All I have to say is that this article would have helped me tremendously if I had access to it the week I started my first personal training gig out of college.
Looking back I was such a mess.
Excellent guest post today by NY-based (Capital district) strength coach Mike Sirani.
As a student or aspiring professional, you’ll often hear that preparation is the key to success. If you put in the hours studying and practicing, you’ll surely reap the rewards later on.
Flash-forward a couple years later: you’ve graduated school and just finished your first session with a personal training client.
Do you still feel like the above statement rings true?
The answer is likely no. Nothing can prepare you for your first time training another human being — not all the anatomy, physiology, chemistry, or Call of Duty you spent hours on in college.
Why’s this the case?
You’re now being asked to combine the science with the art. You can write the perfect program and explain all of the physiological adaptations that will come from it, but what happens when your client steps into the squat rack for their first set and the first five reps look as coordinated as a Charles Barkley golf swing?
What you choose to do next will either make you look like a Jedi genius or make you seem confusing and unhelpful. In the above scenario, you have three choices to improve the client’s technique:
Cue the individual and see if it improves their technique
Regress the exercise and see if the movement improves
Use a corrective exercise to break down the movement and help the client get a better grasp on what they should be doing.
Below, we’re going to review these three choices and discuss when it’s best to use each of them, depending on the individual, their personality, and the setting they’re training in.
Choice #1: Cueing
This should always be your first option to correct an exercise as a strength coach or personal trainer.
Anyone can move around and sweat on their own. It’s your job to coach and educate clients on the correct way to do an exercise in order to help them reach their goals faster and stay healthy while doing so.
Good cueing is something that most clients will take note of and appreciate. A great coach will keep these short and sweet and cater to the client’s learning style, whether that’s:
Auditory
Visual
Kinesthetic
Understanding the client’s personality type can also make cueing more effective.
If a client has a Type A personality, they may want more details about the exercise and why you’re making certain corrections. Someone who’s more laid back may simply want to be told a correction and then left alone.
Remember, this is where the science and the art meet. The more people you train, the better intuition you’ll develop as to what amount of cueing is too much vs. too little, whether to give internal or external cues, or if a specific cue works or not.
Choice #2: Regress the Exercise
What happens when you’re cueing and what you’re trying to convey isn’t registering with your client? This can result in a frustrated client, but hopefully you don’t let it get to this point. If you sense it’s heading in this direction, there’s nothing wrong with regressing an exercise.
Regress the back squat to a front squat, or the push-up to an incline push-up.
When regressing, it’s important to put the regression into context for the client.
This helps keep their confidence up and set the stage for progressing back to the exercise you originally programmed. Let them know why you’re regressing it, how the regression will improve their technique, and what needs to be done to progress back to the original exercise.
Regressing an exercise is also a strategy that may be utilized more quickly in a group setting when you don’t have the same amount of time to cue someone, like you would in a semi-private or one-on-one setting.
Choice #3: Use a Corrective Exercise
Too often, coaches will skip choices one and two and move right into bringing clients through the gamut of corrective exercises.
If you feel like a client needs a laundry list of correctives, it’s more beneficial to refer them out to a physical therapist or another healthcare professional that can better handle their issues. That way, you can use regressions to ensure the client continues getting a training effect when they’re with you, while the physical therapist helps get them back on track towards progressing specific exercises.
I have found using corrective exercises beneficial in certain scenarios, such as speeding up a client’s motor learning of a specific movement via chunking (breaking bigger movement down into component parts).
Let’s say a client is having a hard time learning the deadlift.
You’re giving excellent cues and have regressed the client from the trap bar to a Kettlebell Deadlift. However, their technique still isn’t pretty. Here, I may break down the movement with two corrective exercises.
One is used to teach the client to extend through their thoracic spine, while the other teaches movement at the hips without movement in the lumbar spine.
Thoracic Extension on Foam Roller
Hip Hinge Teaching Tools
In Summary
Unfortunately, there’s not one quick fix to improve someone’s technique on any exercise. There are too many variables in play for it to be that simple.
Appreciate the science of a program and spend time in the coaching trenches making choices from the three options above. The more you’re forced to make that choice, the better artistic instinct you’ll develop, and the better you’ll be at quickly making the best choice with a client.
About the Author
Mike Sirani is the Co-Owner of Capital District Sport and Fitnessin Round Lake, NY. He’s an experienced strength and conditioning coach and massage therapist who has spent the majority of his career in Boston training professional, collegiate, and high school athletes of various sports, as well as helping general fitness clients of all backgrounds learn to move better and get stronger than ever before. He earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Applied Exercise Science, with a concentration in Sports Performance, from Springfield College and completed a highly sought after six-month internship at Cressey Sports Performance. Mike specializes in teaching athletes and general fitness clients to get the most out of their bodies by enhancing their movement quality and creating exercises programs that allow you to get stronger, faster, and more powerful in a safe and effective manner.
In today’s day and age being a personal trainer runs somewhere in the spectrum of one of the most rewarding careers out there and a dumpster fire.
The latter comes into play often, especially when you work in a large commercial gym where you’re one of dozens of trainers vying for everyone’s attention (and wallets). It’s seemingly become harder to separate yourself from the masses, and when you compound that with the long hours and the massive trepidation from many trainers to understand the business side of the equation, it’s no wonder the burnout rate is so high.
In today’s excellent guest post Michael Anderson he explains why keeping the clients you do have may be the “x” factor.
This is sort of a weird post to write for me because I’m specifically speaking to the coaches and trainers that read Tony’s blog rather than the average Joe or Jane who just likes training and wants to be awesome.
It’s also weird because I don’t often talk about the business side of this industry…mainly because I’m a WAY better trainer than businessman.
Today’s lesson is one I learned probably 7-8 years ago and it should help anyone who heeds this advice make more money: retain your clients.
I don’t mean tie them up and keep them in the yoga studio, I mean make sure that once you get a client you’re keeping them for the long haul.
Many moons ago I was a personal trainer at a fairly upscale privately owned globo gym in Boston. Per the usual for a commercial gym like that they constantly pushed the trainers to sign new trainees up for sessions. The owners and manager went to great lengths to keep increasing new sign-ups. We offered two free sessions when you signed up for a year membership, several times a year we offered a special deal where you could buy three sessions for $99 and they started to give bonus incentives to trainers who signed up new clients for X amount of sessions.
The only problem was that this ultimately didn’t make anyone any money; neither the trainers nor the gym itself.
The two free sessions would work well if you had a really polished approach, but it took a long time to get comfortable with it. The sessions that we put on sale were a waste of time and effort; the “sales hunters” would wait until these were available and then buy a few of them with no intention of training beyond the length of those packages.
They’d do a few sessions and get some new ideas and then work out on their own until the sale became available again. As the trainer conducting these sessions, you were doomed to fail.
These people almost never wanted to continue as a regular client.
Providing a financial bonus to the trainers when you signed up a new client created a system where people were more interested in selling packages to get the extra money short-term than they were in building a solid long-term client base.
The result of this was that there were a lot of gym members who did a few sessions with trainers who were just trying to get paid vs enjoying quality sessions. Ultimately these people would now be harder to convince to use our training services again.
Why Long Term Is Better
As a personal trainer it is going to benefit you dramatically in the long term to have clients that come back to you month after month, year after year.
During my five year stint training at that gym, I had 8-10 clients who would train with me multiple times per week and that core group lasted for 2-5 years.
Most of these clients would purchase our largest package of sessions (52) which was sold as the “annual package” and resulted in the cheapest per session cost; my clients were going through 2-3 of them a year!
Out of about 35 available training hours per week, my schedule typically contained about 20-25 hours of long-term clients. The rest of my schedule was usually filled in with new members who were using their two free sessions. My conversion rate with these was pretty good, so my goal was to get them interested in training regularly and then I would pass them off to other trainers who had more availability or were just starting out.
I hate suggesting this, but its important thing to remember from time to time: your clients are your business and each one represents money to you.
In the grand scheme of things you will make more money having 3-5 people train 2-3 times a week each for multiple years than chasing new clients every month so you can get the bonus.
I’ve heard a general rule when it comes to business marketing that it takes 5-10 times as much money to obtain a new customer as it does to retain an old one. In the personal trainer world this means it takes you more time talking to people on the gym floor, more time emailing and cold calling and more time doing intro sessions that I’ve always found to be much more draining and intensive than someone you’ve been working with for a while.
If you’ve ever had a day where you do 3-4 first time sessions with someone then you know what I’m talking about. Now, I’m not suggesting you should be opposed to doing all of those office-work things, but I feel like many of you would agree with me that it’s more fun to be in the gym coaching than it is to be sitting at a computer send out the same annoying email over and over.
The other benefit is that when you work with someone for a long time and they really trust and appreciate you they will do the marketing for you.
These clients will tell other gym members and friends about how much they enjoy working with you. If you read Pete Dupuis’ blog (and you should) then you’d know that word of mouth advertising is the One Ring of fitness business advertising….it rules them all.
These referrals almost always produce a stronger client relationship than someone who just walks into the gym and says “yea I guess I’ll try a session with you”. If a person you’ve been working with for 18 months can produce one or two more people who will work with you for 18 months each, you’re doing really well.
But, How?
Unfortunately this is where I tell you that there is no secret formula to creating and retaining a good client base.
I think Tony’s blog in general is filled with great advice that will help you succeed in this regard; I know that it helped me tremendously back in the day when I was figuring this shit out (and still today). Other than that you just have to work hard and refine your technique.
It also really helps if people like you. No one likes working with a dick.
Make sure you take care of your current clients first.
Much like exercise, make sure you master the basics of good customer service first: be on time, don’t smell like hot ass, don’t let them see you pick a booger at the front desk, don’t complain about your personal problems during a session, don’t allow their time slot to get compromised because you’re a shitty scheduler, and ensure that you’re doing your part to help them meet their goals.
Personal training is both a soft science and an art form. You have to do what you know is right to help them achieve a goal, but you also have to relent a little on some stuff. If a client hates push-ups and you keep forcing push-ups on them, they will just say “F it” and not come back.
You’ve got to develop a broad enough range of methods and approaches that you can meet any client where they are and create an enjoyable training experience.
As a current small business owner, I’ve seen this scenario play out even more substantially than it did when I worked at a globo gym.
I don’t have the capital to spend on any advertising and showing up at high school sporting events to hand out business cards isn’t a great use of my time. It has become even more important that I focus on keeping the clients I have and slowly adding to my roster through word of mouth referrals.
While getting new clients in the door is important, I’d be a fool to not first take the best care of the people currently coming to train with me. Do right by those you train now and build on that slowly.
If you have any questions please feel free to reach out!
About the Author
Mike is a personal trainer and strength coach living in Cleveland with his fiance and adorable pit bull. He is the owner of Anderson Strength and Fitness, the strength coach for Healthy Green Athlete and is an all around badass dude. You can follow him on Instagram @AndersonStrengthFitness or shoot him an email at [email protected].
Straight sets, pyramid sets, drop sets, cluster sets…
…it can all be rather confusing to the newbie lifter, or even seasoned veteran. How many sets should you do? What exercises are the best fit? What about rest? Is it normal to not feel the right side of your face?
All are pertinent questions and with today’s guest post Dallas based personal trainer, Shane McLean, helps to clear the air.
When I first started lifting, I had no idea about all the different types of sets.
When I went to the gym, I would saunter over to the dumbbell rack and bust open my biceps with some curls.
And when I did curls, I did them it front of the mirror and the whole gym knew about it.
However, my biceps remained small and so did I.
That’s until I started learning about all the set schemes that exist in the iron universe. Like most boys when they started out lifting weights, I did the workouts from muscle magazines hoping that it would make me look like the guys on the cover.
That didn’t work out at all but, it was the first time I heard about pairing sets together, known as supersets. You mean you could pair exercises together, increase training efficiency and build muscle all at the same time?
My mind was blown.
This led me further down the rabbit hole of all the different set methods which in turn led me to be armed with a coffee cup, a clip board, a stopwatch and telling people what to do with a dumbbell while wearing comfortable pants.
Yes, that’s right I’m a Personal Trainer.
Now you can benefit from my 25 years in the iron game, with eight of those years writing programs for people that get results.
Read on and learn things.
NOTE: These are guidelines and there will be exceptions to the information presented here.
1) Straight Sets
What Are They? – Doing just the one exercise for one or multiple sets with rest in between sets
The Best Use For Straight Sets? – They’re often used for barbell exercises like deadlifts, squats, presses and rows. All your energy is focused on getting stronger with that one move.
Types of Exercises That Straight Sets Work Best For? – Compound barbell/dumbbell like those discussed above.
How Many of Sets Should You Do?– It depends on how many reps in each set. More reps mean less sets and less reps mean more sets. Another factor is load. The closer you are to your one rep max, you’ll do less reps more sets and vise versa.
For example- 3 sets – 3 reps 90% 1 rep max. Or 4 sets of 5 reps 83% 1 rep max.
How Much Rest Between Sets?– usually 2-3 minutes rest between sets.
2) Supersets
What Are They?– Is one set of an exercise is performed directly after a set of a different exercise with minimal rest in between them.
The Best Use For Supersets?– They’re ideal for building muscle, fat loss and for those who have a limited amount of time to train.
Types of Exercises Supersets Work Best For?– Really anything goes here. Barbell, dumbbells, kettlebell, bodyweight, resistance bands and machine exercises all work. You can use compound (exercising multiple muscles groups) or isolation (single muscle) exercises.
Different Types of Supersets
1. Compound supersets, when both exercises work a similar body part.
For example:
1A. Squat
1B. Lunge
2. Non-competing supersets, pairing a lower body exercise with an upper body exercise.
For example:
1A. Squat
1B. Dumbbell bench press
3. Isolation/compound supersets which you pair a single joint exercise with a compound movement or vise versa.
For example:
1A. Triceps extension variation
1B. Barbell bench press
How Many of Sets Should You Do? – Anywhere from 2- 5 sets (depending on how much time you have to train) and repetitions can range from anywhere between 6- 15 reps per set.
How Much Rest Between Supersets? – Limited rest between the exercises themselves and anywhere between 60-120 sec rest between supersets.
3) Tri-Sets
What Are They? – Doing 3 different exercises back to back to back.
The Best Use For Tri-Sets?– They are ideal for fat loss, muscle building and for people who want maximum training efficiency.
Types of Exercises Tri-Sets Work Best For?– Really anything goes here also. Barbell, dumbbells, kettlebell, bodyweight, resistance bands and machine exercises all work. Furthermore, having all the equipment close to you will cut down on transition time between exercises.
Different Types of Tri-Sets
You can use them to bring up a lagging body part.
For example, shoulders:
1A. Single arm shoulder press
1B. Lateral shoulder raises
1C. Reverse fly
Or mobility tri sets to help improve your movement.
For example, hip mobility exercise for the squat:
1A. Goblet squat
1B. Push up
1C. Half kneeling hip flexor stretch
Or when pushed for time you can combine strength and cardio exercises to get the best of both worlds.
For example:
1A. Leg exercise
1B. Upper body exercise
1C. Cardiovascular exercise 30- 60 seconds
How Many of Sets Should You Do? – Usually 3- 4 sets and anywhere between 6- 15 reps per exercise.
How Much Rest? – Limited rest between the exercises and 90-120 seconds rest after each tri-set.
4) Timed Sets
What Are They?– Doing an exercise for certain amount of time or completing the programmed reps in a certain amount of time.
The Best Use For Timed Sets?– They can be used for building muscle but they’re excellent for incinerating body fat.
Types of Exercises Timed Sets Work Best For?– Any piece of equipment that allows for an easy transition between exercises is a winner. For example, barbell, dumbbell, bodyweight, kettlebell and resistance bands.
Different Types of Timed Sets
Every minute on the minute sets where you complete a certain amount of reps and then rest the reminder of the minute before moving on to the next exercise.
For example:
1A. Goblet squat- 8 reps
1B. Row- 8 reps
1C. Goblet reverse lunge- 8 reps on each leg
1D. Chest press- 8 reps
1E. Biceps curls – 8 reps
Or you can scrape the reps and it’s just you versus the stopwatch where you try to do as many reps as possible in a pre-determined timeframe. For example, a full body circuit using bodyweight, barbells and dumbbells.
1B. Push variation- Incline push up, Push up or Dumbbell bench press.
1C. Single leg exercise- Reverse lunge, Forward lunge or Side lunge
1D. Pull variation- Rack pull, Dumbbell bent over row or Standing cable row.
1E. Core- Alternating side plank, Mountain climbers or Front plank.
How Many of Rounds Should You Do? – It depends how long you’ve got to train. Using the above examples, these circuits takes 5 min to complete so 3- 5 rounds would suffice.
How Much Rest?– You rest when you’re done.
5) Ladder Sets
What Are They? – One big superset when you compete the reps of both exercises in an ascending or descending order. For example, 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 or 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.
Best Use For Ladder Sets – They’re great way to finish your training and to add volume to a body part that needs working on. Furthermore, they can be used for a stand-alone training when pushed for time.
Types of Exercises Ladder Sets Work Best For?– Bodyweight, kettlebells, medicine balls, battle ropes and dumbbells work great.
For example, the kettlebell swings/medicine ball slam combo:
Instructions:Do 20 reps each of the swings and the slams and go down by 2 each time you perform a round until you reach two reps for each exercise (for example 20-18-16-14….2). If you don’t have access to medicine balls, substitute in battle rope slams.
Battle Rope Slams
Med Ball Rotational Slam
https://youtube.com/watch?v=YHgXAFY4H1Q
How Many Rounds Should You Do?– Just one will do, if you’re doing it right.
How Much Rest? –Again, you’ll rest when you’re done.
6) Cluster Sets
What Are They?– Sets with a predetermined rest period between reps within the same set.
For example:
Load the barbell to 85-90% of your maximum, a weight you could normally lift 3 times.
Do one rep and rack the bar.
Rest 10 seconds.
Do another rep and rack the bar.
Rest for 10 seconds.
Do this 4-6 times total
Best Use For Cluster Sets– They’re best used for building strength but be warned, when using heavier weights with shorter rest periods while increasing volume can lead to fatigue.
For example, (4×2) x5 sets – is 5 total clusters of 4 mini sets of 2 reps with 10 seconds rest in between. That’s 40 reps at 85-90% of your 1 rep max.
Types of Exercises Cluster Sets Work Best For?– Barbell exercises like squats, presses and rows but can be used for chin-ups also.
How Many Sets Should You Do?– Anywhere from 3- 6 clusters.
How Much Rest Between Clusters? – 3 minutes or more between clusters because of their demanding nature.
7) Drop Sets
What Are Drop Sets? – Is a method where you perform an exercise and then reduce the weight (usually 15- 30% drop) and continue for more reps until you reach failure.
Best Use For Drop Sets– Ideally, it’s your last set of the day. This method is used to add muscle and volume to a body part. However, it’s not for the faint of heart because you will feel the burn.
Types of Exercises Drop Sets Work Best For – Barbell, dumbbell and machine exercises.
A Different Type of Drop Set
Rather than dropping the weight and lifting till failure, you can perform mechanical drop sets where you use the same weight the entire time. You start an exercise in a mechanically weaker position to one in which you’re in stronger position.
For example, the dumbbell bench press mechanical drop set:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=KfYNhAGAm0w
This is a truly sadistic method for building muscle, but it works. If you want more ideas, read this excellent article by John Romaniello.
How Many Drop Sets Should You Do? – Once per training and probably no more than twice per week.
How Much Rest? – If you’re doing it right, you’ll need a nap.
Wrapping Up
Wow, you got to the end and you’re probably hungry. Please go get some protein.
Now, you’re armed with the knowledge to take your training to the next level and to hulk smash your way through any plateaus. Happy lifting.
About the Author
Shane “The Balance Guy” McLean, is an A.C.E Certified Personal Trainer working deep in the heart of Texas. Shane believes in balancing exercise with life while putting the fun back into both.
When I first started in this industry my business competence was pretty low. If you asked me what the term “overhead” was or what it meant to itemize business expenses I would have been like “say what again?”
I’m still not someone I’d consider to have a lot of business pedigree, but I think I’ve done pretty well for myself.
My friend Shane McLean went around and asked a bunch of coaches – including myself – some standard fitness business and gym ownership questions that I hope will resonate with people.
Personal trainers get into the fitness industry because they’ve got a huge passion for exercise and for changing people’s lives. However, some have no idea about the business side of coaching, particularly those who are new to the industry.
Newbie (and experienced trainers) work crazy hours to please clients which makes having any sort of social life outside of work very difficult. Trainers then start to realize there’s more to this coaching gig than meets the eye because:
Furthermore, exercise is big business nowadays. According to the website Statista, the US spent 25.8 billion dollars in 2015 on all things health and fitness. (1) That’s a fair chunk of change that has some trainers saying…….
The same hard work that goes into becoming proficient at coaching needs to be applied to the business side also.
But how do you get started?
Don’t worry this Aussie has your back.
I asked some prominent people in this industry – David Crump, Eric Bach, Johnny Tea, Chris Diamantakos, and some cat-obsessed nerd named Tony Gentilcore – a couple of hard hitting questions that will provide you with actionable takeaways on the business side of coaching.
Read on and learn things.
David Crump – Entrepreneur and Coach at DaveCrump.com
1. At what point in your career did you realize that you needed to know more about the business side of coaching and how did you go about it?
Fortunately, I started my training career in a big box gym and moved into management relatively quickly. This gave me the opportunity to learn more about sales and the business side of fitness early on.
I did, however, realize that this gave me a leg up on many of my contemporaries as soon as I wanted to branch out on my own.
Despite my early advantage, I was still aware that if I wanted to stay ahead, that I would have to continue learning more and I found the most benefit from reading content from some of the big names in the industry as well as reading a lot of books from thought leaders in other industries.
2. What were your go to people/resources that helped you expand your business knowledge?
I can’t overemphasize the importance of having great mentors in this area. Some of the people that I have learned from directly or indirectly include Mark Fisher, Alwyn Cosgrove, Jon Goodman, Thomas Plummer and others.
It should also be mentioned that the experience of making mistakes and learning from them is paramount. Getting to make mistakes on someone else’s dime (at a big box gym) was a very valuable experience.
3. What advice would you give a coach looking to open a gym?
I would tell them to get VERY clear on what they want long-term. Many coaches and trainers think that opening a facility is the most logical next step, but that is not accurate.
Being a great gym owner means being a coach takes a back seat and increasing your level of responsibility exponentially. You have to be prepared to make your gym your number 1 priority for at least the next 5 years.
I think there are a ton of coaches that would be much happier simply renting space someone and having full freedom and control of their schedule and life.
If, on the other hand, someone knows that it is what they really want then I would tell them to start small. That means your first place shouldn’t be your 6000-square foot dream facility with every piece of equipment under the sun.
Instead, starting a modest gym and building it organically will put you in a better financial position to work the kinks out over the first couple years and eventually grow into a larger facility without being up to your eyeballs in debt.
4. The best book you’ve read about business and why?
I can’t narrow it down to 1, but I think there are 3-4 that really helped define my beliefs about business:
How To Win Friends And Influence People– Businesses are built on dealing with people and this book really delivers great tips on how to have better interactions and make people enjoy working with you.
The E-Myth Revisited – The classic business book that helps newbies learn how to move from being a “technician” to a “manager” of business owner through the use of systems in simple terms.
Start With Why– The most successful businesses in the world understand what they stand for and why they exist. This book helps a business owner really crystalize what makes their business unique and how to help customers understand its purpose.
Delivering Happiness – Written by the founder of Zappos, this is the best book on business culture, values, and customer service I have ever read.
1. At what point in your career did you realize that you needed to know more about the business side of coaching and how did you go about it?
My first training job at a big box gym gave me a first class look at the limitations of the personal training industry. Frequent policy changes, ownership transitions, and inconsistent sales goals led to a ton of stress on my business early on.
After I built a full book of business and deep relationships with clients’ ownership cut trainer-take-home pay by 30% to follow a “group training system”. At this point I was left with the decision: let my business be gutted and play the game or rewrite the rules on my own terms.
I decided to rewrite the rules, seek out mentors who had built a business I wanted to replicate and invest heavily in myself by paying for their services.
2. What were your go to people/resources that helped you expand your business knowledge?
Early on I followed the typical path: reading sporadic articles on the internet. I read everything I could on training from coaches like Dave Tate, Jason Ferruggia, John Berardi, Tony Gentilcore, John Romaniello, Jon Goodman, Nate Green, Christian Thibaudeau, and Eric Cressey.
When it came to business I dug into work by Ryan Holiday, Dale Carnegie, Chip and Dan Heath, Seth Godin, and Tim Ferriss.
Not long thereafter Jon Goodman introduced his Viralnomics coaching group to personal trainers looking to build their online business.
He was my first business mentor and pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and start treating my business like, well…a business and not a hobby.
3. What advice would you give a coach looking to open a gym?
Think long and hard whether you’re ready to run a business. Today everyone wants to be an entrepreneur and a business owner, yet no-one ever tells you not everyone is meant to run a business.
There will be long days, short nights, lots of coffee, and a constant battle to improve. While some folks are built for this challenge others simply aren’t.
Make sure you’re truly willing to make the sacrifices needed to create something great from the ground up before exploring leases, equipment deals, and opening a brick and mortar facility.
4. The best book you’ve read about business and why?
The One Thing by Gary Keller– In an age where information travels faster than ever and there’s an endless supply of “tips, tricks, and hacks” it’s far too easy to get bogged down in the minutes.
Trainers looking to build their online business fall into the same trap many of our personal training clients do: getting stuck in a cycle of information overload and inaction.
The One Thing reinforces getting clear on your number one priority for the day, week, month, and year and makes taking action on accomplishing this task the most important focus.
1. At what point in your career did you realize that you needed to know more about the business side of coaching and how did you go about it?
As soon as I decided to go out on my own and become self-employed in 2008, I realized I needed to learn a ton more about the business side. As new trainers, we tend to start off by thinking to ourselves, “Oh, I don’t care about the money part. I just want to train people and the money will eventually come.”
As we all know, there’s a lot more to it than just winging it and seeing where it goes in business. I’ve always loved the quote “Plan your work and work your plan”. Write down your goals (both short term and long term), and continue chipping away.
I reached out to other fellow colleagues/friends, read books, attended workshops, and picked the brains of some of my clients with a business background, and even brainstormed ideas with a trusted friend (in this case my wife).
With all this information I gathered, I applied the ideas that made sense for my business and made adjustments if needed.
2. What were your go to people/resources that helped you expand your business knowledge?
I specifically reached out to people that I respected in our industry who had a ton of success. Eric Cressey, Pete Dupuis, Chad Landers, Mark Fisher, Tony Gentilcore, John Rusin, Dean Somerset, Eric Bach, Jordan Syatt, John Goodman, John Romaniello, and David Dellanave are just a few names that come to mind, but this list is honestly endless.
Important side note: make sure you go about reaching out to people the right way. Meet with them at workshops/seminars or offer to pay them for their input and time.
Genuinely try to develop a relationship with the person before seeking advice.
No one likes creepy needy people seeking free advice.
3. What advice would you give a coach looking to open a gym?
I would say first ask yourself: why do you want to open a gym? I don’t mean that in a negative way but it’s a valid question. Here are some important questions to consider:
Do you want to open a gym because you just want a big fancy building with your name on it?
Do you have enough clients to support a gym and what’s your strategy to attract new clients?
Have you considered the amount of money it would cost to get started? (Oh, and don’t forget about the hidden fees too).
Do you have the capital to cover you for at least 6 months, just in case your business doesn’t start booming like you expected?
A lot of people want to go big and open a gigantic facility like Cressey Sports Performance (awesome facility and people by the way), but are probably better off starting small.
I would recommend possibly considering training facilities/studios that allow you to rent out space. This will give you time to build up your clientele while keeping your overhead cost low.
4. The best book you’ve read about business and why?
This is a tough one because there’s so many good books. I really enjoyed “Ignite the Fire” and “Viralnomics” by Jon Goodman because they were written specifically for people in the fitness industry, and gave actionable steps on how to become successful.
1. At what point in your career did you realize that you needed to know more about the business side of coaching and how did you go about it?
When I decided to leave the gym, I was looking to start my own PT business. I realized I knew nothing about business and marketing. I had a small-time frame of six weeks to learn as much as I could and actually apply it.
I picked the brains of a few gym owners and successful freelance trainers I knew and had been directed to a couple fitness business coaches who could help.
2. What were your go to people/resources that helped you expand your business knowledge?
I ended up following Jonathan Goodman and theptdc.com. If you’re wondering why, it’s because Jon personally took the time to answer my questions and he seemed to truly care about improving the fitness industry by helping trainers and gym owners with business.
3. What advice would you give a coach looking to open a gym?
Spend a shit load of time figuring out the niche you want to service and become a true expert in that field.
Realize how you can help these people the most, and continue to work hard at being great. One quote that’s stuck with me from Jon since day 1 is:
“1. Do a really good job 2. Make sure everyone knows about it.“
4. The best book you’ve read about business and why?
There are obviously tons of great business resources out there but the one that’s helped me the most directly is “Ignite the Fire.” It’s specific to personal trainers and up to date in terms of marketing techniques.
Tony Gentilcore, You’re Reading His Site Right Now*
* You’re really smart
1. At what point in your career did you realize that you needed to know more about the business side of coaching and how did you go about it?
Not soon enough to be honest.
There’s still a huge part of me that feels I’m behind the curve when it comes to business acuity and savvy.
Then I think to myself, “Huh, I’m making a profit, I’m still getting a nice stream of new clients, and my landlord hasn’t given me an eviction notice yet…I’ve got to be doing something right!?”
To answer the question, though, it wasn’t soon after meeting (and then living with) Eric Cressey that I soon learned the err of my ways. It’s hard to be around a guy like that and not absorb his work ethic and be a little more in-tune with going the extra mile to get better.
If I had to be exact, I’d say the week Eric, myself, and Pete Dupuis decided to put our balls out there and open up Cressey Sports Performance – July 2007 – was when I finally diving head first into more business-related content.2
Alwyn Cosgrove was a major influence on us when we opened up CSP, and from there all I did was following the scent of other successful trainers/coaches – Mike Boyle, Joe Dowdell, Dan John, John Berardi, to name a few – and try to emulate what they read or did.
2. What were your go to people/resources that helped you expand your business knowledge?
Giving credit where it’s due, I feel I was able to live in this unique “learning business bubble” by being in the proximity of Eric and Pete for eight years (I left Cressey Sports Performance in the Fall of 2015).
When I decided to leave I was so scared and nervous.
I thought for sure I’d fail.
Low and behold I was quite surprised to realize I didn’t suck at business as much as I thought I would.
In fact, I took solace in something I used to hear Pete always say:
“99% of operating a profitable and efficient fitness facility is application of common sense.“
That sentence alone helped mute a lot of my self-doubt and negative self-talk about business.
I mean, in a sense, business can be dwindled down to one simple act:
Don’t spend more than you collect.
Does your facility really need that expensive leg press machine or life-size early 90’s Mariah Carey statue?
3. What advice would you give a coach looking to open a gym?
The holy grail in this industry is NOT owning a gym.
There’s a connotation that you’re only successful in this industry if you own a gym.
That’s bullshit. And if anyone wants to read more of my thoughts on that I’d encourage them to check THIS out.
I could sit here and wax poetic on all the reasons why someone would and would not want to open their own gym.
I’ll just say this: I think every trainer should work in a commercial setting for 2-5 years before the words “gym ownership” are uttered. It’s times used to learn the craft, to get really good, and to understand how to develop relationships with people from all walks of life.
4. The best book you’ve read about business and why?
No one book has helped shape my approach to running my business than this book.
About the Author
Shane “The Balance Guy” McLean, is an A.C.E Certified Personal Trainer working deep in the heart of Texas. Shane believes in balancing exercise with life while putting the fun back into both.
Man, I’ve got a treat for everyone today. Charles Staley, mentor, strength and conditioning connoisseur, and titan in this industry, reached out recently and asked if he could write a little sumthin, sumthin for the site.
Is water wet?
Is grass green?
Is Aragorn, also known as Strider, and son of Arathorn II, the High King of Gondor and Arnor?
It’s probably just natural to assume that in a teacher/student relationship, the transfer of knowledge only travels in a single direction. Over the years however, I’ve found that this assumption is far from the truth. In fact, there’s even a well-known saying that you may have heard:
“When one teaches, two learn.”
In fact, if I’m being honest, the primary reason I became a coach in the first place was to learn more about the subjects I intended to coach. I’ve often remarked that you might be confident in your knowledge of a topic, but only when you attempt to teach this topic successfully do you discover the gaps in your understanding.
In fact, Cal Newport, the best selling author of the highly acclaimed book Deep Work, passionately advocates a studying technique that he claims will dramatically reduce the time it takes to learn a subject — it’s called Active Recall.
This method is disarmingly simple, yet it requires a very high level of discipline.
Very simply, you first read the materials you’re attempting to learn, and then (this is where the rubber hits the road) you stand up in front of an imaginary classroom and teach what you just learned (or more often than not, what you thought you just learned).
Very quickly, you’ll be painfully aware of the gaps in your understanding. So, back to the books, then deliver another lecture to your imaginary students, rinse and repeat until you’ve got it down cold.
In a very real sense, the methods and philosophy I currently impart to my clients is almost entirely built upon the backs of my previous clients: these are the people who, through their successes and failures, not to mention their often challenging questions, are largely responsible for what I know today.
So with those thoughts as an introductory backdrop, here the top 3 lessons I’ve learned from my clients over the years:
Lesson # One: The Clients Who Communicate With Me The Most, End Up Doing The Best
It’s very common for my clients to apologize when they think they’re asking too many questions, but what they probably don’t appreciate is that I’m actually relieved when clients ask lots of questions, because that demonstrates that they are highly invested in what they’re learning.
Translation: long-term, happy client.
Translation #2: Happy coach.
By contrast, the worst thing I can hear from a new client is along the lines of “Please just tell me what to do.” Words to this effect send a strong signal that my client need a high level of external reinforcement, which leads me to…
Lesson # Two: I’m Not Everyone’s Cup Of Tea (And That’s OK With Me)
Now don’t miss my point — there’s nothing “wrong” with just wanting to be told what to do. If I were to hire someone to help me with something I found particularly challenging, I’d probably do the same thing.
Of course, whenever you need significant external support from a teacher or coach, your chances of long-term success are reduced. Thankfully however, there are some very good coaches who are remarkably successful with clients like this — I’m just not one of them.
And that’s OK — a cardinal rule of marketing is to avoid trying to be all things to all people.
Identify and constantly reinforce your specific strengths, and then restrict your marketing efforts to that narrow slice of the population who can benefit most from what those strengths happen to be. My primary market is highly-motivated (although not necessarily advanced) “over-40” men and women (And, for reasons that continue to elude me, for some reason, nearly all of my local clients are women, and nearly all my online clients are men. Seriously, I have no idea why).
It’s very common for new coaches and trainers to feel they don’t know enough to train other people, and while that may be true, I’ve been studying my craft for over 30 years, and in complete honesty, I have never had more questions than I have today.
Sure, I’m very good at a small handful of things, but I’m also completely incompetent in a much, much larger number of subjects and topics. The key to managing your competencies and shortcomings is to 1) know the difference between the two, and 2) stay within your wheelhouse when working with your clients. When issues arise that you’re not qualified to deal with, refer them out to other pros who are.
Both client and colleague will respect you for this.
Lesson # Three: It’s OK To Be Weird
In case you haven’t noticed, the fitness marketplace is a very crowded place. If you’re just like everyone else, well, you kinda get lost in the sauce, don’t you?
Lots of coaches have insecurities about the various idiosyncrasies and/or perceived inadequacies that they may have, but to them I say, embrace and even promote whatever makes you stand out.
In my own case, I don’t know if I’m weird exactly, but compared to most trainers, I probably stand out in a couple of different ways:
I’m older than most trainers (58 to be exact). Yes, the average age of the American population is slowly increasing, but fitness coaching is still a young person’s game by and large.
I’m not especially well-built. Don’t get me wrong — my physique probably puts me in the top 1% of guys my age. But, compared to some of the guys I respect and look up to, I’m nothing special at all.
The previous two points actually work in my favor as it turns out, and here’s why: Although I’m of retirement age and “skinny” (6’2” and currently 190 pounds), I’m actually pretty strong. And (I almost forgot to include this point) I’m not all busted up like a lot of my older lifting buddies. In recent months, I’ve deadlifted 465 for 3 reps, done 8 pull-ups with 25 pounds strapped to my waist, and I’ve benched a pair of 90-pound dumbbells for 10 reps. And, I have no pain at all, ever. Nothing hurts. Now what’s interesting about all this is that, as much as I’d love to be a conspicuously muscular 240 pounds, I’ve found that many of my current male clients hired me specifically because they know they can’t be, or don’t want to be big muscular dudes. But, they DO want to be strong and athletic. And those guys my age who are bigger and stronger than me? I’m not their cup of tea obviously, and that’s perfectly understandable.
Finally, although I assure you that I’m not terribly smart, I do seem to attract an intelligent breed of client. This is no doubt due to all the writing I’ve done over the years, or it may also be because I probably resemble a university professor more than a bodybuilder. Or (and I’d like to think this is closest to the truth), through my writing and coaching, it’s clear that I’ve thought a LOT about what I teach. And it’s also abundantly clear that I walk my talk. I’ve been living and breathing this stuff for over 3 decades now, and I’d like to think it comes across to prospective clients.
I don’t really give a shit what other coaches do or don’t do. Now just to clarify, there are MANY coaches who I deeply respect and who I seek to learn from whenever I get the chance. What I mean here is that I am confident in my approach and what teach, and it doesn’t sway me one bit that my methods are different than many of my colleagues. I don’t have clients do direct arm, calf, or ab work when they train with me — most trainers do. I don’t use “functional training,” whatever that is. I don’t use stabilization exercises. I don’t like forced reps, and I don’t text with my buddies or perv on nearby women as I’ve seen many, many trainers do. Again, I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.
Bottom line: You might view some of your unique characteristics as shortcomings, when in truth they may actually be strengths. Be yourself and embrace whatever makes you “weird,” because that’s what will help you stand out to all the folks who actually appreciate your weirdness.
Coaching Is A Privilege That I’m Deeply Grateful For
One sad aspect of my professional community that I sometimes notice is an unsettling tendency for some trainers to view their less-fit clients as somehow inferior, simply because they might be carrying a few extra pounds, or because they don’t know how to lift.
As if fitness is the only thing that matters in life.
News flash: You can (and many people do) live a perfectly long, healthy, and satisfying life without EVER exercising or counting carbs — crazy right? Imagine — some people actually focus their energy on their careers, or their family, or other hobbies. The idea of a perfectly balanced life sounds good in theory, but it’s terribly difficult to pull off in reality.
So to my trainer friends, please remember that your clients have lots of skills and talents (and challenges for that matter) that you probably don’t even know about. And to my client friends, thank you for all you teach us during our time together in the gym. We can’t do what we do without you.
About the Author
Charles Staley is known as an iconoclast and a leading influencer in the fitness arena. His reputation and self-effacing style have lead to appearances on NBC’s The TODAY Show and The CBS Early Show, along with numerous radio and podcast appearances. He has authored more than 1000 articles for leading fitness publications and websites, and has lectured to eager audiences around the World.
Charles is not only a thinker, but also a doer: At age 58, he competes in the sport of raw powerlifting, and is a 3-time World Champion (220 and 198-pound weight classes). His popular online coaching program (Staley Strategies) allows people to train under his expert guidance, regardless of where they live.
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Syracuse, NY based strength coach, Ricky Kompf. Ricky interned at Cressey Sports Performance when I was still a coach there and has been doing a superb job building a reputation as a “go to” coach in the Central NY area.
Today he discusses the importance of community and how building one can make all the difference in the world with your clients/athletes and fitness business in general.
I consider myself a pretty mindful and deep guy. Over the years of working with people I find myself delving deeper and deeper into psychology based reading and realizing what I read to be valuable and applicable to my job as a coach.
Many times that little gold nugget of knowledge in a book on psychology is even more powerful than the knowledge bombs I find in strength and conditioning text books.
I would like to share an experience with you that was pretty excruciating yet gave me quite the breakthrough.
This moment not only gave me confirmation that I am doing the work I was set out to do and I am fulfilling my purpose in life, but also gave me a realization that there are more people out there that NEED our help as fitness professionals but don’t necessarily WANT our help.
That experience was of course while serving for jury duty…
I was in a room filled with 375 random people who live in Central New York waiting to hear if they have to sit in on trial or not. Whatever picture you have in your head right now… Trust me it was worse than that.
People were pissed, impatient and probably a little hungry.
It’s pretty safe to say no one wanted to be there.
I know I didn’t want to be there, but there was no point in stressing over something I couldn’t control. So I practiced some diaphragmatic breathing while sitting in a room for 8 hours waiting to hear my fate.
It was then that I started to look around the room and become the silent observer. This was the perfect sample size of what society around me is like. Many were overweight, seemed slightly depressed, poor posture, and just looked a little run down. I actually counted in the room how many people seemed like they were in pretty good shape.
I could count them all on my hands.
It was then that the lady in charge asked a very important question, “If you have a medical condition that could affect your ability to serve as a jury please come up front.”
Half the room stood up and walked/limped to the front.
That’s right…there were just as much people sitting down as there were people in line waiting to tell this lady about their illness. That was well over 150 people! I’ll factor in that some people were just trying to get out of jury duty but still!
That’s when I realized something, something that really speaks to our society as a whole.
We live in a nation where it is the minority to be healthy and not have issues with your health.
We are fat and depressed; we rely on the drugs of pharmaceutical industries to keep us just barely going. All the while we are living with this belief that this is the norm. We look to the people around us and see that they’re unhealthy and it gives us unconscious confirmation that it is okay to be unhealthy as well.
To me the words healthy and happy are prerequisites to each other.
You have to be healthy to be happy and you have to be happy to be healthy.
The more and more people I come in contact with and work with, I realize it’s not the great physique they’re after or the even the edge on the competition. Even if they really think it is.
It’s happiness.
It’s the feeling you get when you’re in control of your health, the quality of life you have, and most of all control over your own destiny.
As a fitness professional remember you’re not just delivering results, you’re delivering happiness.
Like the feeling you get when you witness two kittens snuggling. That kind of happiness.
So you may ask yourself, I’m a fitness professional but how do we get all these people who either don’t want our help or can’t afford our help to change and become healthier?
It all starts with community.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “you are the average of the 5 people you hang around with most?” The people you hang around with will influence every decision you make.
Well How Do You Use This Information?
As strength coach’s or personal trainers you may notice that you’ve build a mini community around you. These communities of clients are like minded people, they want to become healthier and support each other.
If you’re really good at what you do they even hangout with each other outside of the gym!
That’s your change right there.
You may have even noticed that most of your clients now are word of mouth based, which means people are talking about you outside of the gym and sending business your way.
The more you double down on your community and focus on building a support group of people, the more likely you will make an impact on your community’s health as a whole.
This may even be indirectly.
The larger the community you make the more of an impact you will have. This is also why I think one-on-one training can be detrimental to your business if your goal is to influence as many people as possible.
Community is the secret sauce to your goals.
Mark Fisher Fitness: the epitome of how to build a lasting fitness community.
Community gives people permission to change; or, more to the point, “nudges” people to change.
Having a community of like-minded individuals who implement a healthier lifestyle and share common goals is often the key determining factor that help others change their behavior.
Look at your clientele base now:
Do they hangout with each other?
Do they communicate on social media?
Do you show them off on your social media?
And how excited are they to tell people about what you’ve done for them?
If you’ve never thought to consider these questions, or worse, the answers are a resounding cricket chirp, then I’d recommend getting your butt in gear.
As a fitness professional, you are the mayor in your “health conscious” community. Exercise is a vehicle for a life well lived.
Create a Facebook group that brings all your clients together to support each other and give information to them regularly. Hold special 10-15 minute Live Events that inform them and keep them engaged in the journey. Highlight THEIR videos and exercise accomplishments.
Use your Instagram account to show off how badass your athletes and clients are. Everyone loves recognition.
Plan out events to do as a group that brings people together outside of the gym. This could be Spartan races, 5k’s, team dinners, book and movie clubs, even mass text messages can go a long way.
If you have athletes, go to their games! They worked so hard for you, and they will love to see your support.
About the Author
Richard Kompf, BS, CSCS
Strength and conditioning coach and Internship supervisor for Scollo Strength and Performance. Located inside of Pacific Health Club, based just outside of Syracuse, NY. Specializing in explosive athletes and general population clientele.
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Syracuse, NY based coach and personal trainer, Ricky Kompf. He covers a topic I believe every up and coming fitness professional can commiserate with, but more importantly learn from:
Even though I have been working as a trainer for a little over four years this past year and a half I have completely engorged myself in the lifestyle and business mindset of a trainer.
I write this article to share some of the lessons I have learned while building my own personal training career and business.
I have come out of this period of my life with a whole new perspective on what works and what doesn’t in this industry and let me tell you something….it is hard!
Plain and simple, the fitness industry can be one of the most challenging fields to start a career in.
While it may be very challenging in the beginning the lessons and rewards that you encounter makes the difficulties of this field very much worth it. What I wish to share with you are four lessons I have learned growing from 0 clients on day one to 50 plus active clients now.
Lesson 1: Priority Number One is Gaining Experience
Gaining experience and knowledge while in the company of very good and successful trainers in the industry will teach you to stay humble and always continue to educate yourself and develop your craft as a trainer and coach. If you want to be the best, be around the best and study their behaviors to bring into your own practice.
That experience will pay for itself.
For my first two and a half years as a trainer I was training out of college gyms in the student section as well as various commercial gyms.
I had no long-term clients, but knew the experience gained along the way would help me forge full-steam a head down the road.
It was only after finishing my internship at Cressey Sports Performance a year and a half ago that I felt comfortable taking money from people to let me train them.
With experience comes confidence.
At the end of the day if your clients don’t trust your knowledge and experience as a trainer you won’t be able to bring results to them.
Additionally, with experience comes knowledge, and with knowledge comes confidence in yourself, and that is the foundation in which you should start your journey to building your training business and brand.
Have confidence in yourself to deliver an amazing service.
Lesson 2: Over Deliver
I can’t stress this enough; to this day with the 50 plus clients I have to manage I am always searching for ways to over deliver to them.
One thing that I heard Eric Cressey say in a Podcast as well as many other fitness professionals is:
“They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
Remember that we are in the service industry and what sets you apart from the competition is the quality of your service.
Your clients should be saying “I can’t believe I only pay this much for this training” more than “I can’t believe how expensive this is!”
Some easy things you can start doing right now are giving free consultations and assessments, without trying to push your services on them. Look at it as you trying to work on your assessment process and how you deliver information that is helpful for that person.
I have done well over 200 assessments in the past year and a half. Probably less than half signed up for training. That being said, I have a great assessment process that I have created and it is very rare now that someone doesn’t sign up.
Go overtime.
If you’re training someone and you know you have some extra time at the end before you have to start your next client or group, spend more time with them.
They will appreciate the extra work you give them and will be more likely to refer someone to you.
Even now that I have my clients and groups pretty much back to back, I give them extra work to do at the end.
Follow up with them outside their training sessions.
Text or call your people, ask them how they’re feeling. Talk to them about their goals outside of the two or three hours out of the week in which you see them. This will show them that you care and that you’re invested in their journey.
Lesson 3: Don’t Waste Your Time (Right Away) Trying To Brand Yourself.
After a year and a half of building my reputation only now am I considering making a website. And even then it’s mainly to communicate with my current clients, giving them information more effectively, in addition to allowing potential clients to see what I’m about and have to offer before signing up.
At my current job one thing we preach to our clients and athletes is that we’re not for everyone.
That being said in the beginning when you first start out, guess what….you are for everyone.
Don’t try to brand yourself as the athlete guy or the basketball guy or the fat loss guy. Train as many different people as you can so you can find your strengths and to find out what/who you really enjoy working with.
For example, I know my strengths are in female and male youth athletes, and adult groups.
This doesn’t mean I don’t train collegiate level athletes or have any one-on-one clients.
I do.
However, I found in the past few years I get jazzed up and excited to train young athletes and to be a mentor towards them. So why not gravitate towards what brings me joy and fulfillment?
I encourage you to do the same – BUT YOU NEED TO TRAIN AN ECLECTIC GROUP OF PEOPLE FIRST BEFORE YOU CAN BRAND OR MARKET YOURSELF TOWARDS A UNIQUE SUBSET.
Lesson 4: Find a Place or Group of People That Will Help You Grow and Enjoy the Process.
I owe a lot of my success and accelerated progress to my boss and partner strength coach, Vinny Scollo.
He’s been an amazing mentor towards me.
Together we have created an environment in our gym that breeds great athletes and amazing results.
We build each other up when energy levels are low and challenge each other to be better coaches. I couldn’t have asked for a better boss and work environment.
If you wish to last in this field and turn it into a career, you must find or create a team that will build you up, challenge you to get better, and enjoy the process.
I have trained and worked in very bad environments with very negative co-workers and I have experienced the best environments and co-workers. An environment that will build you up is a place you want to be in for the long haul, and will make the challenging moments in your career seem not so bad.
About the Author
Richard Kompf, BS, CSCS
Strength and conditioning coach and Internship supervisor for Scollo Strength and Performance. Located inside of Pacific Health Club, based just outside of Syracuse, NY. Specializing in explosive athletes and general population clientele.
In today’s guest post by Shane McLean he touches on a topic that affects every fitness professional: the “line” or boundary that exists between trainer and client.
What the boundary is and how far a coach/trainer is willing to go to cross it is every individual’s personal choice. It’s an important topic and I’m glad Shane took the initiative to discuss his own experiences.
I’m going to pull back the curtain on training clients in a one-on-one environment. There’s a lot more to personal training than designing programs, counting sets and reps and wearing tracksuit pants. Sometimes the professional/personal line that exists between coach and client gets crossed.
Let me explain. Since being a personal trainer, I’ve had
Three clients pass away
Three who have beaten cancer
One who’s got dementia
Several clients who have had their joints replaced and gone through painful rehabilitation
When studying to become a trainer, these situations never came up in any of my textbooks because nothing prepares you for things like that.
Only life can.
When dealing one-on-one with these clients while they’re suffering, the professional boundaries that trainers should have with their clients gets blurry.
How can it not? Trainers are not robots.
Although my (and most) personal training clients come to the gym to forget their problems, sometimes the burden they carry is too heavy and they need someone to talk to. All a trainer can do is lend a sympathetic ear much like your hairdresser or local bartender.
And for most personal trainers (myself included), personal training is much more than a pay check or a business transaction. It’s a real opportunity to make a difference in the lives of their clients whether they’re fighting fit or not.
Trainers share in their clients’ successes, failures and heart aches. Often exercise is the easy part of the equation during a session but the mindset or ‘getting into the mood’ can be more difficult.
Trying to get clients into the right frame of mind when they are in pain takes this mindset thing to a different level. Because let’s face it, exercise can be hard enough even when we’re healthy, let alone sick.
Over two years ago I was hired to work privately with an elderly couple in their home. Both had their share of health problems but the male was in bad shape. He was unable to perform simple self-care duties and found walking extremely difficult.
He and his wife performed simple balance and mobility exercises and fundamental human movements once or twice a week. Even at their advanced age, they were looking to improve their quality of life.
Both were so sweet to me that it was difficult not to get close to them. I would often stay after our sessions to hear their stories and join them for lunch. They welcomed me into their home like I was a part of their family.
However, the male’s health took a turn for the worst a few months into our time together and a few weeks later he passed away peacefully.
It was one of the saddest situations I’ve ever witnessed and made me feel very fortunate that I got to spend time sometime with him and his wife. I’ll cherish the stories they told me forever.
Earlier this year, I was rocked by the death of former client who was taken from this earth because of pancreatic cancer. When we worked together, over two years ago now, he had turned his life and health around.
He was fit, strong and full of life and then cancer robbed him of this. He fought to the end with humor, grace and dignity. I still miss him to this day.
Both of these situations provided a challenging conundrum for one who’s business is personal. When does professional become personal? When is it ever okay for professional/personal boundaries to be crossed?
Most of us know it’s not okay for a trainer to sleep with their client and for a teacher to get sexually involved with a student.
That’s clearly crossing the line.
However, on the other hand, is it okay to visit a client who’s on life support in hospital and to be there for support? Is it crossing the line to go out to lunch with a client and share personal stories?
Like some laws are meant to be broken, some boundaries (I think) need to be crossed, especially when it’s a matter of life and death. However, there is some inherent risk involved here.
When putting yourself out there and crossing boundaries your feelings or the client’s feelings may get hurt. Your wallet may suffer, and if you ever witness sickness or death it’s going to be painful for all involved.
I made a judgement call (and will continue to make it) that I’m going to be there for clients when it comes to life, death and sickness. Am I crossing the line?
You can be the judge.
However, I feel in matters of the heart, you should follow the heart more often than not and the boundaries that exist between a service provider/client should be tossed away.
Wrapping Up
Personal and professional boundaries exist for a reason. It can stop laws and feelings from being broken. However, when suffering and death happens and you’re in the middle of it, lines will get crossed.
About the Author
Shane “The Balance Guy” McLean, is an A.C.E Certified Personal Trainer working deep in the heart of Texas. Shane believes in balancing exercise with life while putting the fun back into both.
I don’t envy new trainers and coaches coming into the industry. Today’s market is so saturated with gimmicks, tomfoolery, and bluster, everyone vying for everyone else’s attention, a total shit-show, that it’s become increasingly more challenging to give advice.
Most of what I have to say falls on deaf ears because, well, what I have to say isn’t sexy, takes a bit of persistence and resiliency, and doesn’t involve quick fixes (or the letters SEO).
I’m empathetic towards today’s fitness professional, though. I really am.
When I first started in this industry – way back in 2002, when smart phones didn’t exist – the industry was pretty barren. At least it seemed that way.
Today, seemingly, everyone is in on the action. All anyone needs nowadays is an IG account, a badonkadonk or a bunch of tattoos (or both), and sha-ZAM….a bonafide fitness expert is made.
Here’s a little secret:a pretty good litmus test as to how to tell the fitness celebrities asshats from the fitness professionals is the ratio of pictures of themselves to that of actual clients, or better yet, actionable content/advice.
What’s more, when I first started blogging waaaaaaay back in 2006, there weren’t many people in the industry who were doing the same. Off the top of my head I can think of Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, Mike Boyle, Krista Scott-Dixon, and John Romaniello.
I was lucky in that I jumped on that train early.3
Fast forward ten years….the cacophony of “noise” and competition from everyone blogging, Tweeting, Snapchatting, using Facebook Live, and starting their own Podcast is intimidating if not absurd.
It’s never been easier to be heard; the internet and social media has given everyone a voice. However, it’s never been harder to get heard; because the internet and social media has given everyone a voice.
It can be a cutthroat, shallow, cynical, often opaque industry rewarding those who, for all intents and purposed, wouldn’t know their ass from their acetabulum.
It’s less about actually wanting to help people, and more about winning a popularity contest.
On a deeper level, I’m truly empathetic to those trying to make a living in the “real” world. There’s rarely a week that goes by where I don’t receive an email from someone that’s an iteration of one of the following:
“I’m having a hard time getting or maintaining clients.”
“It’s taking all my mental energy to not want to throw my face into a chainsaw. Working in a commercial gym sucks.”
Here’s Some Advice (In List Form Because I Like Lists)
I’ve said this before and I’ll repeat myself until I’m blue in the face: I believe every (new) trainer should work in a commercial gym setting for a minimum of two years.
It’s there you’ll learn to build some resiliency, fail (which is a good thing), fail again (which is even better), and eventually learn from those failures.
You’ll have rockstar clients you’d train for free, as well as those clients you’d rather jump into a shark’s mouth than spend one more minute with.
Suck it up.
Use it as an opportunity to get better.
It’s going to happen. Be patient. (Good) coaching is just as much about sets/reps and exercise selection as it is becoming a people person and adapting to different personalities.
2. Shut Up
If you hate working in a commercial gym setting so much or feel you’re not getting paid enough, do something about it. Make yourself a commodity and more indispensable to the company.
Dean Somerset wrote an amazing post on the topic HERE.
3. Shut Up Even Morer
One of my biggest pet peeves is when fit pros complain about how much stuff costs.
Stop bitching.
NOTE: It’s not lost on me I make a fair portion of my income traveling around the world offering workshops. I am not implying you’re wrong for not wanting to hang out with me. Although, I am….;o)
There’s too much complacency in this industry. I have zero PubMed studies to back this up, but I’m willing to bet those trainers who complain the most about how much shit costs – like workshops – are the same ones who won’t hesitate spending $700 on the new iPhone.
Going to a workshop or purchasing a resource to make yourself better isn’t a cost…it’s an investment.
I guaranfuckingtee whatever you end up paying will almost always pay for itself tenfold.
All you need to do is learn one thing. One. that’s it. And when you apply that one thing to the right person, that’s the person who starts training with you twice a week for a year.
What’s more, you can write off all continuing ed (workshops, DVDs, books, digital products, Kama Sutra) on your taxes.
It’s a win-win.
Eric Cressey puts it a little more eloquently than myself recently:
“Early in your career, the opportunity cost of your time is far less expansive. You need to make money and build your reputation, so you should take on just about every client and continuing education opportunity that comes your way. And, if you want to be successful in writing and speaking, too, then you need to write and speak at every opportunity, even if nobody is or reading listening. The opportunity cost of your time is basically just watching the same episode of Sportscenter for the 47th time.”
4. Stop worshiping everything Gary V says.
Listen, I like Gary V. I think he has a lot of valuable things to say, and I think he does a superb job at giving people tough love when they need it.
He’s someone who advocates and pushes for people to work their ass off.
I’d be remiss not to give props where props are deserved.5
Here’s the thing though: people are so seduced by his passion, f-bombs, and proclivity to tell people to grind, that what many fail to comprehend is one important detail: Gary V was/is actually good at something.
Really good.
He built his reputation, first, as a wine connoisseur. He took over his family’s wine (shop) business and made himself into a wine expert. He attacked it, relentlessly. In fact, he was one of the first people to use social media to tout his (then) weekly hit-podcast, Wine Library TV.
That snowballed into a career in marketing, public speaking, and brand development.
And that’s the thing: A lot of fit pros today are too quick to worry about building a brand before they have a brand to build.
Many act like a deer in headlights the second you ask them to coach someone through a set of squats. Yet, they’re asking Gary V how they can get their ebook out in front of more eyes.
Again, be patient. Coach the shit out of your clients. Get good. Real good. And then get better than that. Wash, rinse, repeat.
As Lou Schuler famously said when asked what’s the best piece of advice he gives fit pros aspiring to see their names in reputable fitness publications:
“When the industry is ready for you, it’ll let you know.”
The answer is career capital and experience.
Want more clients? Coach the ones you do have well. Get really good. Simple concept, hard to execute because it’s painstakingly vanilla and boring.
Sorry
5. Be Authentic.
The clearest example regarding authenticity is something Complete Human Performance coach, Jonathan Pietrunti, noted on his Facebook Wall the other day
“Write blog posts about coaching/training…4 people read them.
Write a post about my life drama and disasters…viral.
Are you guys trying to tell me something?”
I’d argue nothing is more valuable in this industry than unapologetic authenticity. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to go out of your way to air your dirty laundry to every ear that’ll listen; no one wants to hear about your explosive diarrhea. However, it does mean people want to know you’re relatable.
Not to blow up your spot or anything, but most people could care less that you’ve memorized the Kreb’s Cycle or that you can regurgitate all the insertion points of the rotator cuff. Sure, they’re looking to hire a trainer who can get results.
They’re also looking for a connection.
I don’ know, I think people are more likely to stick with you long-term if you’ve memorized the map of Mordor or can regurgitate all the insertion points of the rotator cuff…in Klingon.
They want to see that you’re human, and not just someone who lives, eats, and breaths Paleo recipes.
Whether you’re into powerlifting, bodybuilding, early 90’s Mariah Carey, or wearing capes while you coach a group fitness class…be authentic to who YOU are. Don’t copy someone else.
Surviving in the fitness industry is tough. Now, granted, this isn’t The Revenant…we don’t need to worry about wrestling grizzly bears or anything. But it is pretty cut-throat out there and the one’s who “survive,” and do well, are the ones who can separate themselves from the masses.
Today’s guest post by strength coach Travis Hansen showcases some ways you can do just that.
Trying to be successful in the fitness industry is a lot harder than most people tend to think.
The temptation for instant gratification and fly by night credibility is a very strong one, and provides with it a common misconception that you won’t have to grind on a regular basis, learn, and actually train people, not to mention generate legitimate results to remain alive in the business.
I’ve heard from a few credible sources that far less than 10 percent of individuals who start in the fitness business remain alive after a decade, and based on my experience that definitely seems to be pretty true.6
In this article I am going to share with you some arguable principles that I’ve utilized over the course of the past 12 years to stay alive and grow both my online and personal/athletic training business. I am by no means the most successful individual and I’m sure that many others could add to the list, but I honestly think the issues I am going to share with you are essential to your survival if you love this business and ultimately want to help people. I think everything stems off of the two factors I just mentioned and they serve as the groundwork for everything else to help lead you on your way.
So here we go….
#1- What Room Are You In?
Something that is very common I noticed from other trainers or even just the general public, is that there seems to be a constant battle in determining who knows more than the other person, or someone immediately jumps out and gets defensive if their current thought process is challenged by someone who may in fact be right.
I would be willing to wager a bet that our industry is far more guilty of this problem compared to any other profession with all of the hyped up trends that are out there still, hands down!!!
If you watch closely you will notice that the best in the business often times have their note pads out, eyes locked in on the person they are interacting with, ears open wide when they are trying to learn anything they can take away from the present conversation, and more times than not, don’t engage in these petty intellectual ego driven arguments that accomplish zero in the long run, unless the individual is just that damn stupid and asking for it.
As Mike Boyle once said:
“ There is a reason we have two ears and one mouth.”
The harsh truth is that you should probably spend the first 10 years of your career searching out the people who make you uncomfortable and dumb for the moment and eventually it will all start to make sense, and I guarantee you will be surprised just how much better you get.
The last thing I want to discuss in this regard is that something world renown coach and gym owner Zach-Even Esh once said that really resonated, and that is that people are often times uncomfortable and unsupportive of successful people as it makes them introspect and assess where they are at relative to their goals.
I honestly feel if that you start admiring successful people and try to emulate and even beat them then good things start to happen.
Don’t hate congratulate!
#2- Sacrifice
What a lot of surviving comes down to is how much you’re willing to do and sacrifice in order to achieve your goals.
Once you have mentally committed to doing whatever the hell it takes in order to achieve your goals without being illegal or walking over someone in the process then eventually you can start to grow.
I remember when I first got into this business I would buy and immerse myself into any fitness related material I could get my hands on to help build a solid learning filter. I was working 6-7 days per week for 8-12 hours per day. I would contact and pester any expert that would respond back to me with questions I had.
Luckily I stumbled across some great people that I still consult with today. You need very strong mentors and a network to better yourself and help your people.
#3-ASK FOR HELP
Never be afraid to ask for help or admit to your clients that you do not know something.
This only improves your credibility and earns more trust from your people in the long run.
Conan O’Brian once said in his late night talk show that saying you don’t know is often a sign of intelligence.
If you elect to retain your massive ego and state of ignorance, then you are only setting your education and growth back, and eventually your people are going to catch onto your bullshit and you will join the massive crowd of fly by night trainers that exist in our society today.
And remember you are only as strong as your network or alliance.
#4- Re-Invest
If you pay attention on social media, many times the high level practitioners and coaches in the field will send you subtle hints on how to be successful by showing you pictures of their personal training library and such.
There is also generally a very robust “Resource” section on every one of their websites where they show you where they learned from and how to improve your potential knowledge gaps.7
Your success will be ultimately determined by how smart you are, how hard you work, and how much you invest in your education and business. I never personally took out a business loan, but every paycheck and sometimes my whole paycheck was dedicated to learning material or small equipment purchases that accumulated into a bigger and bigger training setting or environment.
And then eventually once people see that you know what you are doing, you’re legitimate, and you get results, then they will more than likely invest in you and the ball just keeps growing bigger and bigger!
About the Author
Travis Hansen has been involved in the field of Human Performance Enhancement for nearly a decade. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Fitness and Wellness, and holds 3 different training certifications from the ISSA, NASM, and NCSF.
He was the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Reno Bighorns of the NBADL for their 2010 season, and he is currently the Director of The Reno Speed School inside the South Reno Athletic Club.
He has worked with hundreds of athletes from almost all sports, ranging from the youth to professional ranks. He is the author of the hot selling “Speed Encyclopedia,” and he is also the leading authority on speed development for the International Sports Sciences Association.
Mike Sirani is the Co-Owner of Capital District Sport and Fitness in Round Lake, NY. He’s an experienced strength and conditioning coach and massage therapist who has spent the majority of his career in Boston training professional, collegiate, and high school athletes of various sports, as well as helping general fitness clients of all backgrounds learn to move better and get stronger than ever before. He earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Applied Exercise Science, with a concentration in Sports Performance, from Springfield College and completed a highly sought after six-month internship at Cressey Sports Performance. Mike specializes in teaching athletes and general fitness clients to get the most out of their bodies by enhancing their movement quality and creating exercises programs that allow you to get stronger, faster, and more powerful in a safe and effective manner.
passionately advocates a studying technique that he claims will dramatically reduce the time it takes to learn a subject — it’s called 
