Check out Fitness Enhancement CEO and founder Scott Hunt in the recent Fitness Pro Magazine which features the Commando on the front cover. Scott’s article “Are you Impersonal Trainer” is a great read along with other great advice from Australia’s top trainers including The Biggest Loser’s “The Commando”. And yes, our view point on how to treat clients is very different to The Commando’s, find out our thoughts on The Biggest Loser show here!
Are you an “Impersonal” Trainer?
Our clients buy Personal Training from us, so while it may sound obvious, they actually want Personal Training that’s “Personal”, yet all too often Trainers deliver boring and repetitious “Impersonal” Training. Sooner or later the client quits and tells the Trainer that they can’t afford it and says the classic “it’s not you it’s me”. If you’ve been giving the client the same session again and again, or even worse giving all of your clients the same session, it’s not them, it’s definitely YOU! More often than not it’s not that they can’t afford you, they just don’t see the value in paying you the big bucks. And why would they? If they do the exact same 20 push ups every single week, they know they’ll do the same push ups again next week, and the next and the next. If they know how to count to 20 themselves, and they know your predictable routine, then what are they paying you for aside from your personality? It’s a whole lot cheaper to do it at the Gym alone, and free to do it at home or in a park. So that’s exactly what many clients do after a few sessions or a few months with a Trainer. They find a cheaper impersonal option. We’re sure everyone knows how to give a basic Personal Training session, so here are some of our top tips for turning good sessions into amazing sessions by putting the “personal” back into Personal Training. Remember, no one comes back for years and years because you’re good, they come back because you’re amazing! This approach sees our average client do over 100 one on one sessions with us, and we’ve had plenty do thousands. It not only keeps clients and gets them better results; it makes the job a whole lot more fun for us!
Personalise
Don’t just look at your client’s age, weight, sex and goals and then work out your session based on that. Keep in mind everything about them, they’re an individual, they’re not the same person as someone else who may tick all the same boxes demographically. So don’t treat them as that in the session. From injuries, to posture, to genetics or even coordination, they’re a unique individual and you need to focus on everything that makes them unique. Focus on understanding and remembering a client’s precise goals, not just a generic “lose weight”, and remember their precise motivations that lead them to having these goals. Also remember the other important things in a client’s life, things such as their birthday or their partners name, it makes all the difference in personalising Personal Training.
Progression
As a client becomes fitter, the “Impersonal” Training approach is to do the same exercise, just with more reps or added weight. The “Personal” Training approach is to progress the complexity of the exercise to challenge the client in all areas of fitness. Combining two exercises together or changing the stability, the speed, the range of motion or the plane of movement can see a simple exercise like a push up progressed in hundreds of different ways. You can develop the one progression over the weeks and months to ensure the client sees they are doing exercises that they never would have dreamt of without this progression.
Variety
Never do the same workout twice! Your client will be different every session, if they’re new, they’ll obviously progress dramatically each session. If you’ve had them for years they may not be getting fitter, but you can still have a different focus and strategy for every workout to ensure that there’s always something new and exciting to keep it personal. While one exercise may not always be better than another physiologically, we all know that variety is the spice of life and this will keep clients coming back for exciting new sessions that no one else offers. So psychologically variety is always better. There are an infinite number of variations out there, so be creative. We’ve had many clients train for over a decade and they’ve never done the same workout twice!
Psychology
99% of clients won’t do those last few reps because of their head, not their body. Getting the best out of a client all comes down to the psychology of what you say and how and when you say it. Don’t use the same repetitious “come on you can do it” for each and every client, think about the psychology of their goals and what will make them want to do it. Just as important as getting that little bit extra out of them, is ensuring you don’t get that little bit too much and leave them feeling sore and sorry for the rest of the week. Just because you can force more out of them and they can physically handle it, doesn’t mean they can mentally. If they’re painfully sore for days and didn’t want to be, you didn’t do a good job of personalising the session. Yes I understand that some clients will call a little bit of tenderness “pain”, and they shouldn’t. However for them that’s their reality, so we need to respect their psychological limit, not just their physical limit.
Explain
Talk to your client about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. You may know that the variation you’re doing is going to activate your core more, but if you don’t tell them, how are they meant to know that? It’s amazing how many clients still think they need to be doing hundreds of sit ups to work their abs and don’t realise how many other exercises work their abs as well. Explain it to your client so they can understand and see the benefit of the unique variations of exercises you offer them that your competitors don’t.
Ensure they need you
You don’t need a Trainer to do a lunge, however you do need a Trainer to do a lunge with a medicine ball throw in it, and you can be of great assistance for so many other versions of exercises your client would never think of. So stick to the exercises you’re needed for. Your client isn’t just there for your personality; they’re there for the things they can’t do, or couldn’t be bothered doing by themselves. So don’t make yourself disposable by primarily giving them things that don’t require your help and expertise.
It’s not about you
Trainer arrogance is the biggest reason Trainers fail to give “personal” Personal Training sessions. Whether it be that you personally love a certain exercise so you push a client to love it too, even though they may be twice your age and weight and hate even the thought of exercise. It may be that you give a client an exercise because of how good it makes you look to the rest of the Gym. Or it could be that you give a client an exercise that simply makes your job easier such as getting them to hit a bag rather than you holding pads. If you put yourself first, you’re putting your client last and delivering anything but a “personal” Personal Training session. There’s plenty of cheaper ways to get in shape without hiring a Personal Trainer, and your clients know this. Don’t give a “personal” session and you’ll be in a price war you can’t win with all of the other impersonal cheaper options out there. Give “personal” Personal Training sessions and you’ll position your services so far ahead of the $10 a week Gym memberships or cheap group sessions that they won’t be competition, and you will be deemed indispensable.