If you feel like you’ve reached your optimum level of fitness, then the next logical step to take is to help others reach theirs. This means devoting your time to helping a stream of people that want to work out, but not just casually — this means doing so in a professional sense, as a fitness coach or professional personal trainer.
To find success in such a role, you have to be well versed in not only the art of working out but also in the art of management. To see exactly what you need to do to find success as a fitness coach, check out the advice below.
Don’t allow for distractions
More often than not, the best-laid plans of people that are determined to start working out often go awry when distractions begin to occur. Your clients can go full-pelt in the gym for a number of weeks, everything could be going just the way you planned it, and you could actually be seeing some improvement in them, but all it takes is one distraction to put a halt to the momentum that has been built up and to then see your client give up on your fitness regime. It’s easily done, but it’s also easily avoided.
To avoid distractions when coaching a number of people who know one another at the same time, you should ensure that your clients choose their workout partners wisely. As nice as it might be for them have a partner that they are comfortable with working out alongside them, more often than not, your clients will become distracted when this happens. Whether it’s one of the partners not listening to your coaching and influencing the other to too, or whether it’s one taking time to discuss their home life or to show off the latest meme or video craze to be sweeping the Internet, every moment your clients spend not working out is a valuable moment lost — yes, you might be getting paid anyway, but to be a successful coach, the money should not be enough. For this reason, you should only take on clients that can prove they are willing to take the venture together seriously, which could involve you offering them trial sessions, to begin with.
While you’re at it, make sure your phone and your client’s phone are on silent! Whoever it is that’s trying to get into contact with you; they can wait until you’ve finished your sets.
Be meticulous with your planning
If you head into a new workout regime with a new client without a plan to refer back to throughout the duration of your time working together, you are very likely to fail at helping them to reach their optimum fitness levels somewhere down the line. So, plan!
For the most part, this means putting a plan into place in regards to what you will be helping your client to work on. If you don’t plan out what muscle groups you will be helping them to work on, the exercises they partake in may not actually benefit them and may fail to drive them towards their peak physical condition. If this were to happen, both you and them would exert valuable efforts as well as waste time. So, plan out what you will be working and when you will be doing so, remembering to allow for crucial rest periods in between.
Get your playlist sorted
The music that you choose to play to guide your client through their workout can have a real impact on the effort that they put in and subsequently their overall success. To get them pumped and motivated for an intense resistance workout, you should be playing songs that are loud and fast, preferably with a heap of bass thrown in for good measure, regardless of their genre — yes, this doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to listen to heavy metal all the while! Also, it can be beneficial to play music that synchronizes with the movement and the pace of workout that they are performing, especially if they are running on a treadmill.
Offer meaningful rewards that don’t break routine
If you want to find serious success as a fitness coach, then you need to be serious when it comes to offering rewards to your clients for good work. This means offering them meaningful rewards that either resonate with them on a personal and emotional level, or offering rewards that hold some real value in regards to the thought that has gone on into them. Importantly, regardless of the reward you offer them, they should break neither their diet or workout regime. An example of such a gift would be a set of commemorative coins that you provide to your clients every time they reach a milestone — ChallengeCoin4Less is a market leader in this field, and you can see more about the coins that they offer on their website. Every time your client receives such a reward, for example, they would be sure to be inspired to carry on with their work in order to earn even more for themselves.
Be strict when it comes to form
Regardless of the weight that your clients are lifting or how many sets and reps they are performing, if they don’t use the correct form, they will see no improvement in their fitness or muscle conditioning. Newcomers to the world of working out, especially, are incredibly prone to using momentum to help them lift weights, which then takes the hard work away from their muscles, subsequently meaning they do not get the workout that they need. So, you should be strict when it comes to the teaching of proper form, and you should be strict in ensuring that your clients adhere to it throughout the duration of the time with you.
Helping others to reach their fitness goals and then seeing them do so is just about as satisfying a thing that any workout fanatic can do. Your client’s goal will soon become your goal, and over time you will see you and your clients achieve success if you follow the above tips, and you can start making a name for yourself as a successful fitness coach.
