The Summit of Success

These are the goals I like to accomplish with workouts:
1) Always have fun
2) Make a friend
3) Learn something new
4) Get motivated for the next workout
5) Get an awesome workout!

If you can get these concepts across in your lesson, then you will be successful. Too often do I see trainers only achieving one of these five elements. Most times they only give an awesome workout. This is all too easy to do. For example, you could have your clients lift a ton of weights until they’re exhausted, or have them go on a two mile run.

Instead, I want to implement a program where the following happens:

The client comes up to the trainer for their 20th session. The trainer (you) asks how they’ve been since the past week, and how their daughter/dog is doing. Make small talk while warming up with two laps around the track. The client should be breathing heavily during the warm-up, but still able to hold a conversation.

Finish the warm-up in about five minutes and start stretching. Stretching should take about three minutes.

Commence the workout. Make sure to emphasize that if they give 100 percent, then the workout will be shorter. Do two rounds of whatever you’re doing… whether it be boxing, kettlebells, or whatnot. This is still a warm-up—don’t talk about technique too much. After the second round, take a two minute break.

During the break, ask your client how their nutrition has been. See if they have any questions about what to do with the diet. Give them a pointer for how they can improve round three. Remember, we always want to teach—not just train.

I want our trainers, you, to realize the benefit of working with MOVFitness. The most important aspect of working with us is to implement a “school” instead of a session.

If we are able to do this, we will be able to teach our clients so much more with less effort on our part.

Let me show you how.

Trainer style 1:

Sara, a star trainer, meets her first client at 6am. They go on a three mile run and the client starts wheezing halfway through. Sara tells her to push through it, but they slow down a little. Sara tells the client at the end of the session that they won’t run anymore and they’ll concentrate on other areas, ending with stretching. Her 7am client comes and they do some boxing on the beach. The client feels silly and doesn’t hit as hard as she could and keeps looking at everyone watching her box. Sara tries to cheer her up and tells the client about how fun her weekend was, and they talk about shopping for bikinis for the summer.

After that session she has a break until 8:30. Sara takes a break to eat an apple and peanut butter sandwich. Her 8:30 appointment shows up, and they climb four sets of stairs at the stadium. The client gets very discouraged when he sees skinny little girls passing him. (Not to mention his trainer is a skinny little girl.) Sara encourages the client to do some stairs on his own so he can keep up for next week.

Sara has a 9am and 10am. She decides to do boxing with both of them. She teaches the uppercut to both and then calls it a day. She calls her boyfriend and has lunch with him. She then goes out to the beach and surfs for about four hours. When her boyfriend gets off work, she goes home and hangs out with him.

Trainer Style 2:

It’s Monday morning and Billy is ready to start working out his clients. He meets his first client at 6am and they go on a run. While on the run, he brings to his client’s attention that she might have a slight case of asthma once Billy notices she is wheezing. He tells them that in the future, they are going to practice Buteyko, and then they finish their run even though the client is wheezing. Between sessions, he writes in his journal “Make sure to send Sally information on Buteyko tonight.”

Billy meets his 7am client. They go on the beach for some boxing, but the client seems uneasy. He stands beside her and does the workout too—at the same level of technique that the client is doing it. He reminds her at the end of the workout that Janey, his star client, used to be horrible at boxing. He says that with determination and practice, he wants to get her to that level, too. Before leaving, he reminds her that he wants her to learn about exchanges. He asks her if she knows where on the website she can find the information. He writes in his journal, “Send Sally an email about Maria’s testimonial. It will put her in perspective. Send her the exchange information again and emphasize how important it is she knows this.”

Billy then has a break at 8 and eats an apple and peanut butter sandwich.

He assists the 8:30 bootcamp class taught by Matt and works on his own sword fighting. At the end of class, Matt tells everyone to check out a new video he uploaded to the website that will help out their sword fighting technique. He also says Brandi posted up a new recipe last night that everyone should check out.

Billy has a 9:30 appointment and goes over the sword fighting with them. He goes over the same technique he just learned in the bootcamp so it stays fresh in his mind. He even steals some of Matt’s quotes as if they are his own. At the end of the session he says “We uploaded a new sword fighting video that I’d love to have you watch. I’ll send you the address to it so you can practice on your own. You seem to really understand the sword fighting, do you like it?”

The client says, “Yeah, it’s a lot of fun, but I feel like a dork. I don’t look as good as you.”
Billy says, “Well, you’re getting much better. I want you to watch the video and practice. Oh, Brandi posted up a new recipe on the site, too. I know how much you like to cook, so you should check that out as well. We also need to talk with Brandi about supplements. I want you to hear about the multivitamins we recommend. I’m proud of what you’ve accomplished—not many clients are so open-minded. You have learned about blood sugar and exchanges, you’ve taken up sword fighting and boxing, and now I want to get you on a solid multivitamin so we can do even more in the future. I’ll get with Brandi and figure out when a good time for her to meet with us would be. I’ll let you know what I find out when we meet on Friday or maybe this Wednesday if you’re coming to bootcamp in the morning—I’ll be teaching . You should definitely come. I’ll be going over a new boxing routine that is a lot of fun. If not, I’ll see you Friday. Have a good day!”

Billy has another 10:30 appointment. He repeats the same sword fighting workout and tells them the same quotes about the same video and recipe. He also tells them about the multivitamins with Brandi.

Billy goes home and has lunch. He hops on the computer and sends out an email to each client. This takes about an hour because he has to make sure all the links are to the right places. His notes help him make sure he sends the right info to each client.

He also emails Brandi and says he’d like her to meet with him to go over supplements with two of his clients. He also invites her to have a sword fighting session with him on what he learned from Matt that morning.
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So, do you see the difference in the two training styles? While Sara might be an awesome trainer, she’s just that—a trainer.

A good trainer spends an hour with a client, puts their all into it, and says, “Great job. See you next week.”

A good coach spends an hour with a client, puts their all into it, and says, “Great job. Here’s what I want you to do next…”

I much prefer Billy’s method of coaching. He refers to the other trainers as professionals. He takes time out of his day to follow up with his clients and also to attend a bootcamp so he can learn more technique.

Don’t be passionate about your client just for that one hour. Give them goals for when they aren’t with you, and put yourself in their head 24/7. It makes them feel like you care about them, and like they’re receiving a workout tailored specifically to them. It also improves their overall fitness much more than just that one hour a week does, and leads them to take responsibility for their own health.

Too many trainers get caught up in being the best. A good coach makes his clients look like the best. In the long run, that reflects a lot better on you, and will earn you more business.

What makes a great teacher?

Some may say the best teacher is the leader of the leaders. The one who does their job better than everyone else. Because if they can perform better than everyone else, then they should know how to teach the others too.

Others may say that the teacher who has all the top students is the best. They claim that if you have the top students, then you must be the best teacher. You know how to teach the best of the best, so you must be the best overall.

My opinion? I believe the teacher who can take the worst of the worst and bring them to the top is the best teacher. Not just one time, but multiple times. An example would be a person extremely overweight becoming a star athlete. Or taking a client who is considering gastric bypass and turning them into a nutrition consultant who has dropped 50lbs.

How is this accomplished?

My approach is a concept that allows me to teach everyone. Instead of concentrating on reaching out and learning more, I try to learn how to relate the most basic rules to each person individually. I make my approach sound as if it is ground-breaking when it applies to them.

If I went to my clients and said, “You need to eat a 40/40/20 6x a day, workout upper body one day, lower body two days, and abs one day a week, sleep six hours a night, and do this routine for six months. You are guaranteed success.”

Do you think I’d see success with this client? No. Trust me, I’ve tried.

Instead, I learn 100 different ways to say the exact same thing. The end result: we want our client to eat frequently and work out often. It’s not rocket science.

The beauty of being a great teacher comes in how many analogies, teaching methods, and techniques you can relay to your student to get the job accomplished.

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