Gym Bag Essentials
Stepping into a new environment can be daunting at the best of times, but coming from the back of national lockdowns and social distancing, beginners to the gym may present lacking in further in confidence than back in 2019. Help to educate your clients on the essential gym kit they need to bring with them on a daily basis. We have included a short list below of the essentials your clients will need every time they visit the gym:
Gym Kit / Towel / Water Bottle / Headphones / Padlock / Pre/Post Training Snack
The essential kit may differ from person to person. If your client is new to the gym, they will lean on their Gym Instructor or Personal Trainer and seek guidance and support.
Gym Inductions
Gym Inductions are a crucial part of a new members journey. Not only to make sure they are fully aware of the health and safety aspects and how to use the different equipment… but for you to meet and greet your new member! Put them at ease! Allow them to ask questions and gain confidence in a new environment. Our Level 2 Certificate in Gym Instructing will provide you will the skills and tools to deliver gym inductions with confidence, with a wide range of different clients.
We’ve pot together a Gym Instructor checklist of areas you should be covering within your gym induction.
- Meet & Greet
Welcome your client at reception or in the gym office. Be open with your body language, positive and motivating. Make your client feel welcome and safe in this new environment.
- Health & Safety
Cover the key health and safety aspects as part of your companies EAP. Be precise and straight to the point. This information is vitally important but don’t spend forever and a day going over minute details.
- Gym Etiquette
Educate your client on the essential gym kit they will need, specifically if they are new to the gym.
- Client Screening
Complete a PAR-Q with your client, covering all necessary medical questions and health monitoring tests, such as BP, resting HR, muscle mass % and body fat %. Discuss their goals and what they want to achieve by attending the gym. Support their targets whilst making sure they are achievable and realistic. This is your time to dive deeper into your clients physical activity history, including barriers to exercise and previous strategies they have used to overcome them.
- CV & Resistance Machines
Show your clients around the machines, emphasising how they alter the seat positions, weight, as well as program the screens on the cardiovascular machines.
- Free Weights & Functional Equipment
Show your clients around the free weights and functional equipment on the gym floor, taking your time to emphasise the difference between these and resistance machines. Stress the importance of safety when using free weights, and emphasise the use of spotting when completing overhead exercises, such as bench press or shoulder press, etc.
- Questions
It is vitally important you provide your clients with the opportunity to ask questions throughout their gym induction. As a new member, they may be lacking in confidence and want to seek further clarity on how to perform exercises, or set them up.
Role of a Personal Trainer
Being a Personal Trainer can be very rewarding as you watch your clients embark on their journey to a healthier lifestyle. You will play an important and crucial part in your clients journey as you are the person they will lean on for guidance, and most importantly support when they are struggling and demotivated. Before you take the next step and complete the Level 3 Diploma in Personal Training, it’s important to know what the role involves before you get started.
Gym Inductions
If you’re working with new members you will need to complete a gym induction and show them how to use the equipment, as well as the key health and safety aspects, such as fire exits and emergency assembly points. Inductions can be embedded into the initial consultation with your client and be used a tool to get to know them and help them feel at ease in a new environment.
Consultations
Consultations and fitness assessments are a crucial part of your clients journey. This initial assessment can help to shape their training and lifestyle choices moving forward. The fitness assessment can be as basic or complex as your client wishes, and can include postural assessments, movement analysis, flexibility assessments and cardiovascular fitness tests.
As part of the initial consultation you should record baseline health assessment results, such as height, weight, body fat % and muscle mass %. This data will allow you to shape the future training programmes and provide tailored and specific guidance to help your clients change their lifestyle. Obtaining baseline data is vital and allows a measure of progress for both the Personal Trainer and client.
Moving forward, you should then monitor your clients progress through regular progress meeting/reviews in a safe and controlled environment. This will include a discussion around the fitness programmes, monitoring the use of a fitness app, as well as recording new health/fitness based assessment data.
Designing Fitness Programmes
It is vitally important that you set goals with your clients prior to designing a fitness programme. This will ensure the programme is tailored and focused on working towards your clients overarching goals. Every client is unique in their own right and have different needs and targets, such as common health based goals, enhancing fitness for specific sports as well as strength and power training goals, plus many more.
1:1 Training
1:1 training sessions are probably the most important role as a Personal Trainer as this is were you can get stuck into the training programme. As a PT you should support your client through the session, providing motivation and encouragement to help get the most out of them during the workout.
Our Diploma in Personal Training will equip you with the essential tools to deliver a 1:1 session with confidence.
Offer Advice on Nutrition
As a Personal Trainer you can offer advice on nutrition to help aid your clients work towards achieving their goals. This is an important role as a PT, as a lot of clients that present in front of you may have limited knowledge and understanding of the different foods they should/shouldn’t be eating.
Personal Trainers should not prescribe specific meal plans or nutrition programmes, but should offer advice and guidance as to how their clients can change their lifestyle and make better food choices. Only registered dieticians can prescribe specific meal plans or nutrition programmes.
Deliver Fitness Classes
As a Personal Trainer you will want to keep upskilling and adding ‘more strings to your bow.’ Delivering fitness classes is a great way to meet new potential clients, retain current clients, as well as being another source of income.
Setting Goals? Think SMART!
It is vitally important that during the consultation period with your client you fully address their goals and aspirations. This is where your knowledge and experience will play a huge role in ensuring your client is fully aware of the small steps they must take, in order to be successful and achieve their targets. By taking a periodised approach to their training programme, you will highlight the short, medium and long-term goals within your micro, meso and macro cycles.
You, as the Personal Trainer, need to take control of the goal setting and ensure your client does not set themselves unachievable and unrealistic targets. This could result in demotivation, a decline in their self-confidence, and them ultimately falling off the fitness wagon!
Use a SMART approach when setting goals with your clients. This approach should be taken by Gym Instructors and Personal Trainers when goal setting with their clients. At 88 Fitness we do a lot of work on goal setting using a SMART approach to help you develop the confidence and understanding of how to apply this approach in a variety of situations, with a wide range of clients.
S: Specificity
Are the goals specific to what your client is working towards, e.g. are they working towards a competition or event. Use health monitoring or fitness testing data to allow you to measure your clients progress in a more detailed manner. This will not only highlight your attention to detail and professionalism, but also allow you to showcase your clients progression using visual representation.
M: Measurable
Determine a safe and effective way of measuring your clients progress. Consider what data this provide and how this will determine whether alterations are made to the current training programme. Quantifying goals is a great way to measure whether an individual is making progress, e.g. rather than designing a goal around increasing muscle mass, why not take a muscle mass % reading from your client at the start of the programme, and remeasure at your next review meeting to make sure the programme you have designed is being effectively implemented.
A: Achievable
Are the goals achievable within the given time frame? They should be challenging but not unachievable as this could have a negative impact on your clients motivation. On the other hand, you don’t want your client easily achieving their goals with minimal effort being put in.
R: Realistic
It is hugely important that the goals you set with your client are not unrealistic, e.g. looking for them to decrease their body fat % by 10% in 2 weeks. If they are unrealistic, and your client does not meet them, this will have a negative impact on you as a Personal Trainer, but also on their motivation. Consider a realistic goal, realistic time frame and design a realistic training programme that you know your client will adhere to throughout the duration of working with them.
T: Time Bound
Goals need to achievable, yet challenging, and set within a realistic time frame. This is of huge importance to ensure your clients have enough time to experience the necessary training adaptations required to achieve their goals, as well as time to adapt to the programme in general. Book in regular reviews with your client to monitor their progress and make the necessary tweaks to keep them on track.
