as a personal trainer what do u tell your clients when it comes to talking about their success ,do u have a formula to follow ?
It is true that the effort and time you put in to reach your goals often determine the outcome or ‘success’ if you wish to call it that.
Since I train clients with medical problems quite beyond their control, I am usually guarded to talk about success as a curve that always goes up. I have clients where staying where they are at the moment is the goal, and more effort does not equate to ‘success’ beyond that status. I also train people where we can only hope for a delay in getting worse.
Even though I like nothing better than being the cheering section, I have a more differentiated view on the meaning of ‘success’.
Hi Douglas. I believe that “success,” just like the client’s fitness goals is very personal and specific to the person. I like to recognize the “small successes” that a client makes along the way so that they develop a mindset of “have” instead of “have not.” So many of our clients are looking for motivation, recognition and validation external to themselves, so I think it’s important to provide those things – when appropriate – so that the client can eventually begin to look internally for those things and can continue on their path to health based on intrinsic values.
I hope that this helps.
LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
[email protected]
I always say, results are the measurements of one’s success. As a trainer, your clients should be meeting certain milestones along their training journey. It is the small steps up the ladder, I do not make it a practice to laud my client’s success, but my clients tell me more of the accomplishments they see outside of the gym.
I tell my clients that the program works if they work the program
I tell them that success can happen if they make it happen
I have my clients re say certain phrases: such as ” I’ll try to walk today” I have them say ” I will walk today”
I insist on positive verbage
There are no I can’t’s
I give them the tools, they are in charge of implementing them!