Do you ever create challenges for your clients to participate in?
I may challenge individual clients with exercises that they believe to be out of their reach as long as I am convinced that they can accomplish them. The reward is the accomplishment of it in itself. I would only do that with a client to whon this is a true motivation and who would not end up hurting himself in trying.
Other than that, I would not consider it because with every challenge comes the possibility of not meeting it, and I try to keep the atmosphere as positive as possible. Nobody wants to fail or even come in second.
I constantly challenge my clients to reach just a little bit higher, and we celebrate every individual accomplishment.
I create challenges or games in my boot camp style classes. Every one seems to have fun with it but I do have to be careful some people can be really competetive and hurt themselves or someone else. I’ll do group games and try to put less atheletic with more atheletic people to even out the odds. I try to personalize the challange based on the class participants so everybody can be a winner. Sometimes the prize is the accomplishment and sometimes I might have some little token. I also give out perfect attendance awards.
When we were kids we got gold stars and such for a job well done. But as adults we just don’t get a lot of recognition. My classes enjoy a “gold star” sometimes
Actually, I DO! My challenges are for the individual client to challenge him or herself. I play games with my clients from time to time to keep them challenged and to keep things interesting. During a training session, I may spring a “challenge” on them in which if they WIN, they get an “immunity” from something else that they might not like (I conduct these challenges very much like the reality show “Survivor,” including even having created an immunity idol for them!). It’s a lot of fun for them and me!
When I was in the corporate wellness arena as Fitness Director, I definitely did introduce periodic challenges for the members there as a way to increase their consistency in exercise.
LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
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