Question for other Trainers out there

SHBoss1673
SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
edited September 23 in Motivation and Support
So what do you do when you have what you consider a "bad" session with a client.

I can't say it was truly bad, she got her work in, but I just felt like it wasn't all that inspiring for her, and at the end I left wishing I had done different things.

Do you acknowledge to them that you didn't like the session and want to move on to other things?
Do you just move on, making up some reason to change the routine, not ever bringing the less than superb session to light?

Do you ask them whether they felt the same way.

I didn't let on that I was unhappy with the workout, I don't think. I was positive and up beat the whole time, I went through the same client interactions that I always do, gently correcting form, talking with the client without distracting them, praising them on correctly done repetitions, explaining the concepts behind a particular exercise.

For background, my client travels on a regular basis, and I wanted to show her things that she would be able to do on the road, and while it was a full suite of exercises, with good resistance, and a decent breadth of muscle work, it was a lot of body weight and resistance band stuff; she just didn't seem interested as much, even though she was the one who originally mentioned it. She seemed more interested in HIIT training, which I'm fine with and didn't discourage, but really don't want to do in our 1 hour per week sessions yet as she has a lot to learn about muscle conditioning before we get to that area (IMHO). Maybe I should do 1 HIIT session with her just to get it out of her system.

I briefly talked to her about the HIIT training and how I want to save that form of hybrid activity for later, and she agreed she needed proper form and weight training routines more than she needed the hybrid activity. I just feel like I could have done better. Any thoughts?

do you guys ever feel like that after a session? Is this normal?

Replies

  • kiuney
    kiuney Posts: 68
    You didn't mention what "other things" are but assuming she got a decent workout in, I'd guess it was probably a fine session.

    I think it's completely appropriate to mention that you didn't feel like things went so well time. We're human and every session isn't going to be perfect (sometimes your "best" is 70%, you know?). If I were a client, I would respect a trainer that much more who mentioned that it seemed like the last session didn't go very well over one who pretended it was fine.

    Ask her if she has any feedback about your sessions in general (I encourage my clients to give me feedback all the time). Ask if she feels like anything is missing or if she'd like to change the way you're doing things. It may also be that she's distracted by things external to you and the session. You never know and that's why it's worth asking.

    If she's really focused on HIIT, take her through a session. Let her see how tough it is. One of the tricky balances of training is finding that right combination of what the clients wants to do versus your professional opinion. Best of luck to you!
  • kendradl
    kendradl Posts: 595 Member
    I have never had a personal trainer so I can't speak from experience but I can say that if it was me and I was your client I would like you to talk to me, ask me what I want to learn, explain why I could or could not do things and that we will work up to certain exercises. Communication is key with me anyways, nobody is a mind reader and you don't want her to get mad and disappear.

    Again these are just my personal thoughts - Good Luck and I hope things work out for you :smile:
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    Yeah, I made the mistake last week of talking to her about HIIT training in passing. I should never have even brought it up. She's not ready, her endurance level is super low, and her strength is really low as well, she's essentially a beginner at everything except light/moderate elliptical work.

    In order for her to complete a HIIT session, I'd have to modify it and lower the levels so far, it would be hard to judge whether I'm actually doing high intensity with her. I'd rather build up her strength some, and have her do steady state cardio for a month on her own before trying to break her into HIIT
  • lessertess
    lessertess Posts: 855 Member
    Is it that you don't think the session went well or that you're afraid that she wasn't happy with it. I would just ask her for feedback and modify going forward based on her expectations. If she absolutely wants to do HIIT I would explain why you don't think she's ready but offer to take her through a session if she really wants to try it. Then DONT modify it. You might only take her through 5 minutes but she will be able to understand fully why she's not ready. Then, after she's build her endurance and strength you can take her through it again. She'll see the difference and realize how much stronger she is then when she started.


    By the way, I'm not a trainer, but I've worked with one for a long time.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
    Is it that you don't think the session went well or that you're afraid that she wasn't happy with it. I would just ask her for feedback and modify going forward based on her expectations. If she absolutely wants to do HIIT I would explain why you don't think she's ready but offer to take her through a session if she really wants to try it. Then DONT modify it. You might only take her through 5 minutes but she will be able to understand fully why she's not ready. Then, after she's build her endurance and strength you can take her through it again. She'll see the difference and realize how much stronger she is then when she started.


    By the way, I'm not a trainer, but I've worked with one for a long time.

    It's good points, I would hope that I didn't need to take it so far as to make her fail to see why I didn't want her to perform something yet. By that I mean, I hope I'm a good enough communicator to explain exactly why I don't think she's ready. I haven't yet talked to her about the routine. Whether she was unhappy, I'm sure I'm blowing it out of proportion somewhat, and I think I will talk to her. I just don't want to do it via email (it's not that kind of conversation IMHO) so I'll wait until our next session. I'm sure it'll be fine, heck, she's late for every session anyway, which means I don't get a full hour to train her, which screws up all my scheduled stuff, so it's as much her fault as it is mine! :tongue: (woof, that buck was heavy, I'm glad I passed it along!)
  • kiuney
    kiuney Posts: 68
    I think it's a good idea for you to explain why you don't think she's ready BUT, if she still insists - let her do it. Sometimes it's motivating for clients to see what they're aiming for.
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