Training a new client can be one of the most rewarding aspects of being a personal trainer, especially if you love what you do and are passionate about helping people achieve their goals. It can also be one of the most time-sensitive parts of your job because it determines the pace of your training relationship moving forward.
Get it right, and you can help your clients achieve their fitness goals that much quicker. But if you don’t nail the first session, then you’ll probably run into some misunderstandings down the road.
This ultimate guide to training a new client will help you make the most of this opportunity and avoid unnecessary frustrations. Let’s get into it.
Start Your Journey With a Consultation
Consultation is often your first contact with your new clients after registration, and it is the most important because it allows you to establish critical data points. If you landed the client on the gym floor, chances are that you were more concerned with
You can learn a lot about your client, draw out a time-efficient and successful program, and even establish their current fitness level.
It’s a good idea to start by having your client sign a liability waiver. Also, you should be asking your clients revealing questions during consultation. Some of them include their medical history and their weaknesses and strengths.
Knowing a client’s medical history allows you to build custom exercise programs. For instance, you will learn to avoid isometric exercises with clients that suffer from cardiac problems if you know their medical history of cardiac diseases.
Insight into their strengths and weaknesses allows you to create exercises that they will be excited to do. You can probe further to see what motivates them, so that you can recommend routines that they enjoy and are excited to perform.
Know your Client’s Long Term and Short term Goals
Different clients need personal trainers for various reasons. While some clients want to build muscle mass, others want to lose weight. And it’s not hard to see why; if you don’t know your client’s goals, you cannot draw out an effective routine and, therefore, can’t help them achieve their goals.
It’s very likely that your client has both long and short-term goals. Establishing what these are will help you help them stay consistent.
A good idea is to place a great emphasis on their short-term goals while giving moderate attention to their long-term goals, as well. So if your client wants to lose weight in the short term and gain muscle in the long term, their current routine will be cardio-heavy, but also incorporate a bit of weight training.
This is obviously an oversimplification of the workout routine, but you get the idea.
Draw Out an Exercise Plan
After a consultation session with clients, you are more equipped to draw out a fitness plan and strategy, especially if you’re training a lazy client. You want to combine weight training with calorie-intense HIIT sessions, metabolic workout routines, flexibility exercises, and bouts of cardio, depending on what their goals are.
Be sure to mix in exercises that they enjoy with the ones they really need so that they stay motivated and continue to enjoy the process. So if your client wants to lose weight but they really enjoy crunches, you could mix in a cardio session with sit ups to keep them excited.
Respect Your Client’s Personal Space
It’s critical to offer support to clients with care without invading their privacy, and that goes for younger and older clients as well. A great way to do this is to educate them on how the process works. Basically, your client should understand that you’ll touch them in a professional manner from time to time to offer support and guidance.
Clients will need support during exercises, and our older clients will be more familiar with constant physical support than the newer clients. Often, new clients have no previous workout history with you and need to familiarize themselves with support.
That’s why it’s so important to educate them from the get go. If you need more information on how physical support enhances training results, check out this blog post by Roman Fitness Systems.
Know What your Clients Do
Your client’s occupation tells you a lot about their general activity level. For example, clients who work at a desk all day are less active than clients who work at construction sites. And as you’ll expect, their strengths will differ, and so should their fitness plans.
For clients who engage in sedentary work, you’ll need to amp up their fitness plans for better results. On the other hand, your active clients will probably have different goals – improving mobility, for example. So a good idea here could be to include mobility training in their routine.
Set Realistic Expectations
Setting realistic expectations allows your client to pace themselves and enjoy the journey. When they know that their results won’t come overnight, they are less likely to overdo it, and more importantly, less likely to blame you for their lack of results.
So you want to avoid promising ridiculous results on day one if it’s going to take some time to get there. This will ensure you’re setting achievable goals and that your client is realistically working towards them.
Be Flexible
Clients will have questions, concerns, and different needs, so it’s essential to be open-minded and willing to work with them on adapting your services to meet their needs. So your client might only be available early in the morning. Making adaptations for them shows that you care about their needs, and that you are just as committed to their goals.
You might also want to include an emergency contact number just in case!
To Wrap It Up
In this post, we’ve covered everything from how to get on board with new clients, to how to establish flexible and tailor made routines. In addition, it’s also a good idea to get your client’s emergency contact, in case you need to call somebody.
We hope that by following these steps, you can ensure the best possible experience for both yourself and your new client.
