Managing Motivation in Fitness
We are not in the business of disappointment. But that’s exactly what happens every time a trainer doesn’t meet their expectation or a client doesn’t achieve their desired physical result. As a fitness manager coaching over 30 personal trainers, I’m tasked with figuring out how to motivate clients, how to motivate these trainers, and of course, staying motivated myself in the midst of offering so much of my time to others. In our industry, results are the only way value is measured. And the driving force behind any result is consistent motivation.
Finding ways to motivate both clients and trainers isn’t always easy. Clients often come in with very surface reasons for wanting be trained and you are left with loose goals such as “be more healthy,” “feel better,” or even “just because.” Trainers are just as difficult to crack, basing their reasons for choosing this career on cliches such as “I love fitness,” or “I want to help people.”
As genuine as these goals may seem, goals rooted in this much emotion are bound to succumb to the reality that much more than genuine ideology is needed to sustain performance. The fact is that achievements are closely tied to habits, and those habits need to be the foundation by which both clients and trainers equip themselves for sustained success long after the romance of their ideology has worn off.
Commitment
No one is more motivated than a new client walking inside your gym and signing that contract. The commitment to you as a personal trainer and to themselves comes with financial implications, demands more of their time, and alters their lifestyle. Same can be said for a new PT. They walk through that door on the first day ready to embark on a new career that they are hoping will change their lives as much as they are hoping to change the lives of their clients. They are starting from the bottom, which means they, too, must invest their time in preparatory education and commit to what will be a change in lifestyle.
But as a manager, you have to know that as soon as that first week goes by and that client hasn’t seen any noticeable physical change, they are already in motivational decline. Similarly, you must also know that PTs begin losing motivation when they hear the inevitable “no’s” of our business. A prospect may not be ready to commit, or clients they do have aren’t seeing results right away and start showing frustration. Or it might be neither of those things and simply the realization that the business of managing another person’s health requires much more commitment than they could ever have anticipated.
It therefore becomes important to set the foundations for success for both clients and PTs from the very beginning. For clients, proper technique, efficient lifting, balance; these are all factors by which their progress should be judged in addition to physical changes. Clients should know that there’s a lot more to achieving their desired body type than just peddling on a bike or lifting dumbbells, and that a lot more comes out of achieving proper physical fitness than an improved physique. Establishing the proper habits early on builds confidence and gives clients an alternate set of gauges to track their progress.
The same principles must be established in PTs. As a manager, you mustn’t hasten through the tedious phase. Yes you may get excited and want to rush your new PT through to a full time working schedule in less than 90 days, but making sure they understand how to structure contracts, that they understand systems, their prospecting and personal schedule; these are all foundational skills that add to the knowledge base of a PT and will allow them to be more successful down the road, even though it’s not as sexy as teaching them how to sell.
Now when you fast forward one month, two months, three months down the line and you are assessing progress, both the client and the PT have a clear understanding of the full scope of what it means to be successful. And when those inevitable moments arise and their motivation begins to falter, you have a deep well from which to pull and can approach each of them from a similar motivational perspective. You celebrate small victories, commend each on the successful achievement of every milestone. This kind of encouragement, reaffirms commitment, and instills the type of motivation necessary for both clients and trainers to propel forward.
We understand how to nurture that new client/fragile egg at the start of their fitness journey so that their confidence builds and their performance increases. Understanding that our newest PT’s need the same attention is the start of building a successful personal training business.
#LeadWithStrength
