Getting your clients to push themselves.
There are some clients that I work with who work hard but not as hard as I know that they can. Do you have any tips/tricks that work for getting that client to push themselves harder to reach their full potential? (For example I really want this client to work harder but since we work in a pool I often feel like she isn’t working as hard as she should be). Any suggestions would be great.
Hello Missy Reece,
Sometimes pool work can be harder than it looks or feels. Is the client happy with their program? If so, I would not worry about it. You may also try telling them to push hard for a short while to reap the long term benefits. Do you incorporate games, races, or logs that will show improvement to keep them motivated? Maybe something else is going on that needs to be addressed privately, in an understanding way.
Take care,
Natalie aka NAPS 2 B Fit.
Is this a personal training client? Is working harder consistent with this client’s goals?
Sometimes, even though a client can work harder, they choose not to. Maybe have a discussion with this client about their potential and whether they want to be pushed harder in order to reach it. We can encourage clients, but we can’t “get them” or “make them” do anything.
Hi Missy,
some of our clients come to us to get a good workout, get healthier and then walk away from the session feeling better about themselves. Many are already under stress in other areas of their lives to ‘live up to their potential’ and may not wish to go the extra mile.
Your profile indicates that you had great determination to reach your own personal goals but not everybody feels that way.
On the other hand, since you are working in the pool, there are some options to increase intensity of the workout without asking the client to work harder. Deep water work or working suspended for extended periods of time is very challenging, and you may be able to sneak in a harder workout without ‘pushing’.
Karin Singleton
www.meltnc.com
Two things I would add are:
1. What is the purpose of the workout? what physiological adaptations are you trying to achieve? If it is for the aerobic system or heart conditioning for example, you can use the talk test to determine if it is aerobic or not. You want to use the least stressful stimuli necessary to cause the body to adapt. It serves no purpose to workout harder then necessary as aerobic capacity is based on volume not intensity.
2. You also need to look at psychological adaptations. If your client is not working as hard as they can maybe you could focus on the mental side of exercising. Just like physiological training psychological training and pushing one self should happen gradually over time it is not something that you can just push someone into.
Ultimately it comes down to the clients goals and what they are trying to achieve/gain if they are happy or still improving there really is no point in them pushing themselves harder.