Personal trainer at your finger tips, Cpl Adrian Picker assists Amy Taylor with her fitness routine. Photo by Cpl Belinda Mepham, Army newspaper

PTI a personal training guru

By Sgt Rob Orr

Personal trainers have been the fashion accessories of the past 10 years and with the increasing number of institutes running personal training courses, they are no longer for the rich and famous.

The value of training with a personal trainer is enormous:

• They train you personally.
  
• They monitor your individual training intensity during a session.
  
• They provide motivation and encourage your best performance.
  
• They cater to your individual needs.
  
• They provide constant, activity specific exercise technique, coaching you on your technique exclusively.
  
  The big question, however, is finding a good one with relevant qualifications, background knowledge and experience.
  
  Being a qualified personal trainer and running qualified personal training courses for several civilian institutes, I can honestly tell you, without bias, who the most effective personal trainers are – you guessed it, ADF PTIs.
  
  In most cases, they have a greater diversification in knowledge, particularly in areas like Defence lifestyle and rehabilitation, as well as greater practical experience.
  
  Although they may not play every sport, the PTI has studied, refereed/ umpired and played the 13 major sports at the ADF Physical Training School (ADFPTS) during their training.
  
  The ADFPTS also trains the PTI in OH&S (for both military and civilian gymnasiums), strapping, sports coaching and Austswim (learn to swim), morphology and fitness testing, anaerobic/aerobic conditioning and much more.
  
  A further benefit lies in the fact that the PTI has immediate access to medical staff for any health and illness related queries.
  
  We also have a greater resource pool to draw on, including extensive resource books stored at the Defence libraries, base physiotherapists and doctors, as well as more than 100 other PTIs throughout the three services.
  
  Finally, the biggest drawcard of all is price. A well qualified effective personal trainer can cost up to $100 an hour, your ADF PTI does not charge you a cent.
  
  Call the ECN185 personal trainers at your nearest Defence gym and get the most professional, effective and military-specific physical training – for one-off programs and groups – all for free.
  
  But wait, there is more – join the ADF now and your initial personal training consultation session and a guaranteed basic fitness assessment, conducted as often as you like, is also free.

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