7 Fitness Hurdles My Unsuccessful Coaching Clients Fall at
If you can successfully navigate them, you’ll find it easier to get in shape
When I naively started as a personal trainer in 2008, I thought it would be as simple as 1–2–3:
- take clients through workouts
- give them a snazzy diet plan
- advise them on a few lifestyle tweaks to make and…
They’d be fit, slim specimens singing my praises in no time, right?
How wrong I was.
In hindsight, it made total sense — if people were so great at following plans and staying motivated, they wouldn’t need a trainer in the first place.
You see, programming the workouts, nutrition, and lifestyle habits is the easy part. Changing clients’ mindsets while empowering them to eventually be able to keep themselves in shape without my help is the tricky bit.
While I’ve helped hundreds of clients manage that in the last 14+ years, I’ve also failed with plenty despite my best efforts.
And that’s because they haven’t overcome 7 common hurdles to getting in shape…
#1 Fail to Plan = Plan to Fail
As much as clients hope that coaches know a Magical Exercise that burns 2,000 calories in 10 minutes, we don’t.
A couple of 45-minute weekly sessions with a trainer isn’t enough activity if the rest of your life involves moving from car to office to desk, car to home, and sofa to bed.
- Short home workouts
- Brisk walks
- Weekend hikes
are all great ways to burn more calories and accelerate progress.
But those workouts won’t happen unless they are planned.
When I hear, “I’ll definitely work out sometime this week”, I know it’s not going to happen unless I push them to be more specific. Because life always gets in the way.
My Advice to You: Plan your workouts and outdoor activities each week, and treat them as non-negotiable appointments with yourself.
#2 It All Starts At The Grocery Store
Back in 2008, I produced beautifully formatted spreadsheets for clients’ Customized Diet Plans. Days, times, macros, grams of each food — Wow, they looked so great.
The problem? Nobody f*ckin followed the plan!
People were busy and had 101 other things to deal with besides my elaborate diet plan. So over time, I’ve become more realistic, focusing on helping clients lose weight in the lowest maintenance way possible.
But even then, some clients still struggle.
Why? Their grocery shopping is a sh*tshow. Not planning meals means flying by the seat of their pants daily, grabbing a few things from the store as and when they need them.
That means even if they want a healthy lunch, they open the refrigerator and find a sad-looking tomato, some unidentifiable leftovers, and a bit of moldy cheese.
My Advice to You: Sticking with any diet plan starts with having the right stuff in your house when needed (and not buying the wrong stuff in the first place!). Sit down and plan your upcoming meals and required grocery shopping in advance.
#3 You Need The Right Attitude to Workouts
Do you know how to tell when clients are outside their comfort zone workout-wise? The chat stops.
Ooh, it’s all:
“How was your weekend… a funny thing happened yesterday… how about United’s game… seen that new restaurant?”
Until you give them a couple of heavy dumbbells, tell them to start lunging.
But this is the whole point of working out — at some point, you really should be a bit p*ssed off at how hard it’s getting, and questioning why you do this to yourself.
Your body won’t respond (strength, muscle, stamina) unless you force it to by attempting to push just a little bit beyond what your brain tells you it’s capable of.
It’s not a nice feeling, but it’s a necessary one.
My Advice to You: Expect and embrace a little discomfort in each workout. It’s supposed to be challenging (within reason!). Pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone is the only way you’ll make progress and avoid eventually giving up.
#4 What Are Your Triggers?
Over the years, I’ve heard a lot of confessions that end with a shrug and a “so.” that trails off:
- “It was Gemma’s birthday at work, and there was cake, so…”
- “Yesterday was terrible, and I just couldn’t be assed cooking so…”
- “I had planned to work out at home, but the evening just got away from me, so…”
- “I know you said to prioritize sleep this week, but we found a new show on Netflix, so…”
Listen, we’re not robots. A bit of cake, some take-out, a skipped workout here and there is fine if you’re sticking to your diet and training plan most of the time.
But my clients that get nowhere have a long list of reasons each week for why things didn’t go to plan, so they never get a long enough ‘run’ at doing all the right things.
We all have triggers.
- I never get drunk unless I go out drinking with a certain friend.
- I never skip workouts unless I slept terribly the previous night.
On the one hand, you must avoid letting one ‘wobble’ derail things completely, telling yourself it’s ruined everything. But on the other hand, it’s worth understanding your personal triggers.
My Advice to You: Identify your triggers — what people, moods, locations or situations cause you to make dumb choices and give up on your plans to work out/eat right/take care of yourself.
Now come up with a plan to stop these triggers from derailing you so often.
#5 Slow And Steady Wins The Race
Celebrity magazines and gossip websites have a lot to answer for.
- “So-and-So Lost 7lbs in a Week!”
- “This Film Star lost all her Baby Weight in 1 Weekend!”
The average person now expects miracles from the slightest effort in cleaning up their diet.
- “I had salads for lunch all week, and I ONLY lost 2 lbs?!”
- “You said I’d lose weight if I stopped snacking, and I’ve only lost 10lbs in 5 weeks…”.
Expectations are sky-high. Even though people gain weight at 1–2 lbs per week, they expect to lose it at double or triple that rate. And when that doesn’t happen, motivation tanks.
Clients that accept that losing weight will take time and patience settle into new, sustainable habits and understand that progress isn’t linear. You can eat the same things two weeks in a row, lose 3 lbs in week 1, and zero the following week.
My Advice to You: Accept that this is all going to take a while and you’re in this for the long haul. There will be ups and downs, progress and stagnation, but you’ll get there if you keep doing your best each week. Don’t make the mistake I’ll talk about in #7…
#6 Realizing There Is No Quiet Period
People love discussing what they’ll do when life ‘calms down a tad’.
- The workouts they’ll do
- The healthy meals they’ll make
- The mindfulness and sleep habits they’ll build…
But when do you think this Perfect Time will come along?
I have clients with genuinely crazy lives — demanding jobs, tons of kids — who still manage to do just enough each week for their health and fitness to move the needle and get fitter and/or lose weight.
But I’ve also had clients who saw no point in doing just 1 or 2 workouts or cutting back on calories a little each week. Instead, they would insist on waiting for things to calm down so they could follow a hardcore training and diet plan.
My Advice to You: Don’t make the mistake of planning an elaborate diet or workout program that you’ll definitely start when “things are less busy”. That is never gonna happen.
#7 Blocking Out The Noise
When clients feel my advice is working, they are fully on board, and my word is gospel — this is a truly wonderful time :-)
But if progress slows, some clients will assume:
“It’s stopped working”.
At this point, they are all ears for shortcuts and ‘hacks’ from anyone and everyone:
- “My friend tried keto. Should I do that?”
- “My niece goes to spin class and has lost weight. Should I do that?”
- “Rob in work takes this supplement made from the droppings of Himalayan Mountain Goats, and he says he feels great — should I take that?”.
Again, it’s this failure to accept that Slow And Steady Wins The Race.
If you are trying to lose weight and get fitter and stronger, then 1–2lbs of fat loss each week, while adding weight/reps to your workouts is excellent progress.
My Advice to You: Block out the daily noise you are bombarded with about the best diet/workout/supplement, and commit to staying on the sensible, sustainable track you’ve chosen.
And don’t ask Rob for his goat droppings contact.
What You Need To Accept
Because you’re smart, I bet you noticed a general theme to the hurdles clients struggle with and my advice to you for getting over them.
Accept that getting in shape requires permanent lifestyle changes, not short-term hacks. Even if progress is slower than you’d like, if it’s sustainable, you WILL eventually get fitter, slimmer and healthier.
- Plan and schedule your workouts. Treat them as non-negotiable;
- Buy the right stuff and not the wrong stuff in the grocery store;
- Embrace a little discomfort in every workout;
- Understand your triggers so you can avoid them;
- Commit to long-term lifestyle changes, not fads;
- Don’t wait for a quiet time to start; it never comes; and
- Block out the noise, ignore the latest cool workout/diet/supplement
Those are the critical steps YOU can take to avoid the same hurdles my unsuccessful clients sadly haven’t been able to overcome.
