Cost Vs Investment
Is a personal trainer a cost or an investment? In my experience as a person trainer I find that many people believe it’s a cost to hire one and it’s something that they can’t afford. This I find very interesting.
As part of the orientation I complete with each person I ask if they are on any medication. The main medication I hear about is for high blood pressure. At the moment the average price for Blood Pressure Tablets is $28 / 100 tablets.
Logically it doesn’t make sense. Blood pressure medication is long term and ongoing with no objective to lower the blood pressure just control it. A personal trainer is short term and will help lower the blood pressure and improve your overall fitness. Here is where the logic of medication verses the logic of hiring a personal trainer comes into play. $28 a prescription may seem a small price in comparison to hiring a personal trainer but you need to look at the bigger picture.
High blood pressure is your body trying to tell you that things aren’t right and you need to do something about. High blood pressure is the first warning sign of things to come. High blood pressure means your heart is having to work harder to pump the blood around your body. The harder your heart has to work essentially the quicker you will wear it out. High blood pressure can lead to the following heart problems and that is where your costs will skyrocket.
Do you know how much common medical procedures cost in Australia?
Pacemaker $23,201
Coronary bypass (with rehab) $51,146
Heart valve surgery $105,467
What is the treatment for high blood pressure? For most people, the first step is to make changes to their lifestyle. These include:
Doing regular physical activity
Stopping smoking
Improving your diet to reduce salt, reduce fat and eat plenty of fruit and vegetables
Losing weight
Limiting your alcohol intake to no more than two drinks per day for men, or one drink per day for women with high blood pressure.
So all the things you need to do are all the things a personal trainer will help you with to reduce your blood pressure to normal and help you make health and fitness a way of life.
Let’s say you decided to hire a personal trainer @ $60 / hr for 3 sessions per week over 12 weeks. In that time your personal trainer will give you
A training program
Motivation, Displace and Consistency
Education to train correctly
3 Training session
A diet plan to follow
All the support and guidance you need
All for a total cost of $2160. Is that a lot compared to any of the heart surgeries listed above you will have to pay out if you don’t deal with your high blood pressure?
Hiring a personal trainer is not a cost, it is an investment. It’s an investment in your health and fitness for the future. It’s also a financial investment in your future because unless you have a spare $50,000 you weren’t really needing; your high blood pressure is going to cost you a hell of a lot of money.
