Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog

For years I had found myself getting repeatedly frustrated with client’s level of commitment to their exercise and nutrition program. This sentiment is shared amongst personal trainers both in the U.S. and abroad. This frustration reached a point at times where I actually questioned the validity and effectiveness of my career pursuit.

In the last few years, I have traveled quite a bit speaking in both the personal training and corporate worlds. I’ve spoke with trainers, clients, and every day people from all over the world on the topic of personal fitness. It has become apparent that there is a disconnect between what our clients really want and need, and what we are providing as personal trainers.

The fact of the matter is our clients don’t want to be like us. Many of them are wired to be fulfilled by different life pursuits than rocking a 6-pack on Facebook. They know that to attain success in their given pursuit, they need their health. This is where they bring us into the picture. They tell us their goals which are quite often just an echo of what their spouse, friends, doctor, etc. has been harping on them for years. They may or may not be truly interested or have any idea what is involved with achieving these goals. What many of them want to say is “I just need to figure out how to tolerate physical activity so I can get these people off my back and not feel like such a slob”. This isn’t in the well-accepted script however, so they default to the norm, “Lose weight, more energy, improve health” etc.

When we take these goals at face value and start piling on unfamiliar and un-intuitive expectations, it becomes overwhelming. They come to us because they either don’t like, or are unfamiliar with exercise and we cram it down their throats in hopes to create spitting images of ourselves. Imagine if you were to take time out of your day, money out of your bank account, drive out of your way, and do something you don’t like to do while someone reminds you repeatedly of your shortcomings?

I speak quite a bit on financial and business development in personal training. How many trainers go home and do what I recommend after they carefully outlined their goals for me? How many of them shorten their 3-hour daily workout to do some business planning to grow their career each day? I can tell you. Almost none. Even though they were gung-ho when we were talking about it one on one, it didn’t happen. Why? Because personal trainers for them most part aren’t good at business. Numbers, administration, and analytics are not intuitive. They are confusing and challenging to the point of being avoided for many. That’s why we are in a profession with the median income at about $30,000 a year with a college degree. Is it fair for a financially successful person to call us “lazy and unmotivated?”

Our business acumen as trainers is our client’s exercise and nutrition. If you as a personal trainer were to use a business coach, how would you want them to treat you? How drastically could you change your behavior in a short amount of time? You have always related to the world around you physically, now you have to do it through numbers and other intangible concepts. The point of this level of empathy is not to disregard our expectations for our clients. We may, however, have to learn to read their true needs better. We can’t assume that every client that comes through our door wants to be like us. This will save a mountain of frustration for both parties.

We need to offer education, accountability, and support that matches their (not our) specific needs. Our focus should be to provide an educating, motivating, and enriching environment that creates a positive experience with physical fitness and wellness. The clients that want more will seek and do more. The ones that don’t will still make a marked positive change in their lives and avoid succumbing to the masses of diseased and defeated Americans. Either way, neither we nor our clients can lose.