A two-month review of personal training with Ben Palocko

In case you’ve missed the zillion mentions I’ve made recently…this summer I spent two months trying out an online personal training program with Ben Palocko.

(He gave me the two months for free in exchange for me reviewing his services, but otherwise, no money has changed hands and I’m free to write whatever I want.)

I came into this experience without any super pressing goals; mostly I am content with how my body looks and functions.

But I am interested in building muscle and endurance, partly because I want to be strong for the taxing job of working at the hospital.

But also, I know as a woman in mid-life, I’m gonna steadily lose muscle mass for the rest of my life unless I do something to fight it. It’s possible to add muscle at any age, of course, but the younger you are, the easier it is.

And since I will never be younger than now, well, this is the best time. 😉

How does this work?

You set up an online account, and communicate with Ben through an app. The app is also where you see your assigned workouts, track your body stats, and track your nutrition. It’s a one-stop shop, and you can message questions or comments to Ben at any time.

The Diet Part

Ben did not put me on a diet per se, which is good, because as we already know, I hate food rules. NO RULES FOR ME, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

But he did suggest that I would benefit from swapping some of my fat calories for some protein calories (my carb intake was already at a pretty ideal level).

Sooo, I ate a little less fat (half and half instead of heavy cream, for instance!) and a lot more protein during the last two months.

Some mainstays for me:

• cottage cheese (so much cottage cheese!!)
• chicken
• tuna
• Rx bars
• eggs
• beans (the legume sort)
• a small amount of Promix protein powder (a very basic, no additive protein powder)

As I wrote in my post about my protein-eating, I did learn a lot about what foods give a lot of bang for the buck (both in terms of protein and also in terms of not being too expensive!)

I do notice that when I eat a solid amount of protein, I stay full for longer (which is extremely useful during 12-hour hospital shifts!) I am most definitely going to keep cottage-cheese-eating as a daily habit. 🙂

And I am doing a great job of avoiding blood sugar crashes due to the protein and fiber I am eating in every meal and snack.

The Workouts

Ben had me do an assessment workout first, to gauge my baseline strength, and he also had me fill out a questionnaire to help him understand my level of experience with working out.

The workouts he gave me through his app were less powerlifting and more circuit training. I did a lot of supersets, which are basically doing a couple of exercises back to back, taking a little break, and repeating the process.

We agreed to do five workouts a week, with a combo of at-home and at-the-gym workouts.

During my first few workouts, I was like OMG THIS IS KILLING ME.

But I hung in there, and I was super consistent with my workouts, even when I was low on motivation. Annnd I still worked out when I went to Jim Thorpe:

I did so many lunges! And ab exercises.

And Ben often had me finish workouts with a 10-15 minute session on the elliptical, the rower, the assault bike, or the stair-climber….so, that was good for me. I tend to avoid those machines like the plague, but they are a helpful addition to resistance workouts.

The Results

Before we started, Ben had me do full body measurements, and he had me weigh in twice a week. I’ve never tracked my body size (and I rarely have tracked my weight either, except haphazardly), so this was an interesting process.

At first, I gained a few pounds (especially while I was on prednisone for my poison ivy), but over the two months, I did end up going down about four pounds.

However, what is more interesting is that my body composition changed. My waist shrunk by a few inches, while some other parts of my body, like my arms, got bigger.

So, what likely happened is that I swapped some of my body fat for muscle. And that’s why the scale didn’t change a lot, but my measurements did.

(Muscle is denser than fat, so a particular volume of muscle will weigh more than that same volume of fat.)

I redid the assessment workout at the end of the two months and I made big improvements especially with the abdominal and upper body exercises.

Seeing the results of my hard work in the assessment data is very motivating. My hard work paid off in tangible ways and that makes me want to keep going!

I can see muscle gains all over my body too. I don’t look like a bodybuilder, and probably no one else would notice my muscles, but I see a change.

Also: I feel stronger! When I lift things throughout the day, I notice that they feel lighter. I run up the stairs more easily.

And one day recently at work, a nurse could not move a sofa bed in a patient’s room, so I offered to do it. It felt like nothing, so, yay for my new muscles.

I stand up straighter without even trying, probably because my back is stronger now.

Oh, and my exercising heart rate also slowed down by the end of the two months. I made my body work more efficiently. 🙂

Now I’m on my own!

After two months with Ben, I have a nice little collection of gym and at-home workouts that I can use. I will rotate between them and I’ll up the weights as the exercises get too easy.

For now, I might be able to keep up with five workouts a week, but I know once I start working three days a week as a nurse next year, I’m not gonna do that. Twelve-hour shifts do not leave time (or energy!) for a formal workout.

I also plan to try to maintain the dietary changes I made: I will keep focusing on getting my protein in, and I will also still eat lots of fruits, veggies, and whole grains.

I don’t know if I will stick with tracking all of my food; I know that I tend to have no trouble keeping my fats and carbs at a good level, so as long as I focus on getting my protein grams in, I should be good.

So, I might just track protein and see how that goes.

Benefits of working with Ben

• I did way more workouts than I would have otherwise
• I incorporated a lot of new exercises
• I seriously expanded my use of the machines/weights/balls my gym has
• I learned how to eat more protein
• I did more cardio than I would have on my own
• I tracked my food and my weight/measurements
• I made progress on my goal of getting stronger!

Downsides of online training

If you are a person who needs someone’s physical presence in order to stay motivated, then the online training wouldn’t help you a whole lot. I mean, you could just lie on the app and say you did the workout when you actually just sat on your couch!

I could see online training being a little tough if you have zero workout experience. I’ve been doing workouts in some form or another for a while, and it was still a bit of a learning curve for me.

Also, if you need someone to keep a good eye on your form, online assignments obviously wouldn’t check that box.

Upsides of online training

Since in-person personal training tends to average about $65-$75 a session, I’d have had to pay $1500 a month for five supervised workouts a week. So, online is definitely cheaper than that, plus I got some nutrition help as well.

Ben does charge on the higher end for online trainers, but that makes sense to me because he doesn’t just have a personal training certificate. He is a Certified Exercise Physiologist, has a B.S. in Physiology of Exercise and a M.Ed. in Exercise Science. You get what you pay for.

Also, it’s not like you have to stay with Ben for a year. I spent two months with him and that was enough to get me launched (and I have managed to stay launched in the last two months since I stopped officially working with him!)

So, if you can invest in the service for a few months and then keep going on your own, the price feels much more affordable.

Also, he can customize your workouts to use the equipment you already own, or just bodyweight (if you don’t want to join a gym or buy equipment).

 

Of course, there are cheaper ways to get into shape! If you are someone who can just find some online workouts and follow them faithfully, you won’t need to pay for personal training.

But if you are having trouble getting going and you need a customized jumpstart with a medium level of accountability, a few months with Ben could be precisely what you need.

How to get started with Ben

He offers a free 15-minute consultation call to help you figure out if his services are good fit for you; you can click here to schedule one.

Annnnnnnd that’s the end of my personal training review. 🙂

Got questions? And have you ever tried personal training?