How many of you have signed up for personal training or a meal plan and they hand you a template telling you to eat this amount of calories with this many grams of protein or do these workouts on this day of the week to see results? A lot of personal trainers have fallen into the thought process that there is one way to do things if you want to see results and if you don’t follow this regimen you will stay stagnant. THAT IS NOT TRUE, and I will tell you why.
Everyone is different. If I hand a complex meal plan and intense workout plan to one of my clients it may workout great for them, but if I hand it to another one of my clients they may get burnt out and give up on their fitness goals all together. Understanding where your clients are at currently and where they want to be is key when you first meet them. For example, if I had a client who has had personal training before and has already instilled healthy habits into their daily life they may be ready for that more intense workout plan. On the other hand, if you have a client who is new to personal training they may find it intimidating at first, but once they get more comfortable and used to it they would be ready for a program like that.
That is why it is so important to work with your clients individually. Find out what their goals are, what physical activities they enjoy doing, what foods they like to eat, realistically how many hours per day they are available to chase their fitness goals, how quickly they expect to see results and use this information to implement it into their plan. I believe it is vital to have a consultative approach to personal training and not use a “one size fits all” model. Doing this will show your clients that you care about them and helping them reach their goals, as well as setting realistic expectations with them so they know what to expect going in. What works for some does not work for all! Tell me about some of your best/worst experiences with personal trainers in the comments below!
5 responses to “What Drives Me Crazy About the Fitness Industry…”
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Chase – totally agree. My personal trainer from last year gave me basically a template of vitamins, supplements and workout routines to follow that was way over my head and a drastic change from what I was doing. It would have been nice to ease into it by gradually introducing a routine that was almost impossible to follow considering my already too-busy work and family life. I may be making excuses, but I do think it was unrealistic. Nice blog post!
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Hi Chase. My trainer was helpful from when I started the gym than when I had to leave after the summer because of teaching, then he helped me with an at home routine. I was so surprised when he called a few months later to check in and see if I was doing the at home routine.
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