When coaching/training, which type of population do you find the most satisfaction when they reach their goal/see results?
As a fitness coach/trainer, I have worked with quite a broad range of clients already. I’ve worked with individuals from the ages of 10-68, athletes-to-sedentary, and healthy-to-special populations. So, this is my question to the community of fitness professionals; Which population do you find the most satisfaction in training? Do you enjoy it more when an athlete who has trained with you performs well in their given discipline/sport? Or, do you find it more enjoyable to see someone who goes from a sedentary, obese state to achieve weight loss and become more healthy?
The population of clients I have the most access to (I work in a gym environment) is the beginning to intermediate exerciser. And of that group, most common clients are active Boomers.
I am thrilled to work with this client population!
As Christine Hales wrote, it’s not about the number on the scale that gives me satisfaction. For me, it’s the little improvements in my clients’ lives.
For example, one client came to me a year ago because she’d been so weak in her upper body that she’d gotten stuck in a two-person sea kayak on a vacation and had to be pried out. This summer, not only is she strong enough to get out of the boat, she and her husband will paddle in solo kayaks. Another client can walk her 65 pound dog without her back hurting any more. A third client’s husband, weak from chemo, tripped and fell backwards while going up stairs; she caught him before they both toppled and neither was hurt.
Functional fitness. The ability to do the things we need to do to live a well and vibrant life. That’s what really jazzes me.