What Are Some Fun Exercises For Difficult Clients?
Difficult clients being those clients who don’t enjoy physical activity. Suggested exercises should be able to be performed in a gym setting with common equipment (medicine balls, body bars, dumbbells, kettlebells, stability balls, free weights, smith machine, and the like). Suggested exercises should also be engaging and aimed at helping clients to see working out as an enjoyable and positive experience.
Hi Marlan,
you set the bar pretty high. But at least there is hope. After all, the clients came to you because they see the value of exercise. I find that the claim of ‘not enjoying physical activity’ often stems from an insecurity about not being able to do them at all. And ‘dislike’ becomes a great smokescreen.
I tend to start with exercises that are non-quantifiable so that there is no ‘measure’ of achievement (at least initially). You will be able to see very quickly where your clients do well. People like to feel successful, and that’s my next order of business. I would hazard a guess that by now the dislike has already decreased and you can start implementing the program which – according to your assessment is the best for the client.
Sometimes we just have to do a detour to get clients to where they need to go.