academic performance of students at a U.S. university and the number of times per week those students engaged in strength training.
The students who averaged an A (the highest grade in the American education system) trained more often than students who averaged a B. Students who averaged a B in turn trained more often than students who did not get beyond a C, D or F.
Association of Weekly Strength Exercise Frequency and Academic Performance Among Students at a Large University in the United States, J Strength Cond Res. 2013 Jul;27(7):1988-93.
Sports & the effects of stress
Movement scientists at the University of British Columbia examined 68 adults who cared for a family member with dementia. All subjects moved little and were stressed. The researchers divided the subjects into 2 groups: One group did nothing for 24 weeks (control group). The other group engaged in 40 minutes of exercise 3-5 times a week.
In the subjects who started exercising, telomere length increased; in the control group, it remained constant. Telomeres are protective caps at the end of chromosomes. They protect your DNA from damage during the cell division process. Telomeres are thus a kind of biological clock. They get shorter as you age. The faster telomeres shorten, the faster you age.
Aerobic exercise lengthens telomeres and reduces stress in family caregivers: A randomized controlled trial - Curt Richter Award Paper 2018, Psychoneuroendocrinology Volume 98, December 2018, Pages 245-252
Strength training & depression
Researchers at Harvard Medical School recruited 32 people over 60 with depression : 15 of them trained their major muscle groups (the bench-press, lat-pulldown, leg-press, leg-extension and leg-curl with 3 sets of 8 reps) 3 times a week. 17 of them did not train (control group).
Force increased on average by 33% in the exercisers and decreased by 2% in the control group.
Strength training significantly reduced all measures of depression (Beck Depression Inventory ; Hamilton Rating Scale of Depression). The subscales on physical pain, vitality, social functioning and role-emotional were all significantly improved by exercise compared with the control group.
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Progressive Resistance Training in Depressed Elders, J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 1997 Jan;52(1):M27-35.
Strength training & injuries
Researchers from the Higher Institute of Sport and Physical Education divided 52 soccer players aged 13-14 years into two groups: One group did strength training twice a week for 12 weeks, the other did not (control group).
In the group of soccer players who had not done strength training, 3x more injuries (13 in the control group, 4 in the strength training group) occurred than in the other group. Strength training protected against muscle tears, but also reduced the risk of ankle injuries.
Strength Training Reduces Injury Rate in Elite Young Soccer Players During One Season, J Strength Cond Res. 2016 May;30(5):1295-307.Strength Training & Sports Performance
You can find more studies on improving sports performance.
find more on our page on Sport Performance Training.
Strength Training
A tighter body, more muscle mass and/or more strength.
Fitness
Customized combination training to support your goals.
Weight loss
Training & Coaching focused on weight loss and fat burning.
Core Stability
Training & Coaching focused on your Core (even after a herniated disc).
Nutritional advice
Through personal nutrition counseling, we look at your current diet.
Cardio Workouts
Through personalized schedules and exercise and lactate testing.
Sport Performance
Personal training aimed at improving athletic performance.
Company Fitness
Improve the health of your employees or get cheaper fitness through corporate benefits.