Any advice on training a female client, 55 , smoker, needing to lose body fat by at least 10%, shoulder limitations, & other.
My client is a breast cancer survivor, not willing to give up smoking, is holding all her fat in her stomach and abdominal region. She is limited by shoulder usage due to previous injury. She also has a very poor diet, is working on changing some, and increasing water intake. She lives on frozen dinners, and packaged foods, which we’ve gone over several times. Recently, I’ve gotten her to do her first 5K, walking, and now she is jogging as well, with strength training. Just need some ideas to help her because she is in a danger zone with the body fat and still smoking.
Dawn,
This is situation I have found myself in a few times. It really comes down to “is this client really ready to make changes.” She has already put up defenses and said that you can not make her do anything that she doesn’t want to do, despite their ill effects on her health. That makes the relationship tough for the start. My first advice is patience. There is no good way to say this to a client, but her control issues and survivor mentality really need to be addressed by a qualified therapist or doctor. This may not be something you feel comfortable bringing up so then we move to the next option. Do no harm.
Be easy on her and introduce her to basic activity as you’ve already done. There is no magic bullet with this client. The fact that you’ve gotten her to walk and jog is a testament to your relationship with her. The rest will happen as she begins to trust you more. Again, she has dictated her willingness to change, and those boundaries and wall will only shift with time and trust.
You’re doing amazing, keep perspective, keep patience, and focus on successes not the other aspects that aren’t changing quick enough.
Hope this helps, if you are looking for more specific exercises let me know. But I think reenforcing what you’re already doing is the important part.
Sean