All too often, people are taken in by all the excitement over the latest and greatest in exercise technology or the all-in-one exercise machine at just the right price, but what do you do with all that equipment once you’ve gotten it or once you get a gym subscription? The answer for most people is to let it collect dust if you purchased it for home use or to ignore your subscription if you had joined a gym.

For a few motivated people, though, this equipment can serve as a great asset in developing your body into the shape you desire. Unfortunately, the nature of exercise makes using that equipment a lot more difficult than it may first seem.

Put simply, a badly performed exercise can be a lot worse than no exercise at all. One badly performed exercise could pull a muscle, or worse cause serious and lasting harm. Machines offer no guarantee that they will be used properly, free weights can be a hazard to you and anyone around you and your exercise routine itself may not suit your objectives.

It is actually easier to do an exercise wrong than it is to get it right and only experience with the equipment involved and knowledge of the body can see to it that you get it right.

A solid remedy for these problems is to simply hire a personal trainer.

A personal trainer is someone who can coach you through your exercise routine and point out when and where you are misusing your equipment.

There is a lot of information and entire schools of thought within the field of exercise science and someone who has experience and knows how is probably one of the best assets you can have on your path to achieving your fitness goals.

A personal trainer can give assessments your body type and specific needs in ways much more specific and personally targeted than individual research can and on top of this they can talk with you about your goals and use this information in conjunction with their experience to develop a routine that will maximize your results and reduce the likelihood of injury.

Furthermore, a personal trainer can be a great motivator and a good trainer knows how to keep you engaged in your exercise and give you the right push when you need it.

It’s easy to overlook the benefits of a personal trainer, or to undervalue them. The fact of the matter is, anyone seriously interested in personal fitness should consider hiring a personal trainer. It can make the difference between a bad injury that could have been avoided and a safe workout that produces maximum effect or the difference between a routine that sees you peak out long before your goals and one that shocks you with its results by the time you’ve run its course.