What are some really unique and effective ways to get people moving outside scheduled exercise sessions?
Hi Jessica! One thing I try to be very consistent with is advising all of my clients to get a heart rate monitor. With this monitor I assign extra curricular homework in the form of cardio. This is a way to hold them accountable for doing the work because I check their watch files to see what they did. An example is that I will assign a new client to burn 300 calories in 25 minutes or less. I can gauge how much effort they put into that assignment and if they hit it easily and every day that I asked them to do it, then i know they can push harder. So I will either say to do 350 calories in 25 minutes, or i can increase the minutes but keep the calories the same (per say 350 cals in 30 minutes). Another thing I like to do is to use at home cardio workout videos as assignments. For instance Beachbody’s Insanity. That’s a high intensity interval training routine thats only about 20-25 minutes long. This has been a big popular topic amongst my clients. Also coaching with beach body has brought some HUGE income to my personal training business as well. Let me know if you want more info about that! Hope this post helped 🙂 – [email protected]
Hello Jessica,
Playing with the family, neighbors, friends, etc. Whenever we went outside, it motivated enough people to come out, that we had teams for sports. Yay!
The youngsters and old timers all get along and surprise each other with the level of fitness each one possesses.
Think outside the box when using a ball, frisbee, jump rope, etc. Group and partner drills, races, obstacle courses, etc.
How about a scavenger hunt, getting the person to search up and down the stairs, that is so much fun, too.
Take care.
Hi Jessica. People are competitive by nature so why don’t you get (or have them get) an inexpensive pedometer and start a ‘Step Club’ Have each client report their pedometer reading each week and keep a running total (even with graphics) to keep em moving. You can even have a small prize for the winner at the end of a certain time frame.
LaRue, CSCS
www.lecfitness.com
[email protected]
I love pedometers and or fit bit, I also use myfitnesspal because it is interactive.
I am going to use The Client Challenge loop one of these days….
When I train I ask my clients about their day’s schedule and we some up with ideas to get them thinking about being as active as they possibly can.
I also encourage them to find a fun activity to incorporate into their lives such as taking a dancing class or trying to learn how to ice skate, as two examples, but whatever excites them.
I find that as people become more and more fit and as they realize the benefits, they actually will begin to look for ways to move their bodies!