This time, you're really going to get in shape.
You want to improve your tennis game, lose those post-pregnancy pounds, develop a healthy lifestyle after a heart attack, control your diabetes, or have the body shape you dimly remember from an earlier decade.
Whatever the reason, you're serious -- even if you don't know how to go about it. The idea of dragging out the dust-covered exercise bike from the far corners of the basement just doesn't appeal to you.
That's where a personal trainer comes in, or as they often prefer to be called, a fitness consultant. Once thought of as an extravagance for only the rich and glittery, personal trainers are taking on thousands of aging baby boomers.
"There's a perception that personal training is for the elite and the wealthy, and it's not," says Paul Kennedy, assistant vice president of personal training services for Bally Total Fitness, a national company with several fitness centers in the Baltimore area.
It's not exactly cheap, either, but with sessions in the Baltimore area ranging from $35 to $70 an hour, and a variety of introductory packages available, the cost can be about the same as filling the tank of the Suburban.
"Your health is the most important thing you have," says Michael Kelly, corporate fitness director for Sinai WellBridge Health and Fitness. "If you lose your health, the new house means nothing."
Personal trainers increasingly are helping patients regain health, too. "Personal training is really heading in a direction that is post-rehabilitative in nature," says Kelly. While anyone can join Sinai's fitness center, it has components for people with strokes, Parkinson's disease, weight management needs, or cardiac rehabilitation. The center is starting programs for diabetes management, osteoporosis prevention and rehabilitation for patients suffering from cancer.
When the HMO won't pay for any more visits with a physical therapist, a gym -- with the same type of equipment -- can be the person's next stop. "Trainers represent the ultimate after-care," says Kennedy. "You've been released from therapy -- now what?"
That change in focus is represented in Bally's membership. Kennedy notes that people ages 40 to 49 are the fastest growing group of new members.
But personal trainers aren't physical therapists, although the initials can be confusing. Physical therapists, who undergo extensive post-graduate training, are licensed by the state.
