Lifestyle Fitness Training

Formula For Success As A Freelance Personal Trainer

In order to be successful as a self-employed or freelance personal trainer, you will require a wide number of skills.  Some of these will come from your training, while others will be abilities that you have naturally or have come by during your past life and work experience.

 

 

It goes without saying that you must have a very in depth knowledge of health and fitness and more specifically exercise techniques, and the effects of those exercise techniques on a wide variety of people.  However, in my experience this alone is not enough to cut it in this highly competitive field.  I believe that in addition to these basic skills and qualifications a successful freelance personal trainer must:

 

 

Image and marketing are the subject of the next section.  In the meantime, lets spend some time looking at the other points in more detail.

 

People Skills

Good people skills are essentialIt is absolutely critical that a personal trainer, freelance or otherwise, is good with people.   Many of the clients a personal trainer will deal with will have low self esteem, low self body image, confidence issues, medical concerns and so on. A personal trainer, must therefore be willing to listen, empathise and show understanding, while at the same time, give the client hope, self-belief and a positive outlook through effective motivational skills.  Furtheremore, a personal trainer must always be aware of preserving client confidentiality.

 

Be aware that personal trainers, rather like hairdressers and beauty therapists, often become agony aunts for their clients.  Don't worry about trying to help them with their problems too much.  That isn't your role.  Just be prepared to listen while working at getting them fit and meeting their goals. 

 

For those clients who don't have so much to say, it is a good idea to brush up on your conversational skills.  Even when you are training someone, an hour can seem a very long time if neither party has much to say.  Ask them about their lifestyle, diet, habits and hobbies and constantly relate it back to how these can be modified to help them reach their goals.

 

Furthermore, as the relationship between personal trainer and client develops, it is not uncommon for them to become friends, at least on a surface level.  This is actually a very good thing as it makes it more difficult for the client to say no when it comes to rebooking the service.  However, it is very important to know where to draw the line.  When someone has invited you into their home, has allowed you to see them at their best and their worst, has shared a joke with you, personal thoughts, concerns and information, it is all too easy to become overly familiar and cross the line from being professional to being casual.  This can create all manner of problems, and will ultimatley be uncomfortable for you and the client, likely resulting in the loss of their custom.

 

Be friendly, be understanding, be empathic, be charming...you can even be a little flirty...but always always remain professional!

 

 

Fitness Level

As a minimum, a personal trainer needs to be fitter than his fittest prospective client.

 

A good personal trainer will often train alongside their clients.  If you are not as fit as they are then they will notice pretty quickly and will immediately lose respect for you and anything you say. Furthermore, it is important that you understand what they are going through in their training so that you can relate to them and they to you.  You may not have the same fitness goals as they do, but you should at least know what it is like to consistently push the boundaries of your fitness.

 

Look fit, feel fit, be fit!There is also an element of image which we will cover in more detail in the next section.  However, suffice to say, that should you turn up to your client's house with a beer belly, a double chin and an oxygen tank as you wheeze your way up their front steps, they are not going to take you seriously.

 

So what does it mean to be fit or fitter than your fittest client.  Well it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be able to lift heavier weights, or run faster, or jump higher.  After all, you may be training a sports specific client who will clearly excel in his given sport.  Furthermore,  female personal trainers will often struggle to lift some of the weights that their male clients can lift.  However, it is still possible to have a better all round fitness.  You should be able to run further (unless you are training a marathon runner, but then again most personal trainers I know have run at least one marathon), cycle further, lift weights for longer, push yourself harder.  Do you see the pattern?  Further... longer... harder.  Endurance is the key.

 

I would recommend training with weights 3 times per week, doing whole body circuits with a rep range of 12-15.  In addition do cardio work every day, aiming to do something different each day, for example, Monday - Run, Tuesday - Cycle, Wednesday - Combat Class, Thursday - Swim, Friday - Hill Cycling, Saturday - Aerobics, Sunday - Long Walk.  In addition, make your life as active as possible with active daily living and eat right!

 

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Offer A Well Rounded Package

These days it is no longer enough to offer yourself up as a personal trainer who will help clients to exercise.  With the high level of competition in the industry you must be able to offer a more rounded package to include all aspects of looking after your clients health and fitness goals, and ideally also have some kind of edge to your services.  Furthermore, you will need to back up these additional service elements with qualifications and working knowledge.

 

As a minimum I would suggest adding the following qualifications and services to your portfolio, which are now common amongst personal trainers:

 

 

In addition you may also wish to consider adding a service which gives you an edge over your competition.  For example:

 

 

 

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