Forgiveness Fitness

When you're aiming for fitness, a personal trainer increases your odds of success.

Debi and Jared lost 30 pounds.

Brooke shed 95 pounds and says, "The mirror is not my enemy anymore."

Margaret lost 35 pounds, three dress sizes and 10 percent body fat.

These are only a few testimonials of thousands that could be cited of the benefits of hiring a personal trainer. These people came to a point in their lives in which they felt their weight and overall fitness had spiraled out of control. A personal trainer brought this downward spiral to a halt.

Writing in Men's Journal, Lauren Steele says that "working out with a personal trainer increases your fitness-goal success rate by over 30 percent, according to a study published in the Journal of Sports Science & Medicine. The study found that the influence of direct supervision during workouts had a huge effect on the outcome of training."

Given the obesity problem in the United States and lack of general fitness, the American fitness industry now amounts to more than $5 billion in gym subscriptions. At these gyms, many...