What is the right way to train your personal training clients?

by Jonno Hook | Monday, February 20, 2012

I was recently chatting to a fellow outdoor trainer at the end of a session and something odd struck me. It was a beautiful sunny morning (one of very few this summer in Sydney!) and there were 5 other groups still training and having a great time while we were packing up our sessions. My fellow trainer started talking about all of the other groups and the style of training used by each trainer. He was incredibly critical and dismissive of each groups exercise choice, technique, rep range, equipment choice and methodology. Apparently, everything these trainers were doing was wrong! 

This seemed completely ludicrous to me because from what I could see, all of the clients were enjoying themselves, they all looked fit and strong and were all safely performing a whole range easily recognisable exercises. I would have automatically dismissed his rant as the ravings of a madman if it wasn’t such a common theme, unfortunately I‘ve heard numerous trainers and presenters offer similar comments and it got me thinking….

How do you decide whether a trainer is doing a good job??

Breaking it down, I feel that a trainer has a responsibility to,

1. Keep their client safe and un-injured

2. Help them to enjoy a better life physically than they would otherwise

3. Help them best achieve their health and fitness goals

4. Make the sessions as enjoyable and stimulating within the confines of points 1-3

How you go about doing this comes down to your own personal training method. This should be an amalgamation of your own experiences with your clients, your education as a trainer and the experiences and teaching of a whole host of other disciplines. If you are able to tick all 4 boxes with only bodyweight exercises and sprint drill, then no other trainer should criticize you for it!

Different clients will always enjoy different things. (I have a client that actually enjoys doing burpees!) By tying yourself to a single method of training, you may be robbing your clients of the sessions they deserve. Keep your mind open and accept that as long as a trainer meets their responsibilities to their clients they are doing their job and doing it well. The world needs different trainers and there is no single “right” way. 

As the old saying goes, "there are many ways to skin a cat". Just because you feel your current methodology and thinking is right, does not necessarily make all other methods wrong!

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