Posted on October 26, 2023 by Jenny Cromack

When we take on new personal training clients, I tend to find they often fall into one of two categories:

  1. Complete beginner and need guidance with what they are doing from an exercise point of view. Making sure they are working at the right intensities, using the correct technique, etc. Motivation levels for this client may vary – they may be highly motivated to achieve their goals, or need some extra motivation and support from their PT.
  2. Have exercised before, have a good base of nutritional knowledge. These clients often know what they should be doing, but sometimes struggle with the motivation to do it.

Whatever someone’s exercise experience, nutritional knowledge motivation levels will vary from person to person. So, as personal trainers, how do we go about keeping our clients on track?

Accountability – Accountability with PT clients comes in many forms:

  1. Diarised appointments – you’re less likely to miss an appointment in your diary than one which isn’t scheduled. So having scheduled appointments with your PT will ensure you get those workouts in. Outside of your PT sessions treat your own workouts the same, schedule them into your diary and make them a priority (just like you would a work meeting)
  2. Nutrition – We tend to keep our clients on track with their food by using food tracking apps, or by simply getting our clients to send us pictures of their food. For me, I’m not overly worried about tracking calories I’m more interested in the types of foods my clients are eating. Is their diet balanced? Does it support a healthy, active lifestyle? Are they drinking enough water?
  3. Workouts – Again we tend to track our client’s workouts so we can make sure they are staying on track to achieve their goals outside of their PT sessions. However, one thing to note here is that what we ‘prescribe’ regarding number of sessions will always be realistic for that individual. We’re not going to ask you to do 5 workouts a week if it’s not feasible, you simply won’t stick to it!

Track Progress

At motive8 we track our clients progress in a couple of ways:

  1. Progress in sessions – each session we perform with a client we track, making note of every exercise performed, every rep completed and the load (weights) used. Without this information we can’t progress our clients in the right ways to achieve their goals. As a bonus, it’s also very motivating during a PT session, to hear that you’ve seen an improvement in what you have lifted!
  2. Progress towards long term goal – this will vary from person to person and their goals. But whatever your goals there should be a way of assessing that you are on track to achieve your goals. This might be doing some simple measurements with a measuring tape, recording a 5k run, looking at your 1 Rep Max, or looking at the ease at which you perform day to day activities. Whatever your goal it’s important to take stock and make sure you are on track to achieving your goals. One important thing to note is that goals can change too, therefore continual discussions with your PT about your goals and your satisfaction with your progress are key.

Continually Challenging You (In a Realistic Way!)

When you first start working with a personal trainer you will have one, two, maybe more goals you would like to achieve. Your PT will discuss how to achieve these in a realistic way. If your goal is a long term goal, then it’s important to set smaller shorter term goals to keep you motivated along the way. What happens when you’ve achieved your goal? Your personal trainer will help you set new goals to strive towards. These goals might be something you never dreamed possible, such as squatting your body weight, doing a pull up, etc but with the guidance of a personal trainer you find yourself achieving these! Whether it’s during a session or working towards a goal, your PT will know how to challenge you just enough so that you feel a sense of accomplishment!

Motivation & Support

Motivation comes in a couple of forms. Motivation in your session to push you to do that other rep you never knew you had in you! Do another round of that circuit you didn’t think you had the energy for! One of the main thing we do to keep our personal training clients on track is to motivate them outside of their sessions. This might be a well timed message to see how things are going and keep the week on the positive trajectory!

Improving Self Belief & Self Worth

Working with a personal trainer helps to reinforce your own self-belief that you can achieve your goals. Never believed you could run a 5k? 10k? Half marathon? Tough Mudder? Lose 2 stone? Complete a triathlon? Simply walk up and down the stairs without getting out of breath? Well working with a personal trainer will change this! When we start our fitness journey, people often have self-doubt about what they can achieve, but any good PT worth their salt, will educate you about the best, and healthiest, way to achieve your goals. Overtime this education starts to improve your confidence in making the right decisions to achieve your goals. With this improved level of confidence, comes an increase in self-belief and self-esteem often then having a positive knock-on effect not only to achieving your goals, but also in other areas of your life.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how we can help you achieve your goals then get in touch at [email protected], we’re always happy to help!