What’s your training personality? If you’re a certified personal trainer (CPT) or work with a team of CPTs you may recognize how experience, credentials, and exercise beliefs can all influence training styles. In the September/October 2019 issue of ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal® Patrick Freeman describes the following six different training styles.

Do you recognize any of these styles in your or your team’s sessions lately?

 

Working with clients challenges you to constantly be thinking outside the box. For instance, what happens when a client gets injured? What about a client who stops progressing? You’ve always got to be ready to change up your programming with the clients’ goals and needs in mind. Additionally, working with many clients may also leave you short of time to program their workouts. In such instances, do you find yourself falling into another one of the six training styles listed.

It’s important to be sensitive to how you or your team is perceived by clients, club members, staff, and management. Negative perceptions may cost your club additional members, training revenue, or create negative word of mouth marketing. Keep your training style in an ideal state by focusing on these four key areas when working with clients.

1. Client Goals: What’s your approach to creating a framework that fits your clients?
2. Safety: How often do you take a safety inventory of your sessions?
3. Training IQ: Are you training at or above your level?
4. Client Retention/Satisfaction: Are you building trusting trainer-client relationships?

Learn more about your training personality and how to drive a coaching/consultative mindset with your team by reading Patrick Freeman’s Business Edge column “Your Training Personality — What’s Behind the Clipboard?" in the September/October 2019 issue of ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal®.

Become an Alliance Member or Student Member to access the full ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal® library 

Article based on: Freeman, P. Your training personality — what’s behind the clipboard? ACSMs Health Fit J. 2019; 23 (5):55-6

Author:

Vanessa M. Kercher, Ph.D., SSC, M.Ed., BESS, is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Kinesiology Department for the School of Public Health at Indiana University. Dr. Kercher's research passion focuses on helping individuals optimize their physical activity experiences to promote sustainable, positive health behaviors. She serves as the digital editor of ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal®.

---

Read more Fit Features by Dr. Vanessa

Burnout: Thriving or Just Surviving?


4 Lessons from Job Hunting