Personal Fitness Professional - January/February 2009 - (Page 31)

SSIONER SEVER A P What makes a great personal ﬁtness trainer By Greg Justice Have you ever wondered what makes a great personal ﬁtness trainer? What separates a mediocre personal trainer from an incredible personal trainer? Sort of an important question, right? Here are the four “P’s” that I believe make for a great personal trainer: enthusiastic and motivational, two qualities essential for an eﬀective relationship with clients. If you don’t have passion for this industry, you might as well save yourself the time and stop reading now because that’s where it all begins. I believe it’s the single most important component to being a great trainer. It’s more important than the alphabet soup after your name (your formal education and certiﬁcations), more important than the years of experience you’ve accumulated and certainly more important than lifting 300 pounds or having six-pack abs. Of course, I’m not saying that education and experience aren’t important. Every trainer should gain as much formal and continuing education as possible and should strive to be a walking role model for clients. What I am saying is that those qualities are secondary to the infectious power of passion. Passion is a powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, and it can manifest itself in many diﬀerent ways. It’s easy to identify passionate trainers who have high energy, but some of the best trainers I’ve known have a more subtle kind of passion to which their clients respond just as well. There’s no right or wrong way when it come to passion. It’s just critical that you love what you do and never cease to walk it, talk it and live it. You can’t fake or learn passion. You either have it or you don’t. Here’s a quick measuring stick to see if you’re a passionate trainer: Do you wake up most mornings looking forward to work? Do you greet every client with a smile and a positive comment? After each appointment, do you send your client away with a comment of aﬃrmation? If you didn’t answer “yes” to all the above, you may want to rethink your career. CE AN Passion Do you have it? A passionate trainer is Persuasion Do your clients listen to you? Are you convincing? A trainer is like a classroom teacher. You must be persuasive, despite objections, to get your message across. All trainers hear every excuse in the book as to why clients can’t or won’t do something in their best interest. This is where your knowledge and the powers of persuasion come in handy because you must make a good argument to counter their excuses. If a client tells you they don’t have time for a workout, you should have a scripted comeback ready to deliver. You must have conviction while making your argument. You’ve got to believe what you’re telling them is true. And you must present a factual and compelling case. Part of persuasion is your presentation. You can’t be caught oﬀ-guard. Be prepared to strike back with conﬁdence, reason and facts. Finally, if you can’t persuade or motivate a client, say, “You’re ﬁred.” Don’t let frustration overtake you or your client. Remember that not every trainer is right for every client. It must be a win/win situation for both parties to come out ahead. ENC E PATI Perseverance Do you steadily persist in a course of action or purpose in spite of diﬃculties, obstacles or discouragement? We’ve all had clients that have gone through tough times or have been discouraged by one thing or another. Maybe your client only lost one pound over the course of a week and thought they should have lost three, or perhaps they’re going through personal problems in their lives and feel the need to share those issues with you. When a client gets discouraged or gets oﬀ-track because of personal reasons, it’s easy to give up on them and go looking for new clients. Are you a quitter, or do you confront issues head-on and persevere? We’re in this business to help people. Remember, it’s all about building relationships. It is not about you. Constancy, dedication, determination and endurance are all synonyms for perseverance. Are you dedicated to your clients? Are you determined, and do you have the endurance to see them through tough times? If so, you shouldn’t have any diﬃculty with the last “P”: patience. Patience Do you have the ability to resist frustration? We’ve all heard the saying that “patience is a virtue,” and as a personal trainer, patience is not only virtuous, it’s critical. Patience goes hand-in-hand with perseverance; it implies qualities of calmness, stability and persistent courage in trying circumstances. Have you ever had a client who just couldn’t “get it” when you tried to explain how to do something? We’ve all been there, and it can be frustrating. Just because an exercise feels natural to you doesn’t mean it’s easy for your clients. A true measure of patience is when you can suppress restlessness or annoyance when you are confronted with a slow learner. You can never show frustration with them, even if you are. Always remain calm and relaxed when explaining something to them for the fourth, ﬁfth or tenth time. Remember, the client has paid for your time and undivided attention. A slow learner who may not possess many athletic skills will receive even more satisfaction when they ﬁnally do get it. Your patience will pay big dividends. Greg Justice, MA is the owner of AYC Health & Fitness — Kansas City’s Original Personal Fitness Training Center — and CorporateBootCampSystem.com. He has been actively involved in the ﬁtness industry for over 25 years as a club manager and personal trainer. He is an author of workout- and business-related articles speciﬁc to the personal training industry. In addition to several certiﬁcations, he holds a master’s degree in HPER (exercise science) from Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, and was a member of the review committee for the IDEA Code of Ethics in 1996. For more information, please visit www.aycﬁt.com. ● JAN-FEB2009 · WWW.FIT-PRO.COM 31 http://www.CorporateBootCampSystem.com http://www.aycfit.com http://WWW.FIT-PRO.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Personal Fitness Professional - January/February 2009

Personal Fitness Professional - January/February 2009 Contents Letter from the Editor, Writers Ready to Rock the Podium What It Takes to Change Fitness Marketing Makeover Be Better Top Club Building a Base of Special Populations The Balancing Act Take Action! Nutrition Solutions Datebook Journey to Success New on the Market The Four P's Exercising Your Influence No More Pain in the Back!

Personal Fitness Professional - January/February 2009

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