Unfortunately, sometime our industry gets a slight bad rap, what is even more unfortunate is sometimes it is deserved. I have seen personal trainers let clients cycle for up to an hour, whilst they stand motionlessly next to them on their mobiles or offering limited support or motivation. Luckily this is very much the minority of personal trainers and coaches.
The majority of PTs are very good at what they do and have solid client base. In my opinion, although this is great, there are always ways we should look to improve and develop as trainers and coaches, so here’s how to be the best personal trainer you can!
The following list is by no means exhaustive, but it is an extensive list of how you can be the best PT you can be:
Rapport
Something I probably massively underestimated when I became a PT. Before anything else, you need to build a strong working relationship with your client. You do not need to be best mates and watch that you don’t overstep the professional boundary but it is vital there is a mutual respect and enjoyment of being in each other’s company. The classic saying – ‘no-one cares how much you know, before they know how much you care’, is always a key one to reflect on. Do the small things to improve on rapport with clients, check up on them, ask relevant questions, take time to ensure their training programmes are based on their goals.
Knowledge
Now the client knows how much you care, you can utilise that and share your knowledge with them. Yes, clients may not want to know every details and rationale of their session and programme, but this doesn’t mean it won’t be useful for them to understand certain elements. If you train a client once a week (a session that they perform perfectly), but they have two other sessions (that they perform completely wrong) – you won’t get the results you need with that client so educate them about how to execute their plan correctly.
Make sure your knowledge is update, constantly want to learn more and expand on your knowledge. Continued professional development is a good thing for you personally and your career but also your clients will reap the rewards of this.
Flexibility
Don’t be set in stone in your training sessions for client, have a couple of options you can fall back on if plan A doesn’t work. Plenty of times my client have come in to train and whether it be because they have had personal problems, have an inury, have trained earlier in the week, have an important event or activity following the session, I have had to alter what my original plan was going to be. This links back to the two previous points, about rapport and knowledge……you need to know your client well enough to make these types of decisions. Also, the session still needs to be effective, so this is where having relative knowledge is important.
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