Top Tips for Personal Trainers

Often the trials and tribulations of becoming a Personal Trainer orientate around financing, the competitiveness of the market today, and how to differentiate yourself within that market. We want to help you, as an aspiring PT, to become invaluable to your clients, adding value to their lifestyle that extends beyond just education. You must be proactive to their needs, and if you stay on top of your game, you will be able to deliver the all-important rewarding experience to your clients.

If newly certified, train your family and friends for free

It’s important for you to build up experience, for yourself and for your clients. Just as passing a driving test doesn’t make you an experienced driver, becoming a qualified PT does not guarantee an unlimited knowledge base. Training family and friends will offer insight into diverse ailments, needs, and desires for goals. It can also initiate the word of mouth process to which many successful PT’s indebted to their careers!

Being an educated PT is not an asset, it’s a given

As the PT industry has grown over the last 10 years, being well educated is now expected and is no longer optional. Your clients, too, will be more informed themselves. To stand out from the pack, you can never become complacent with your learning. Try to attend seminars, lectures and talks from industry leaders, and function as an educator for your clients.

Be an ambassador

Put simply, practice what you preach! You must embody the active and healthy lifestyle which you advocate to your clients, and fulfil your role as teacher by applying both sound theory and setting an example.

Facilitate your client’s goals

As a personal trainer, it is your function to make sure that your client has an efficacious experience. They will pay good money for the privilege of personal training, and that investment should be rewarded by results, both immediate and in the context of long-term goals.

It’s never about you

If a client isn’t compliant or slips up, give them a clean slate and remember it’s about them, not you. Your profession is to build self-esteem, not to look down on your clients. Don’t reprimand them for being less than perfect, just be a constant source of encouragement and notice when they have made an effort.

Personality matters

It is a key ingredient that determines your training style. Some may be calm and caring where others have a fired-up boot camp approach. Whatever your style, don’t try to be someone you’re not as few people will pay to spend time with a robot.

Always be professional

Regular trainer-client contact often breeds friendships and familiarity, but be wary of the demand for professionalism. If you’ve been training the same client for years, they may seem more like a friend than a customer, but you must still show up on time, be prepared, and act like an adult, making ethical decisions.

Learn when to say no

Your time is valuable and your clients are even more valuable. If you take on too many clients, the quality of your service will suffer. Similarly, don’t ignore incompatibility. Perhaps you just don’t click with a certain client, and continuing such a relationship is inefficacious for both you and them. If the dynamic is not right, neither of you will benefit.

Make time for training yourself

Your own training will yield important realisations and things that can be passed onto clients. It provides an insight into the mindset of a training client. Regardless of your body type and shape, if you train consistently and with dedication, you’re in a strong position to offer advice. Value your own training as highly as your career as a trainer.

Take responsibility

If your client fails to adhere to a programme or consistently misses scheduled sessions, ask yourself why. Sure, it’s easy to blame the client for ‘being lazy’, but it reflects on you too…why is the client not complying? Why have they bailed on your session? What can you do to make them more enthused?

Before is as important as after

Don’t forget to get as many ‘before’ measurements as possible! If you’ve got no record of the ‘before’, it’s more difficult to acquire quantifiable results which you can use to prove your efficiency as a PT. Photos, weights, widths are all important and like they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Get endorsements and Testimonials

These are essential for marketing purposes, as your clients can become walking, talking advertisements for you and your business. Wait until you have trained your client for a while, and then ask them for a testimonial. If they are happy, it is likely they will willingly oblige.

Adopt a speciality

If you want to expand your opportunities, you need to pick a speciality beyond being a general personal trainer. Specialising in athletes, injuries, elderly clients, disabled individuals can give you the edge and make your job more rewarding.

Learn motivational interviewing

Everyone is more than capable of motivating themselves, you just need to facilitate a client’s access to their self-motivation. This style of interviewing can be a powerful change-stimulating tool when used in the right situations.

Last but not least…NEVER curl in the squat rack!

You don’t want to be that PT who doesn’t know what they’re doing! Train yourself, educate yourself, be the best you can be and inspire others to want to train like you. If you love what you do, this will be picked up by clients and motivate them further.

Once you’ve got all that in place, there’s only one thing left to do. Get a quick quote and instant Personal Trainer Insurance cover today!

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