Sunday, November 09, 2008

Anatomy of a Workout

I just got home from presenting at the Merritt Athletic Club in Baltimore, MD. There were over one hundred personal trainers in attendance and my talk was titled '3 Roadblocks to Personal Training Success'.

The following graphic displays the current approach to the workouts of many personal trainers in our industry:



Many trainers tend to focus on feelings first. In other words, it's either a 'feel the pain' focus where the intent is to solely see how long you can last, or, it's a 'how are you feeling' focus where the trainer wants to make sure the client is feeling good and doesn't want to push them hard.

The other focus is on a targeted muscle area. For example, the entire workout involves training the core (abdominals, hips, and low back).

While each of these areas are critical to a successful program, there is little focus on how to best get the result for what the client actually needs. Instead an approach should look like this:


Taking this approach, the two previously mentioned training strategies support the primary goal which is focusing on client results.

In a volatile economy, focusing on feelings and targeted areas will not be enough to retain current training clients and attract potential new clients. The best marketing strategy for Personal Trainers trying to survive the economy is to focus on getting results!