How well do you know your clients?

Monday, August 29, 2011 8:43 AM Posted by Phill Wright
, 0 comments

Being a successful personal trainer requires a lot of things including good knowledge, confidence, expert skill set, the ability to improvise and constantly being flexible. However, perhaps the most important tool having longevity with your clients and the ability to develop and maintain rapport, sometimes referred to as the softer skills.
There’s one thing for certain, not all personality types get on and that needs bearing in mind. If your instincts tell you that the connection isn’t quite there then they’re most probably right. Rapport is something you can work on but if there is nothing to build on in the first instance, it could prove quite a painful journey.
So, how can you improve rapport? Here’s some steps to help you make significant steps towards improving rapport with clients:

  • Take an interest in them and their life - Yes, clients will generally pay an interest in you but it’s your job to take more of an interest in their life. A challenge as a personal trainer is to brush off the stereotype of being self obsessed and voyeuristic. Being more interested in your own reflection isn’t going to help this. The medical screening should be not even scratching the surface of how much you want to know about your clients. 
  • Step into their world - Learn how your client paints a picture of the world and become more in tune with it. Understanding your client’s perception will help you understand them better, show empathy and be able to set more appropriate targets and focus to their programme. Learning your client’s values will help you understand what is important to them and picking up on the type of predicates they use will help. Predicates are descriptive words that give you clues as to how someone sees things. For example, “I see what you’re saying”  is a common statement but indicative of a more visual frame of mind. Most of us use a variety of frames frequently but over time, you can build up a picture of the most common frames your clients use. The key then is to speak back to them with the same type of language / terminology. This doesn’t mean you should converse parrot-fashion, more favour their type of language with how you speak. This will make more sense to them and help develop rapport.
  • Regular assessments and time to reflect - We’ve all been guilty of thinking that every second spent with clients should involve them sweating and us dictating, but is this really an ideal situation. Irrespective of how busy your clients are, you need to make time to reflect, review and take stock of progress. I believe it’s an honest mistake as the urge stems from wanting to give clients as much as possible within the time spent together. However, it’s a little like driving at night without the lights on - rather dangerous and you’re not too sure where you’re heading. Always take time out for this. A lot can be done remotely but it’s a crucial part of the process and will constantly keep you in touch.
  • Master of nothing - Avoid falling into the trap of thinking that you need to know everything as the trainer. Be confident with your areas of expertise but also know your boundaries and always sign post clients to the best resource(s) where possible. If a GP told you to see a foot specialist, you wouldn’t insult him/her for not being able to solve it themself. Trying to be everything is tiring, unnecessary and it’s potentially a legal suit waiting to happen.
  • Make your clients feel special - You’re the best placed person to decide how this might be but everyone likes to feel the receiving end of being treated well. It could be a birthday card/gift, it could be giving them a bottle of water at the start of a session, it could be greeting them showing how delighted you are to see them. Meeting them as you would a friend doesn’t take much effort but will fill your client with a sense of comfort, relax them and make them feel as though they belong in your company.
Please add your own tips and thoughts on what works well to develop rapport with clients

The Problems with Functional Training

Sunday, August 7, 2011 1:19 AM Posted by Phill Wright
, 1 comments

As a fast paced industry where trends come and go at an impressive frequency, keeping hold of a philosophy that remains disaffected by the passing crazes can be quite a challenge. 
Is functional training actually functional?
Sticking to your guns
As fitness professionals, earning and maintaining the respect of clients whilst keeping a finger on the pulse in terms of the industry is a must for developing a successful business. Being consistent is one crucial component of doing this. It wouldn’t bode well if a trainer asked a client to stick to a particular eating plan one week only to advise against it the next week. The basis of trust comes from reliability and having mixed messages doesn’t achieve this. The challenge as a trainer is that the industry does move fast and often contradictory or conflicting messages are cascaded from the industry leaders. Constantly seeking to deliver the latest and greatest advice can leave a trainer almost working against themselves. The question is, how can a trainer maintain integrity in the eyes of the customers whilst being able to work with the latest research, guidelines or methods.
Changing perspective
Looking at the most recent trends, function is real buzz word which people are starting to really connect with. In terms of meaning, the industry has travelled with a rolling understanding of what function is. From using unstable platforms to side lunges to rehearsing sporting patterns and then weird and wonderful equipment, it’s fair to suggest that there has been an evolution in process. Trying to coin a definition of function from industry professionals usually reveals a statement similar to “multi-planar, multi-direction whole body movements that are specific to everyday life”. However, in the eyes of customers and clients, function is understood as being “good for them”, the kind of movements and exercises that will help their body work better. This is very much the intention of function but is this what clients are actually receiving?
It’s not what you do but the way that do it
Whilst the components of a typical industry understanding of function are true, these more dynamic, versatile and interesting exercises are often still prescribed in the same realms of traditional reps and sets. This is like putting a 1 litre engine inside a porsche. The capacity of the vehicle is fantastic but it’s not being driven to it’s potential. To exemplify the point, getting out of a chair could be seen as a functional activity, does this mean that performing 10 seated squats in a row would be a relevant functional exercise for this activity? The exercise relates strongly to the activity in discussion but performing 10 repetitions back to back doesn’t necessarily support how this activity fits in context. The context of the situation would be that after standing up, stepping forwards and performing another activity would normally take place. 
The function of change - what Darwin really said
Having established that breaking from linear or saggital patterns can better condition the body, repeating these newer movements with conventional sets detracts from the possible benefits. Instead, function represents the ability to cope with change. Whilst the term “Survival of the fittest” is widely known and used as a sales tool for activity, what Darwin actually said was “It is the not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”. Ok, not quite as snappy for marketing terms but the sense is clear. Being able to cope with a continual environment of change is the real essence of function.
It couldn’t be simpler
So how does this apply itself to exercise? Bearing in mind that the key is adaptability, the solution is extremely simple...transition!! It is not the individual exercises that create adaptability but the transition between them. By connecting movements into sequence, the body is continually dealing with a state of change. Applying the dynamics of being multi-planar and multi-directional helps create bigger and more useable states of change but it is the transition that demands the body continually adapts to it’s new environment.
Phill Wright 
Director
Creating Chaos
Phill developed the Primal Flow training system which is part of the 2 day Primal & Functional Movement Specialist course. For more information on this fully accredited course which provides trainers with a complete training system endorsed by Leeds Rhinos, visit www.teamchaosuk.com/primal-pattern-course.php 

How kettlebells can fix your clients

Monday, August 1, 2011 3:36 PM Posted by Phill Wright
, 0 comments
Now that kettlebells are well and truly a part of the fitness industry, it's important to recognise them for the sheer range of benefits they can offer.



Many people may see kettlebells as a tool great for fat burning, aerobic fitness or improving strength but used well, they can do so much more. With the unique movements possible with kettlebells, your clients can not only enjoy the fitness related benefits but the peace of mind that their posture is in safe hands.

To explain this point in the most simple terms, kettlebells perform 2 major functions that many other exercises don't:

  • Demand a firing response from muscles
  • Continually take joints and body parts through full range of movement
The second point seems to be straight forward but why is getting a firing response important? Well, let's face it, we do abuse our bodies in terms of environment. If we were meant to sit at chairs for hours then the hips would probably lock out at this angle and we'd have been born with seats attached. The implications of day to day modern lifestyles leave most of us with faulty muscles that don't do what they're designed to do when they're designed to do it. This leaves often smaller muscles overworking resulting in soreness, stiffness and ultimately injury at some level.

By improving the firing responses of muscles, we're kind of jump-starting the musculature of the body and taking movement closer to how it should be in it's natural state.

Furthermore, getting a full flexibility work out embedded within a training programme is something that kettlebells put on the table. It's all very well performing the token stretches at the end of a training session but any dancer, gymnast or athlete of precision such as a synchronised swimmer would laugh at this token gesture. To really maintain and improve flexibility, stretching should be it's own session...and done properly, it does hurt and it is uncomfortable. However, as trainers, we all know that keeping clients engaged and not bored is difficult enough without getting them to sit down for long periods. This is where kettlebells provide that superb compromise between wants and needs.

The top two exercises for fixing your clients:

Jen taking you through the kettlebell swing

The crush grip military press

Two very straight forward exercises but hugely beneficial to give your client what they want as well as what they need. 

To find out more about the anatomical benefits of kettlebells and how they uniquely condition the body, take a look at the 2 day instructor course whilst saving money for online bookings. You'll also learn over 40 kettlebell exercises, numerous programmes and some extremely challenging complexes.



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