Creating Chaos - For Fitness & Sport Professionals

I've decided to put together a blog that shares some tips and hints that can help people become more successful in Personal Training. After a good few years gaining great success with my own business and then managing a vast number of trainers, I've come across some excellent and some dog poor examples of this thing called PT.
My first hint is one that can save you time. Have a system. One of the greatest trends that I've noticed in personal training is that good trainers spend and dedicate so much time to their clients with programme writing, nutritional planning, writing up reports and much more. However, for some reason, they seem to re-invent the wheel everytime and run themselves into the ground whilst trying to cater for all their clients. Have a system in place that makes your life easier. Not just the consultation as most trainers have at least some format for this. (If you don't already then get one - there are some great examples that you can google to give you pointers). What I mean is, have a structure that has literature that you can just hand to people specific to their goals. It would be quite easy to come up with a set number of general goals that people are looking for: weight loss, increase strength, more energy etc. Why not come up with a starter pack for each of these that discusses nutrition, exercise and how to approach it and lifestyle. This is where the greatest results are made, educating your clients. Not just thrashing your clients or giving them excellent workouts but giving them the information. The more you can guide them towards making the right decisions, the better informed they will be towards making the right choices. However many sessions you have weekly with your clients will not make up for 7 days of bad living. Put the ball in their court and guide them.
Slaving yourself to your clients is risking giving poor service too. The number of trainers who I've seen looking majorly tired is shocking. Turning up tired will almost always result in under performance on the trainers part. Poor coaching won't do you any favours in getting new business or retaining existing business. Having more time to yourself will give you what it takes to feel refreshed and on form when delivering. The best way to do this is through streamlining your systems as much as possible.
I'll chat a little about language patterns and influential ways in which you can get your clients to stick to healthy lifestyle or make the better choices more often.

Phill Wright