Getting Certified as a Personal Trainer ~ Things you Need to Know First Hand by Terry Clark - HTML preview

#1. Accountability as a Personal Trainer

When becoming a personal trainer, you have to be ready to take your job, and yourself, seriously. One of the biggest mistakes made by people who are looking to become a personal trainer is that they do not gain the skills that help them to become accountable to themselves, their clients and their trade. Being accountable will not only help you achieve your own goals as a trainer, but will help you to become a role model that guarantees success to the clients that you secure.

One of the best ways to start gaining skills as an accountable trainer is to set goals that are achievable. While this is advice that we give out to almost all of our clients, it's often something that we as trainers forget to do ourselves. To set a goal that you know you can achieve, you must know your own limitations, and be willing and flexible to work around those limitations. Often times, new trainers view this as a weakness, when in fact, it is one of the greatest strengths that a personal trainer can have. Be sure to leave time for yourself, give yourself the flexibility to enjoy what you do without burning out.

Setting a good goal means that you are able to pick one aspect and work on it until it is achieved. This should be something that is specific, and something that is easy to measure. Having a goal like: "I want to be the best trainer in the world" is not specific in any way, and can be measured in many different ways. Breaking down your goals can help you get a better idea of what it is you are trying to achieve. Create goals like: "I want to have one good session with a difficult client by providing them with a new technique to stay motivated". Stay accountable to yourself by hitting targets along the way. Do research into various techniques that might help your clients. Expand you knowledge.

By showing that you are able to commit to your own goals, you will become a role model for your clients, and increase their own drive to succeed. On the same note, it is important to acknowledge your own struggles along the way. Ask for help when you need it, and you'll find that many of your co-workers will have great words of wisdom that can help you succeed. Be sure to share your goals with other trainers, to help keep you on track, and accountable to yourself and your clients.

#2. Advertising Online as a Personal Trainer

Using the internet can be a great way to gain many new clients; however, there are a few things that trainers should keep in mind when they begin to market themselves on the net.

One of the biggest mistakes most people make when they begin to market themselves on the internet is that they feel the need to create a website, instead of a simple webpage.  While this may work for large corporations, if you’re working solo, you will more likely end up confusing the people that visit your site. It’s better to set up a simple webpage that people can visit. This page should give the prospective client the information that they need in an easy to find place.

Keeping your contact information handy will help people feel confident. Most people look for this at the bottom of the page. As well as keeping the standard information in an easy to find location, you will need to find a way to encourage people to visit your site regularly. Starting a blog from a free site is a great way to do this. Try to find a domain that includes many of the key words that a client might type into a search engine to get your page as a result.  You may get very few hits on a page called “Gabby’s Workout”, but you would get many hits on a site called “Toronto Personal Trainer”.

Be sure to give people a reason to keep coming back. Offer a joke of the day, or a wellness blog, updates from fitness boot-camps, or contests where client can win free sessions if they answer the weekly question. Keeping things creative and fun will help people remember to incorporate a healthy lifestyle into their daily routine, and will increase the amount of exposure that your name gets on the internet. Getting your clients involved by encouraging them to post messages is also a great way for many potential clients to see the personality and atmosphere that they will likely be working with when they choose you as a personal trainer.

Getting your clients to visit and interact with your webpage can be a great way to start off your marketing success in the online world. Be sure to keep your site well maintained and up-to-date. By doing this, you are sure to increase the amount if exposure that you will get to potential incoming clientele.

#3. Attracting New Clients and Keeping Old

Personal trainers always have challenges in front of them. They must   maintain a viable business and continually attracting new clients.  Also once a personal trainer attains good clients then the challenge is to keep the client motivated to continually use the trainer’s services.

The best way to attract new clients is to maintain a good relationship with the clients that now employ you.  The fact that they are pleased with how you are helping them lose weight and tone up tends to rub off in different directions.  They are going to mention your name when other acquaintances and family members begin to take notice.

One essential in keeping your customer happy is to learn to read between the lines.  Some people are very frank and tell you directly why they require your services.  Other individuals may try to cloud the issue.  This doesn’t mean once you realize the real reason they require your service, you need disclose it.  Your reason for getting to the bottom of the matter is so you can do a better job for them. 

Maybe they feel insecure about their physique or they truly don’t understand why every time they follow a weight management plan, it doesn’t work.  Certain people may not be too happy to make such admissions. If you notice their shyness as far as their physical appearance, you may wish to place a great deal of emphasis on the way they affect their stance when performing floor exercises.  If they can stand up tall posture-wise when exercising, this may allow them to stand taller and feel more confident when they aren’t engaged in an exercise routine.

A person who has continued to fail at weight management while still appearing to have done their level best may be quitting programs much too early.   Some individuals do not realize after starting a weight program there is a period of time where their weight basically flat lines. Even though they aren’t eating as much, no pounds or inches will drop off.  However, given time the pounds and inches will start disappearing.  A lot will depend on a person’s metabolism. What they most need is encouragement to continue.

You needn’t disclose the period of dormancy to your client however when they intimate they’ve been doing everything you say and still have had no success as far as weight-loss, take the approach of a health practitioner and review how long they’ve been on the program you’ve provided.  Advise them that this is normal for now.  This is all the more reason to continue to chart the client’s progress with respect to the weight loss.

#4. Battling Personal Trainer Business Anxiety

When starting your own personal training business, things are sure to get a little bit more hectic in your life. One of the most frustrating parts of starting to work for yourself is the fact that you are always worrying about something going wrong. While a healthy amount of worrying is good for both you and your business, too much worrying cam begin to interfere with your daily life, and with the progress made in the business each day. Here are a few great tips to help you manage all that stress!

Make a list, and organize your time effectively. By managing your day in a way that gives you time to deal with the important stuff when it counts, you are able to get more done. Set some time aside the night before to set up what your coming day will look like. Try not to stray from your schedule once you have it set, as once you’ve gotten yourself off track, it’s hard to get focused again and play catch up on all the work you have missed.

Part of this schedule is knowing how to prioritize your time. Pick the things that you know are the most important, and do them first. If there are many things, break them down into categories before you rank them into priorities. That way you know how much effort will need to go into each section for it to run smoothly. Often you’ll find that by the end of the day, the things that were at the bottom of the list, took care of themselves anyways.

One of the greatest pitfalls of the technological age is the fact that no one can seem to put their phone down. If you spend your entire day taking calls and returning them, you’ll never get anything accomplished. Set aside a fifteen minute block of time every few hours to check and respond to the urgent messages, but know that most things that come up can wait until you pick the message up later,

Most importantly, learn to say no. While no is not a word found often in a trainer’s vocabulary, being able to decide how much a project is worth to you in the long run is important. If the payoff is not good enough for you, then maybe it’s worth it to have the extra time in your day to focus on the things that really matter to your personal training business.

#5. Becoming Accredited by the Right Organization

In order to be a properly certified personal trainer it is very important your certificates bear the name of nationally accredited organizations.  The organizations that meet the requirements of the NCCA or National Commission for Certifying Agencies include the following:  a) The American College of Sports Medicine, b) The Cooper Institute, c) The American Council on Exercise, d) The National Academy of Sports Medicine, e) The National Council on Strength and Exercise, f) The National Federation of Professional Trainers, and g) The National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Categorically, once you’ve attained certification from one of the above seven respected organizations you have met one of the requirements customers look for when selecting a credible personal trainer.  Certainly, you have your foot in the door with a potential client by attaining certification from one of the seven organizations listed; and much more easily than if you were to hang out your shingle without it.

Further, savvy consumers have been informed to rely on trainers who are accredited by one of the organizations listed before any other certifying source.  This is due to the fact that each of the certifying organizations mentioned have met the strict requirements of the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA).  Certainly, you wouldn’t pick a physician who only had some form of random training you’d never heard about; the same goes for clients seeking a personal trainer.

Also once you are certified expect to continue your education in order to remain certified.  You can receive certified education credits from the same organization that provided you with your initial certification.  In your certification training you’ll receive basic knowledge about a) Customizing exercise routines associative with client health needs and level of fitness; and b) Ability to effectively administer various regimens and diets for different clients. 

The organization will also expect you to attain CPR certification before you begin the coursework.  This is especially essential since you’ll be employed providing services where physical exertion may bring about the effects of an underlying health problem with respect to some clients.

Finally, continuing education credits are also important to attain from the standpoint that ongoing research provides the general population with information on how certain exercise routines and nutritional foodstuffs can affect the human body. So you don’t want to know less than your clients. This is a profession where you’ll always want to stay up-to-date and continue to learn.

#6. Benefits of Offering a First Session Free

Many trainers first starting off in the business often wonder why we give away “freebies” to clients for their fist visits. While it may seem like a direct loss of income to the trainer, offering a free session can often be the first step in acquiring and retaining a new client who will continue to use your services in the future. This happens in a few ways, all of which can be positively attributed to the way that clients relate and think about fitness.

Often times, when someone comes in to a gym for the first time, they are nervous and unsure of themselves and their abilities. Many individuals find themselves in a state of anxiety, not really knowing who they can turn to for guidance. If left for long enough, this can trigger a flight or freeze response, which forces the potential client into a position where they feel uncomfortable, and unwilling to try the services. By engaging a new client from the beginning, and allowing them an opportunity to get involved with their fitness plan from the beginning, you are battling back that anxiety.

Once a client begins to get comfortable in the session, you will be able to see a drastic difference in how they react and respond to your requests. As they begin to feel better about themselves and the way that they can accomplish the tasks you give them, they will feel better about continuing on in future sessions with you. By developing a sense of trust with that client, you are able to chase away any misconceptions or fears that they may have about a personal trainer, and show them that they do have the potential to work well with a trainer.

On a neurological level, exercising through the first session will release dopamine into their systems, allowing them to feel good about what they are doing, and begin to see a trip to the gym as a type of physical reward. This allows the client to reason quickly, and brightens their alertness. By appealing to the client through a reward system, it is easier to outline for them in a logical sense the benefits of having a personal trainer and continuing to live an active and healthy lifestyle.

Offering a free first session can be a great way to boost business if you do it correctly. Be sure to be open and honest with your potential clients and work hard to build up a relationship of trust with them. You will find that once people quell their initial fears, they will continue to work with you to attain the benefits of your knowledge.

#7. Creative Ways to Challenge Your Clients

Creating a fitness plan for a client can be a source of excitement and inspiration, if you don’t fall into the trap of standardized activities. While many clients will need to start with a small number of routines until they develop the strength and endurance needed to expand their range of activities, many clients are up for a challenge, and will continue to thrive if they are given a creative challenge from time to time.

One of the best ways to spice your training session up is to get outdoors! Take your client for a run or a hike through a local conservation area. Turn it into a game by racing, or sprinting to various destinations along the way. Go out and play a game of soccer or basketball.  By introducing your client to different activities that they may not feel they were ever able to do before, you are encouraging a healthy lifestyle, and showing them how their hard work is paying off. In addition, be sure to give your client information about various outdoor programs, such as walking clubs that they could join to show them how to incorporate daily fitness into their lives.

A popular way to get your client’s attention is by setting up a circuit. Circuits can be adjusted to any fitness level, and are a great way to provide your client with a wide variety of challenges in a short period of time. Throw on some music, and time it so that it plays until it’s time for your clients to change stations. This is a great option for those trainers working with fitness groups.

Similar to the circuit training, obstacle courses provide an opportunity to have a bit of fun with your clients. Use a variety of objects, and adjust the intensity to suit your client’s needs. You’ll find that everyday objects can often make the best obstacle courses.

Finally, put your client in charge! Let them decide what muscle groups they want to work, what activities they would like to try and how they want to work it. Provide assistance where you need it, and give your input if you think that they’re not challenging themselves, or have picked an activity that they will struggle with.  By actively involving your clients, you can be sure that they are staying engaged and enjoying the work that they are doing with you.

#8. Customer Service Tips for New Trainers

When you think of careers that involve a lot of strong customer service skills, personal training isn't always at the top of the list. However, having good interpersonal skills is one of the key factors in determining your success as a personal trainer. Some of the most important skills you should gain as a personal trainer are professionalism, being able to relate to others, and being motivational.

Maintaining a high level of professionalism is one of the best ways to gain and keep clients. Things that you might not see as being unprofessional can often come off as being rude and disrespectful to many clients. Never answer your cell phone during a client’s session, or show up late for such sessions. By maintaining a high level of professionalism, you will ensure that your clients feel comfortable and safe during your sessions. Clients will respect you a lot more if you are able to focus your full attention on them. 

Being able to relate to your clients is another really important skill if you are becoming a personal trainer. Your clients will stay with you if you are able to remember things that they have told you about themselves, what their goals are, and what their concerns may include. By listening to them and showing that you care about the results that they want to achieve, as well as respecting them as a person, outside of the gym you will find that you will build great relationships with your clients. Not only will this help you to work more closely with that person, but it will also allow you to use them as a network to help you gain more clients. People will always refer someone if they have enjoyed the time that they spent with you.

The other important piece here is that you should be able to be motivational, at a level that the client can work with. While some people do well with the forceful drill sergeant style of trainer, others will do much better with someone who is relaxed and easy to work with. Talk to your clients, and see what will work for them. Try your best to give them the style of motivation that they need. Above all, if you don’t think that you are working well with your client, and you know that the client feels the same way, be sure to speak up. Refer them to another trainer, whose personalities might match theirs a bit better. Even though you may have lost that client, you have still helped them to achieve their goal, and for that, your clients are sure to be grateful.

#9. Effective Communication is Vital

People who are successful in business know that the key to prosperity lies in how they communicate with their clients.  In fact, the fitness client will forgo looking at the credentials behind your name and testimonial accolades if they believe first and foremost you are listening to them.

This does not mean that you should not attain the proper certification, or become well-schooled in your profession; simply that good communication is vital for success. If you do not allow your clients to communicate what it is they are hoping to accomplish, you might as well wave good-bye to any future of higher earnings. 

If we were going to look at this idea from a sales standpoint, we'd address the needs of your customer through what is known as consultative selling.  This is a highly effective sales technique. The strategy is to find out what the client is trying to achieve by purchasing your products or services.  Once you have established what it is your client is wishing to accomplish, you go to work designing a program that addresses those needs.

Consultative sales is the perfect strategy for a personal trainer in that they have been trained to customize a nutritional and exercise plan to customer requirements.  In order to make the most out of consultative sales, you'll need to devise a questionnaire or put together a set of questions so you can get to the bottom of what the customer truly wants to achieve.  Once you have established the reason behind the personal training then you can go to work perfecting the customer's idea of what he or she wishes to achieve – as opposed to what your perceptions of their needs are.

For instance you may see an obese client and think they need a plan to drop ten dress sizes. But they may only wish to drop two dress sizes in time for a wedding.

Some questions you may wish to ask your client include: a) What prompted you to require the services of a personal trainer? b) Have you worked with a personal trainer in the past?  If so, how was your experience?  c) What is it you'd like to achieve as far as your fitness objective(s)?  For example:  Are you expecting to acquire muscle tone? Lose weight?  Are you needing training in order to be more effective when participating in another sport? Also, you may ask the following questions: a) Do you have any underlying health concerns? b) When was your last physical? c) How do you rate your current level of fitness on a scale from one to ten with ten being exceptional?  d) Are you currently on a restricted diet? e)  Are there any medications that you are taking that may interfere with intense workouts?

Naturally, you aren't trying to act as the client's physician or give them medicinal advice or even pry into their personals.  Your objective is to find out what you're dealing so that you won't subject your client to a workout that may compromise his or her current state of health. 

If your client does have a present health issue, it may be advisable to proceed with caution and provide him or her with less intense cardiovascular workouts:  again this is dependent on client objectives.  The cautionary advice here though is:  When in doubt—don't.  Your client will recognize your concern.  And a caring communicative trainer makes all the difference in the world.

#10. Exercise and Fitness for a New Age

The years have evolved for our society as a whole in the way of convenient technologies that make our lives easier.  However, with this technological advancement a good many persons have not realized as of yet, that there is no need to stress and strain in order to reach their fitness objectives.  This is where you come in as a personal trainer.  Maybe a personal trainer was not a consideration in the past; however, with technological advancement comes the new awareness that there is not one universal floor exercise or routine designed for the masses:  In fact, for exercise and fitness to be totally effective it must be customized.

The knowledge now that fitness regimens are built around the needs of the client has opened up many doors of opportunity for today’s personal trainer.  This is not just a position where the fitness requirements of the celebrities are addressed.  The services of a good personal trainer are something everyone who needs to a) lose weight; or b) get in shape. The personal trainer is employed at fitness centers, health clubs, and community based recreation centers.  Further, he or she may work on an entrepreneurial basis.  Find a good certified fitness trainer who can show you how to get into shape and how to approach various exercises and use particular pieces of equipment and you are in a much better position to achieve your personal physical fitness objectives.

In fact, it makes sense to use a personal trainer with so many options as to types of routines and exercise, and the smart personal trainer needs to emphasize this to his or her client.   The person needing to lose weight and get into shape now, also needs to keep their trainer on board when it comes time to maintain the weight.  After all, why go to the trouble of losing all those pounds of weight, and not continue to maintain the new idealized weight? 

It doesn’t make sense at all to gain the weight back once you’ve been successful in losing it.  This is comparative to traveling down a muddy road and you have five feet of mud to go to the end of the road. However, since there is five feet of heavier mud, you tiredly exclaim “It’s not worth the additional five feet” and you turn around and go back down the same muddy road you just traveled.   However, if you are smart enough to take on five more feet of the heaviest mud, you’ll avoid ever traveling down that (weight loss) muddy road in the future. Continue using the services of a personal trainer:  Keep him or her around for weight management and counsel as to proper diet.

It is obvious that needs change as we mature, so having a personal trainer for life, just like an accountant or attorney, is essential.  Make it a priority to protect your health as much as you protect your finances.  If you haven’t done so in the past, you know what a nightmare it is to have your finances go awry.  You certainly don’t want to point your health in the same direction.

The personal trainer who practices properly motivating his or her client will make what has just been said here abundantly clear to his or her client/prospect.  It’s a two-way street:  Just don’t go back down it.

#11. Financial Costs in Personal Training

There are many hidden financial costs when you are operating your own personal training business. One of the best ways to understand and manoeuvre around some of the larger money losses is by understanding customer dissatisfaction and attrition. By finding ways to retain your best customers, you will succeed in the personal training business, and bring in a much higher level of profit.

If you think about the amount of marketing, the time spent on the floor, and the starting process that it takes to get a new client on board, it’s easy to see how much more costly it is to get new clients than it is to go the extra mile to retain your current clients. Attrition, or losing clients, is often deadly because trainers don’t usually have the resources available to discover why their clients are leaving.  It is much easier to focus on the positive and discover the reason why a client chooses to stay. Once you begin to do this you will see a difference in how you conduct the customer service aspects of training.

Customer retention can be tackled in a variety of ways. One of the best ways to do this is to work with your client, and not for them. Many clients will terminate the relationship if they feel that they cannot meet the expectations that the trainer sets for them, or if they feel as though the trainer is not listening to their concerns. It’s important to address any concerns with your clients, and touch base with them frequently to make sure you are both on the same page. As well, go the extra mile for your clients. Simply acknowledging birthdays, holidays and fitness milestone with a card or small gift can greatly benefit the entire relationship.

Interestingly, if you make your sessions easier to attain, and easier to terminate, the more people will stay in their contracts. Allow people to purchase recurring sessions, meaning that they won’t have to purchase blocks of sessions at a time. As well, make the contract easier to get out of. The less hassle it appears to be, the less likely the client is to try to get out of it. They know you have nothing to hide!

By spending time working on understanding why customer retention is so vital to your financial well being as a trainer, you will find that you are able to deepen the relationships that you have with your customers, and allow you to become a better all around trainer. 

#12. First Train the Trainer

People thinking about becoming a personal trainer are making a very good choice indeed.  This is due to the fact that not only is the occupation rewarding it is also quite challenging.    However, in order to become the most effective trainer you will need to go through a training process yourself.    You can find a number of viable certified courses online which will teach you everything you need to know with respect to a) various exercises; b) setting up a client’s exercise regimen; c) proper diet in conjunction with the exercise routine you prescribe; and, d) other helpful insights relative to teaching your customer how to properly work out and live a healthier lifestyle in