Personal training is about improving people. Helping them reach their fitness and lifestyle goals and coaching them to adopt effective exercise principles that will stick for the long-haul.
It makes sense that we’re all most likely to do business and build effective relationships with people we have a connection with. In a nutshell like attract like and your clients will be drawn to a personal trainer they find genuinely likeable and a certain natural kinship to.
Check out our 10 traits below.
If these resonate with you training to be a personal trainer sounds like the perfect career choice!
1 – They are curious
Great personal trainers really understand their clients and this comes from a natural curiosity about people.
What makes them tick? What gets in the way of their goals? Are they a type A or B personality type? How do they handle stress? How do they live their daily lives?
These are just a few of the many aspects of their clients our personal trainer graduates will be seeking to find out, to really understand how their client ticks.
2 – They seek agreement
Being able to find common ground is massively important to build client trust and open their mind set to trying new things. Then when it’s time to subtlety suggest an alternative approach or difference of opinion your client is all ears.
Top personal trainers will never make a big display about disagreeing. They will always be seeking agreement and beneath all this, they are well and truly the boss!
3 – They inspire
Personal training is about enabling your client to make positive change.
The best trainers are natural inspirers of others who are able to gain maximum effort and commitment to the task in hand.
They don’t tell their clients what to do but instil a desire, confidence and determination that enables them to stick with their personal training course and achieve results.
4 – They remember names and details
If the best personal trainers are great at building effective relationships that deliver results, then it figures that they need to be great at remembering those all important details that build trust, rapport and make us feel that little bit more special about ourselves.
After all when did you last have a great relationship with someone who couldn’t even get a simple thing like your name right?
5 – They laugh at the world
That famous line written by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, ‘laugh and the world laughs with you’ resonates with truly great personal trainers.
You clients will bring a whole host of different emotions and life experiences with them into their training sessions. They’ll share ups and downs and its part of the personal trainer’s job to make them feel better. But it doesn’t stop there, we all feel more at ease with people we can have a bit of a giggle with over something and putting clients at ease is one of the key ways to keep their commitment and enable them to achieve their results.
6 – They never spill the beans
Integrity is everything.
If you like a good old gossip find a coping strategy early on so that you never spill the beans and ensure client confidentiality is a given.
7 – They use two ears to listen and one mouth for talking
To get the best from their clients great personal trainers listen far more than they talk.
But did you know there’s listening and then there’s listening?
Most people listen purely to respond. That is they’re waiting for the pause where they can say their bit…but not top personal trainers.
They listen to really understand their client and pick up on the details of what’s being said.
8 – They happily call a spade a spade
There comes a point where to move forward and get awesome results some PT clients need to hear and acknowledge a few home truths. There’s little point for example, following a robust exercise plan and then ruining it all by eating junk food at every meal.
Sometimes to move forward and get results, things just need to be said…nicely of course!
9 – They genuinely love what they do
Whilst it’s relatively easy to hide behind a desk and go through the motions you can suss out a fab personal trainer from an average one a mile off!
The best of the best personal trainers are out to earn a living from doing something they’re truly passionate about that delivers results to others.
10 – They make others feel at ease
Clients will get sweaty, complete loads of different exercises in different positions, find things tough and have weaknesses that get in the way of what they want to achieve.
Being able to naturally put people at ease and ensure they feel comfortable working with you is an essential part of the mix.
The Academy of Fitness Professionals provide the gold standard in accredited personal training courses. With state of the art training fully endorsed by REPs, Skills Active and the NCFE and specialist knowledge that features in the UK health and fitness media including the Mirror, BBC2 and Women’s Running, this really is the ultimate learning destination for those serious about a long term career as a Personal Trainer.
