Personal Training and getting Results

" I also want them to know that it is an expectation that they behave in a way that doesnt conflict with them getting a result OUTSIDE the gym (ie limiting takeaway, thinking about sleep patterns etc)."

Um, no. That sounds controlling and weird. I pay my trainer to work with me in the gym. I'm paying for a service that should be defined by my needs, not what my trainer demands. Any trainer who can't reach that sort of compromise with a client seems more interested in controlling then a partnership.

I mean, how would you even monitor that? Just. No.

Heres the thing. There is a difference between helping and demanding, between forming a partnership and having a power struggle. You can demand all day but the reality is people won't change until they are ready to. Some people take longer to change. MOST people start over and over and over until one day they are ready.

If you have this rigid set of demands you are setting many of those people up for failure and in turn, yourself up for failure as well. I'm not saying you have to hand hold, (my trainer is an retired Marine Officer, not a lot of coddling there) but we are in it together. As long as my trainer is more informed then I am I will listen, what I will not tolerate is being ruled over.

I guess what you have to ask yourself is really, what are you aiming for? Good results for yourself as a trainer with a high success rate (easy if you only take clients who concede to your demands) or developing a repoire and learning how to inspire different people according to their individual traits and challenges?

Hi,
I'm in Australia... and freely agree that some GPs are very good at helping people in specific areas, but some can be bad and have no idea about a certain area or medical issue. I GP-shopped a while before I settled on a practise I go to when needed. Having said that I never spoke to my doctor in relation to how or what to do to get fitter or lose weight, and even though we discussed it in relation to blood pressure, a family history of type 2 diabetes and heart problems, they have never pushed me toward trying to lose weight.

I think maybe it would be good if you put in your promo material, that if a client does want some more controlling style of PT who views what they are doing in a more holistic light, that you can do that, but if a client wants more freedom they can have that too; and explicitly say that you think they would get far better results if they fitted into the former category.

Doctors can refuse operate on someone if they do something to jeopardise there health prior to surgery. I have had a psychiatrist choose to stop seeing me because she disagreed with a life choice I was making at the time. One of the GPs in the practise I attend does not prescribe birth control or discuss it with patients at all. So it's not outside of the realm of possibility that your approach would actually be accepted or even desired.

I would suggest maybe trying to be a bit flexible to start with, but if you do start getting more clients interested in more control, you can then go to a point, where you put something in your promo material saying, don't even think about coming to see me if you are not taking this seriously in as many aspects of your life that you can.... and cater to that niche market and be known for it.

Mark Rippetoe is similar in his feedback to people who query his starting strength program. If you aren't getting results, you are not doing the program. "Don't ask for advice if you are not seeing results, unless you are doing everything I say" - is the basic idea - and this includes exercise, eating and progressing when he says you should.

Good Luck with your business.

I have a friend that is a trainer and is struggling with the same issue. Many of his clients not want to put in the work to change their life style. They want to try and exercise off a poor diet. He always tells me that he wishes his clients were as dedicated as I am, but most people are not willing to put the work in. You can be a little picky with who you train because it is not your Income but most trainers do not have that luxury. Many trainers don't push their clients because when it starts to get too hard people tend to quit and that means the trainer is not getting paid.

Being completely honest, you would scare me to death if you were my personal trainer.

I'm working with a trainer right now, and I love it. I'm also seeing results and have already recommended her to three different people who have hired her.

Here's what she did that made me extremely happy:
We had a "consulting session" in which we went over my goals and what I would have to do to get certain results. I want to lose weight and be more flexible, and also improve my balance. She talked about what I should do when I'm not working with her and suggested classes and things that would help and I'd enjoy. She also keeps track of what exercises I love, which ones I hate, and which ones I like, but have to be careful with (I love circuit training, but since the weather's turned I can't do them without getting an asthma attack) and has designed the workouts according to that, so I don't have to suffer through anything.

She sat down with me to create a meal plan. She figured out my calorie needs, broke the macros down to 40/30/30, then together we came up with three different days worth of food, taking into account what I like, what I won't eat (sorry nuts, I'm not having you), and what I'll be able to actually make (I won't cook every night, I won't always wake up in time to make breakfast, and that's okay! the meal plans she worked out with my have a day where I turn to protein bars or have lower calorie meals early in the day so I can order in that night). She also had a long printout with easy swaps for the meal plan, a baked sweet potato instead of brown rice, tuna instead of chicken, things like that where I might think "oh god, I can't eat anymore quinoa" and on the list there's something else to eat.

There is no punishment. Sometimes I go in and say, "I worked over 70 hours this week, I didn't fit in a single workout, I had days where I didn't eat a single vegetable, I averaged 5 hours of sleep a night, and I went out and had a bottle of wine after a ridiculously hard test." She didn't berate me about the meal plan, she didn't make my workout harder, and, most importantly, she didn't make me feel like a failure because life got crazy. I know I didn't do things that were conducive to meeting my goals, and she knows I know. She asks how things are going, and when things are off she offers tips and advice, but she's always positive and encouraging.

My trainer also checks in with me occasionally during the week (we meet on Saturdays). It's never a "did you exercise today? are you sticking to your goals? you need to do more!" type of thing, just a quick hello saying she's excited to see me on Saturday, or if they've added a new yoga class or she found a great recipe she'll let me know. That mid-week reminder is nice. I'm either excited to tell her how great I've been doing, or it helps steer me back on track if I've been having an off week.

So I guess overall, what I love (and what my mom, aunt, and friend love as well) about my trainer is that she is encouraging and understanding. Yes, she pushes me, but she also works to educate me, and help me. Also, she sees me as a person that's trying, not as a project that needs to be completed successfully.

Hope that helps!

Absolutely!! There is a very big danger in trying to "control" somebody who is not ready for it. The last thing I should be doing is trying to convert somebody to doing something they are not ready for .

Honestly, this comment would scare me away. The only person that can change me is me. You cannot control someone, whether they are ready for it or not, and you also cannot "convert someone to doing something", as they are the ones who make that choice.

I didn't hire my trainer so he could control me, I needed him to guide me in how to conduct my workouts and help me make better nutritional choices. He never, not once, threatened to drop me or consider not training me anymore or make any mention of that because I ate a couple slices of pizza, skipped a few workouts, or got four hours of sleep a couple times. He would voice his concerns if he felt that I was heading in a downward direction and let me take it or leave it. But never ever ever did he threaten that he wouldn't train me anymore. If he did, I would have quit immediately.

The concern is that I'm already working with people who are paying to do a training session with the idea of losing weight but not getting anywhere as they are not doing training outside the session and are not considering what they are doing with their diet and external forces (ie a couple of hours of sleep on weekends etc)

My trainer sat with me and explained the difference between going through the motions with him vs. taking it home and applying it to my life. He came up with workouts that I could do by myself and gave me some recipes to get me started. The way I see it, your job is to teach these people why their food choices, sleep patterns, etc., matter. It's on them if they decide to learn, and if they drop you because you push them harder then there you go, you didn't have to do the dropping. The danger is when you make the requirement of committing to a lifestyle change instead of the client.

It's possible I could have misread, but this is what I saw. Best of luck to you!

Edited because I was curious, do you have a consultation like someone had mentioned before, where you lay out how a lifestyle change would be more beneficial than these popular quick-fix fat-loss programs? This might be a very helpful way for clients to know what they are getting themselves into and make the decision themselves that this is what they want to do?

Lots of long and complex answers here. The short answer is no, you are not running a regiment in the army. I pay you for your advice and your motivation, not your control freakery. If I choose not to follow your advice, that is my problem not yours.