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How Trainers Can Encourage Clients To Be More Productive at the Gym

June 11, 2018

As a trainer there are many challenges you will face, especially with your clients. Do you notice your client slacking off when it’s a cardio day? Do you notice some individuals that try to make excuses for not coming to the gym? Is your client only putting in half they effort they should be?

Every client needs different types of encouragement to keep them motivated and coming to the gym for their training sessions or classes. Even if you cannot be there for every exercise due to having other clients to train, there are still ways you can help motivate, encourage and keep your clients accountable throughout their training with you.

Host A Social Media Contest

If you have a lot of clients you are training at the same gym, it can be hard to track every part of their workout. To help keep them accountable and stay active, consider launching a social media contest. Before the challenge starts, countdown with your clients until the set start date of the contest and be sure to remind them what the prize will be if they win or participate. As the trainer during the contest, post engaging photos of your clients having fun and participating in the challenge.

Then, encourage your clients to post videos and photos of themselves working out on their personal profiles. Incorporating a certain hashtag that is related to the fitness goal of the contest, the name of the gym or even the trainer is a great way to track the progress of the clients that choose to participate. If the gym you train at is up for it, try to open the contest up to the entire gym and other trainers and clients and offer a larger prize.

Posting about these events will just give you another way to motivate your clients, bring more attention to them, but more importantly help keep them more accountable. It’s also a great way for the people you are training to meet other people at the gym and a great chance for you to interact with other trainers.

Brag About Your Clients

Client spotlights are an excellent way to recognize clients who have been crushing their goals at the gym, while also highlighting what makes your gym so great. Each month, plan on posting on the gyms social media accounts one client photo and a caption about why you chose that person.

These client spotlight posts are especially effective in raising awareness for your gym because there is a high likelihood that the client you feature will share the post on their own page to their family and friends, but more importantly may motivate your client to stay consistent in the gym.

If possible, also post the clients photo, their name and maybe a few fitness goals they have achieved and display it somewhere in the gym. If new members come into the gym and see it, it may push them to enroll in personal training or classes so they can see their picture hung up.

Remember, before you publicly brag about a client be sure to get their permission first and fill them in on what the spotlight will include. No matter how successful they’ve been, not everyone wants to have their name or picture out in public for everyone to see. If a client declines, respect their need for privacy and find someone else.

Regularly Report Progress

A study from Dominican University of California found that stating a specific goal affects the likelihood of its success. 70 percent of study participants who reported their progress to a friend each week were successful in reaching their goal, compared to 35 percent of study participants who did not share their goal.

Similarly, a study conducted by the University of South Carolina in 2013 found that participants who posted weight-loss progress on Twitter lost more weight than those who didn’t post at all. The head of the university study, Brie Turner-McGrievy, reported, “We think it provided some accountability to people. If you tweet to your friends that you’re going to the gym, then you know people could follow up with you and ask you if you went.”

Positively remind clients to take progress photos every week but no sooner, progress photos taken every few weeks to every month are also great to look back at to notice major improvements. Also set-up a specific time every few sessions to just talk about what goals your client has, how they are coming along and which goals they have completed and how they feel they did. For clients who like to work out independently, these are great methods to help keep them accountable with their workout regimen.

Trainers are always busy and can be intense, but they only want the best for their clients. If you can help one person achieve their goals, then you can help out many more. Push your clients hard, but push yourself as their trainer to improve on your methods and show you care about their overall well-being in addition to their fitness.

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