Kitchener Personal Trainer

Today I am talking about life as a personal trainer and personal training as an industry and career. Specifically my career as a personal trainer and if there are any personal trainers reading this blog post then perhaps you can identify and relate to what I am talking about!

I have been a personal trainer for over 20 years and I have trained many people, all women. This is because I prefer working with women but that’s the not the point of this post. The point is you change over time as a personal trainer. In the beginning you are excited, yet very naive.

You think that if you give people a really great program to follow and you give them lots of attention and love that they will get phenomenal results and reach their goals each and every time. While this is very true with some people, some others won’t be so linear. People have baggage, they have insecurities and sometimes very unrealistic expectations. Some people just simply freak out when they start to get closer and closer to their goals and then up and quit.

You as the personal trainer can’t understand why they would quit when they are doing so well. This could be due to many reasons that have nothing to do with you as a personal trainer and everything to do with them. Maybe it’s because they get no support whatsoever from their husband/boyfriend and family or friends. Maybe it’s because they have never had any attention from anyone but now that they are losing weight they get attention. Maybe too much.

Personal Training Clients

But when I was starting out as a personal trainer I took it personally. Very personally. I thought it was my fault somehow or they hated me. Or they found the workouts too hard or too much. But I realized that it had more to do with them than with me. I am pretty sure not everyone liked me, that’s a given but now that I am more experienced I realize that sometimes people are afraid of success and all the ramifications that come with it. Or they are getting no support from anyone(that’s very common) and they need it to be successful. 

I have also had some people call me up, set up an appointment and during and a little bit after the consultation tell me they absolutely want to sign up but then I never hear from them again. This is used to devastate me. Was it something I said? Was it something I did? You as the trainer and the fitness professional have no idea what happened as soon as they got home. Maybe someone made them think twice about it. Maybe they just weren’t ready. People need to be ready mentally in order to start working to achieve their fitness and health goal. They have probably already tried a million other diets and workout plans only to fail and they think to themselves “what makes this so different”? Why would this work when the other plans did not. But the main reason the other plans didn’t work was because they weren’t ready then either.

Sometimes diet/workout plans are just plain bad and they won’t work for anyone but most of the time it’s because of them. I know as a potential client this could be very hard to hear. The fact that you didn’t succeed was because of you but it really is true. Once a person can realize that it really is up to them and that a personal trainer can help them reach their goals instead of doing it for them or giving them a magic quick fix then you will see as the personal trainer that the client is ready. But if not, you will see some clients drop off or just not call you. And that’s ok because then you will have room for serious , determined clients instead of clients that are just not ready mentally.

Now when I meet a potential client I can usually tell if they are serious or not right away and if they end up not signing up or flaking out on me I’m good with it and I realize it’s not something I did and it’s not really their fault either. They are just not ready and that’s ok. They will be someday and when that day happens then I will be more than happy to have them as a client.

I hope this helps some of you new personal trainers have some perspective on clients and why they do the things that they do! The key here is just do the best job you can as a personal trainer like give them attention(don’t be on your phone, call/email/text them regularly, etc) and provide them with the best workout plan for them(no cookie cutter plans) as well as a nutrition plan. Then you will have clients that will be very successful in reaching their goals and be very thankful and grateful that they found you.

I also hope this helps potential clients as well as sometimes you just need to take the pressure off yourself and realize that sometimes changes need to be in place before you start working on your fitness goals, such as finding support or not caring about having the support from others to be successful or realize that change is a good thing and not to be afraid of it!

Comment if you’re a personal trainer or if you have any questions or concerns as a potential or current personal training client.