FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Personal training is a professional service designed to improve your long term health and fitness through physical exercise and education. Training can be 1-on-1, or done with a partner or small group. Typical programs consist of exercise instruction, nutritional guidance, goal setting, progress assessments, and supervised workout time with your personal trainer.
Everyone from absolute beginner to professional athletes can benefit from this service. In fact, the better shape someone is in, the more likely they are to have a trainer. Ask any professional athlete, and they’ll likely tell you that they work with a trainer on a regular basis. Getting a trainer to get you started can help you use your time effectively, dispel false beliefs, overcome plateaus, and avoid injuries from improper technique or over training.
Be sure to ask your prospect trainer about their credentials, schooling, continuing education, and specialties. Also, you’ll be spending a lot of time with your trainer. It’s not the most important consideration when hiring a trainer, but if you don’t get along or have a personality clash, you may want to find someone else.
Personal training is completely personalized fitness training. Unlike other exercise programs, the foundation of a good personal training program is a workout plan that is designed by a professional, specifically to meet your needs. Whether you train alone or with one or two friends, you’ll follow a prescribed exercise plan which will be closely monitored by your trainer to ensure success.
Group exercise is great for many reasons, but there are several drawbacks including; non-personalized workouts, improper progressions, possible bad form left unchecked. If you’re ever unsure of anything in group exercise, be sure to speak to the trainer before or after class and consider a personal training session to overview what you need help with.
Self-directed exercise is great for those who are motivated. Many people see a trainer simply for accountability, which is a wonderful benefit. If you’re motivated to train on your own, great! Be sure to have a professional ringside however to be sure you’re following the best program to avoid common pitfalls, plateaus and injuries. You never know what you may be missing if you don’t speak up and ask questions if going alone.
Safety is a trainers first priority. Before ramping up training, we’ll overview your health history, evaluate your movements, and identify strengths and weaknesses. This will help us correct imbalances before they cascade into injury. We believe that working with a certified personal trainer is the safest way to improve your health, and attain any goal. Check your trainer’s credentials here: http://www.ideafit.com/fitnessconnect
For maximum energy for your workouts, eat a light meal or snack of mostly carbohydrates consisting of around 200-400 calories. This will top off your muscle glycogen stores giving you a boost of energy and allow you to recover faster between sets.
Avoid fatty foods and overeating as this may slow you down and possibly make you sick during your workout. Having some protein prior may help prevent excessive protein breakdown during your workout, but Test a few different meals or snacks to see what works best for you.
A few good choices include:
- fruit
- oatmeal
- whole grain toast
- beans and rice
This applies to training prior to resistance and cardio training.
We don’t charge extra fees when you start or stop using our services because we want to keep your trust and keep doing business with you. We know that sometimes things happen that make it hard to keep using our services, so we make it easy to cancel if you need to.
Sometimes we have deals for longer commitments, like agreeing to use our services for a year. If you cancel early on a longer term contract, there might be a fee. But we also offer the option to use our services on a month-to-month basis without any extra fees when you sign up or cancel.
If you need to cancel your membership, please contact us at the following link: https://pikefitness.com/account/change-membership/
We will ask if you’d like to cancel at a certain date, immediately, or at the end of your term.
You may also be able to cancel your membership in the MINDBODY app or at our MINDBODY online link, but not all memberships may be cancelled in this way. If you have any appointments, we need to remove them separately, so we ask to please just contact us if you would like to cancel your contract for any reason.
We certainly welcome bringing a friend! If you are bringing a friend to a personal training session, please let your trainer know ahead of time so they can plan appropriately.
If you would like to bring a friend to just workout in open gym, please purchase a day pass online or in person.
Day passes are $10, and week passes are $30. Additionally 10-Class or 10-Drop-In passes are $80.
Open Gym and Personal Training Hours
Sunday: Closed
Monday: 5am-8pm
Tuesday: 5am-8pm
Wednesday: 5am-8pm
Thursday: 5am-1pm, 3pm-8pm
Friday: 5am-7pm
Saturday: 11am-1pm
GROUP EXERCISE: Saturday @ 8:30am (60 min.) – Members welcome by RSVP
We are closed Thursday’s from 1pm-3pm for team meetings and filming.
All visits are by appointment only via the MINDBODY app.
We’re here to help you get started and reach your fitness goals. First, we suggest speaking with a trainer in a free consultation to see what you need and what you want. Then, we might suggest different options to help you get there, like packages or ongoing training.
In the consultation, we will outline the best way to reach your specific goals using proven, research-based fitness program design principles.
If you need help learning how to exercise and get started at the gym, we have options for that too. Ask us about our intro packages or short-term training. We want to help you no matter what your budget is, so don’t be afraid to ask.
We require a parent or guardian to at least sign-off on minors under the age of 18.
It is highly encouraged for any beginner to get the help of a personal trainer at least to get started, but this is especially important for those under 18.
We may not allow kids under 16 to workout without their parent and/or a personal trainer directly supervising them.
Being responsible, following gym rules, and using equipment properly and safely are required for all exercisers at Pike Fitness.
Yes, we do require reservations for all workouts. Appointments are available every hour, and you may reserve the time up to 15 minutes prior to the appointment time, and up to 90 days ahead of time.
Members receive unlimited reservations, so if you need longer than an hour, or come at say 9:30-10:30, we ask to please reserve multiple times (9am and 10am).
If you fail to reserve an appointment, we may charge a no-reservation drop in fee of $5 per occurrence to your card on file or deny entry.
We have a reservation policy due to the size of our facility and to prevent overcrowding.
If you just want to come and see the facility, you are welcome to come walk-in, but we may not be available to help, so it’s best to reserve a free consultation if you have more questions prior to signing up.
If you would like a walk through, please email info@pikefitness.com.
Yes! We take safety very seriously, and in addition to having a first aid kit and AED, all staff is First Aid, CPR, and AED certified.
In the event of a serious incident like a heart attack, we will call 911 immediately. Typically there is a medic stationed about a block away.
If you are doing a heavy lift and need a spotter, our team would be happy to help you. Just ask one of our trainers! If they are in a session, they may be able to help for just a moment, but are still happy to help.
All we ask is that you are courteous to our time. If you need more than a few moments to spot, please consider hiring a trainer for more in depth spotting and assistance.
We want you to know what to do in our gym and get great results, so your membership includes a ready made fitness plan.
If you would like to sign up for one of our many fitness programs available, please just reach out to us via email or let us know in person next time you are in.
The application we will set you up with is also very handy, so even if you just want to use the features like the leaderboard, fitness notes, and PR tracking, we invite you to join.
We suggest using a fitness plan for 3-6 weeks before changing. You will know you are ready for a change when you stop progressing or get bored.
You should try to set new records each day of the plan, and when you hit a plateau, it’s probably time to change. This typically happens after about a month.
Please submit a Fitness Plan Update Form so we can know more about your request.
You can also reach out to us via email, text (707) 413-7453, or let us know in-person.
It’s always helpful for us to know who is coming in, but for short term guests, we like to make it especially convenient, so please feel free to just come and workout.
We just require that you follow our gym rules while you are here (posted on the wall to the right of the entrance), and know if you come without a reservation, there’s a chance we may be closed since we work off our reservation list to know when we can close to take a break.
NOTE TO MEMBERS: RSVP is required to prevent no-reservation fee of $5/occurrence.
Our Guided Membership is designed to help with some accountability and a lot of help on the programming end to ensure good progress. It is not however enough to make any significant progress towards your health and fitness goals if you are only coming to the personal training sessions and not training on your own. You must be actively completing homework sessions and actively communicating with your trainer to get the most out of this membership. If you do all the homework and develop a good working relationship with your trainer however, we have seen people get better results with this membership than those who spend 2-3x more for more regular personal training because dedicated Guided Members may be coming more regularly than those who do 1-on-1 personal training 2-3x week as their only training program.
The training sessions in the Guided Membership may include some workouts, but are more so focused on the following:
- fitness education and learning proper technique for new exercises
- Overview of new fitness plans
- Discussing best next steps
- Fitness testings
- Nutritional guidance
- and any other things dealing with the professional guidance towards your fitness goals.
There are too many to write an extensive list, but some common things to consider are:
- Never perform an exercise you aren’t comfortable with or don’t know how to do properly – consult a professional trainer first!
- Never keep going if you feel pain – stop immediately. There’s a difference between sharp pain and muscle burning pain. Muscle burn is good, but sharp pain is not!
- Warm-up prior to lifting. This gets the muscles warm, reduces joint stiffness and lubricates your joints.
- Incrementally increase weight if going heavy. You may need several warm-up sets prior to your recorded set if you are really pushing it in strength phase.
- Don’t be shy from using a lighter load to keep good form. We are not impressed by big weights – we are impressed by perfect form.
- Mind your posture! Your back is probably the most at risk of significant injury, so any bending or twisting, especially under load, can potentially lead to injury.
- When in doubt, don’t attempt. Ask for advice.
- Going heavy? Ask a trainer for a spot.
- Take water breaks. Dehydration can lead to serious injury or even death. If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated by at least 1%, and your performance is already affected. If you’re older, your thirst mechanism may not be what it used to be. Take incremental water breaks. Urine should be light and good flow.
- Be careful of rotator cuff injuries by preventing your shoulders from externally rotating except under very light controlled loads. Letting dumbbells fall to the side of a bench can tear a rotator.
- Be careful of pinch points around the gym.
- Use collars for lifting. Our gym has bumper plates that very easily slide off. If one plate goes, things will get ugly fast!
- Use perfect form. Ask a trainer for coaching tips if you aren’t sure if your form is picture perfect. A second pair of eyes is always a good idea.
- Control your lifts, especially the eccentric or “negative” portion.
- Clear your surroundings before you begin an exercise. Our gym is spacious and clutter free for a reason!
- Don’t train the same muscle back to back days. It’s not the workout that gives amazing resistance training benefits, it’s the recovery. If you want to train more, do some cardio and stretch, or use a split routine like upper/lower, or upper push/upper pull/lower.
- Don’t wing your workouts. Use a plan. Need a plan? Ask a trainer. Our membership comes with professionally designed fitness plans.
Let us know if you have any questions on gym safety. We are happy to help you especially to decrease chances of injury. This is a trainers #1 job.
Unless you are locked in a longer term contract, you may change your membership at any time without charge. Please let us know if you would like to change your membership at pikefitness.com/account/change-membership.