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Future Fit Traning

5 Tips To Stand Out As A Personal Trainer

So You’re Thinking Of Becoming Qualified As A Personal Trainer?

You’ll probably have friends who are Personal Trainers. You’ll know people who have a Personal Trainer and you may be aware that Personal Training is an industry that has been growing for the last 10 years.

More and more self-employed and indeed employed Personal Trainers are all fighting to stand out and make a difference to make a living. It can be a daunting task, especially if you have little to no experience as a Personal Trainer. What on earth can you do to stand shoulder to shoulder with trainers who may have been in the business 5, 10 or 15+ years?

This article will give you some good tips to forge a business and to stand out from the crowd.

Tip 1 – Think HIPPOCRATES & DO NO HARM.

Everything you do as a Personal Trainer must come from this rule.

If you harm your clients you aren’t going to keep your clients. If you don’t keep your clients you aren’t going to pay the bills.

Be constantly on the lookout for pain during any exercises, make sure you’re not just making your clients vomit or making them sore for 2 weeks after each session.

Don’t be afraid to change any exercises that you perceive are putting your client at more risk than it’s worth.

Refer your clients to the relevant professional if injury or mental health issues begin to present themselves.

By refining your Personal Training and offering the highest level of client care you’ll have incredible retention. Especially if you’re not afraid to bring in other experts to solve a problem they are having (with their consent of course!)

Remember, it’s not just about training people HARD it’s about training people EFFECTIVELY.

There are some very experienced Personal Trainers who have forgotten this rule. If everything comes from this place of doing NO HARM you have a chance to be a giant in the industry.

Tip 2 – Focus On Client Experience.

A Personal Trainer can have all the knowledge in the world but if the client isn’t welcomed or treated enthusiastically or smiled at or talked to then they aren’t going to want to spend hours with you.

As a Personal Trainer you will probably be training ‘Mr or Mrs Average’ 99% of the time. These people could be working awful hours in an awful office and potentially sat in hours of traffic and have had an argument with their boyfriend/girlfriend about why they are at the gym when they could be at home.

You aren’t the easiest option. Which is why you’ve got to make their experience as amazing as possible.

Again, don’t just make them throw up – make them laugh.

Train them hard when it is appropriate and know how to facilitate recovery or spend an hour talking to someone again when it’s appropriate.

Ease people’s fears and don’t make people feel stupid. Find a way to create excellence in every single one of your clients in every single session.

Having passion for someone’s experience, health and fitness will make your services shine through. Many Personal Trainers don’t gradually refine how to give their client the best experience or have forgotten how lucky each and every Personal Trainer is to be chosen before the sofa after a long day at work.

Tip 3Once You’ve Qualified As A Personal Trainer, KEEP RESEARCHING.

A good tip is to read as many ‘best articles in the fitness industry this week’ articles as you can and add any of the authors you like, agree with or disagree with to Facebook to gradually improve your sources of information.

My personal favourite ‘best of’ series is featured on a website called The Personal Trainer Development Centre which features many free resources and has a large pool of authors contributing to its site every single week.

Subscribe to newsletters and studies, and obviously go on courses like those offered by Future Fit Training. Anything to keep you learning and improving on the training side of things.

Tip 4 – Give Away Free Stuff That Is Unexpected.

If you find a shoulder rehab programme that works really well and someone in the gym is suffering from the same thing print it off or send it to them.

If their lower back hurts every time they deadlift send them an article about how sometimes deadlifting isn’t necessarily suitable for everyone’s hip anatomy and give them some alternatives.

If you do this not only does it make you look like a nice guy but it also sets you up as the expert that people come to when they have a question. If you’re the person they come to with any fitness related question the chances are that if they ever see the value in Personal Training then they will come to you first.

Tip 5 – Help Other Personal Trainers.

Following on from tip number 4 if you read an article that helps you coach or communicate better then save it and send it to other Personal Trainers you know who are having similar issues. Help other Personal Trainers as much as you can and try to be the person OTHER FITNESS PROFESSIONALS COME TO FOR ADVICE.

Very few things are more impressive to a client than seeing other Personal Trainers coming to you for advice.

And those PT’s can help you too…

As a self-employed Personal Trainer it is very easy to fall into the trap of thinking ‘I can and must train every single individual no matter what personality or problems they have.’

This isn’t the case.

If someone comes to you with an issue you know another professional should deal with then you must refer them. If you’re training someone and your personalities just clash no matter what you try please don’t be afraid to refer them to another coach you know and trust.

The chances are you can refer people to each other over time and improve each other’s business.

As long as you’re referring to a good Personal Trainer this can only increase your integrity and reputation for the better and will bolster your business going forward.

So there you have it!

5 Tips To Set Yourself Apart From The Rest!

  • Do no harm – everything must come from here
  • Give your clients the best experience possible
  • Keep researching throughout your career
  • Give away free stuff that’s unexpected
  • Help other Personal Trainers
  • Launch your career today, as a fully qualified fitness professional with Future Fit’s Level 3 Complete Personal Trainer Diploma.

    Chris is a Personal Trainer and Powerlifting Coach. You can follow him at https://www.facebook.com/chriskershawstrength/