Thank You!

This is my final blog post...I would first like to thank my mentor Joe for all that he has done for me. I would also like to thank all of his clients for letting me be with them while they train.

My internship has been a great experience! I've learned priceless information that you can't learn on the Internet; it's all about being in the environment and experiencing these things firsthand. This internship program has also helped me determine that personal training will be some part of my life whether it be part time or full time. Either way I will be involved with it, and now I have the tools to succeed!

Shadow Part 5

I'M INTO FITNESS, AS IN FITTING THIS PIZZA IN MY MOUTH

For my last shadow session, Joe wanted to make sure I saw what a session was like for a client that was just into general fitness. In his opinion after having seeing this, I would've been exposed to all the major types of clients you can run into.

This client was a married woman in her early thirties, professional with no children. She is in generally good shape with no major physical issues and came to him with a generally active lifestyle and background of having worked with personal trainer before.

She found Joe through Facebook posts on a mutual friend's page and became interested in his training through his work with the friend. She decided to try him out and told him that she wanted to be exposed to different training regiments and approaches as she was becoming bored with her training.

In this session, he took her through a combination of body weight and weighted exercises that emphasized progressive and advanced versions of many standard exercises. Because she had solid foundation in basic training, he can introduce her to many variations that the majority of his clients don't have the ability to do as they are still learning the fundamentals.

This was another fun session and it exposed me to a lot of exercises that I haven't done because as Joe says, I'm still in Training 101 class.

Social Media and Influencers

GOOGLE ME

As we begin to wrap up the internship, Joe wanted to make sure to cover a couple of very important topics that deserve special attention.

We covered social media in a brief way early in his business coaching as a general part of marketing overall but with the way that social media dominates our lives today, he wanted to take time to single it out.

Joe personally believes that in this industry no matter how big social media gets, nothing will beat word of mouth. But social media has definitely taken second place and understanding its importance and how to use it is critical to success in every business.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, your website and all the rest provide you the best way to build a brand to not only get business but interact with it on a consistent basis. There are people called influencers who literally run their entire business online and have become internet celebrities who don't work with anyone in person and are literally rich.

In his experience, the most important thing is to determine how you want to present yourself and what your goals are and be consistent in your communication through your chosen outlets.

Below is an outline Joe used to teach me about Social Media that I want to share.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Strategy/Approach

-Goals/objectives (measurable, specific, attainable, relevant, deadline)

-Conduct focus groups (Facebook)

-Research other social media platforms in your industry

-Create a content plan/schedule and execute

-Evaluate and improve

-Consistent

-Scarcity (minimalistic) vs surplus (excessive)

-Exclusivity vs inclusivity

-Personality and humor

Sites

-Facebook

·      Business page

-YouTube

·      Channel

-Instagram

·      Business page

-Snapchat

Content

-Original (video and print)

·      Marketing/services

·      Educational/tutorial

·      Behind the scenes

·      Quotes, memes etc…

·      Business updates

·      Client spotlights/profiles

·      Major holidays

·      Contests/challenges/giveaways 

·      Employment/intern opportunities

·      Charity

·      Polls/surveys/lists

·      Hashtags

·      Live stream

·      Interviews

·      Documentaries

·      Podcasts

·      Info-graphics

·      Webinars

·      Product/service reviews

-Third party

-Content from industry related platforms

-User generated (clients engaged in services or using products, testimonials)

WEBSITE

-Exclusive content

-Merchandise

-Online services

Shadow Part 4

AGE AIN'T NOTHING BUT A NUMBER 

One thing that I'm really learning in these sessions is that there are a lot of different client types you can possibly end up training if you prepare yourself to be able to handle many situations.  Joe has been in the business over 10 years and has made it a point to learn how to service all different clients with different needs. Even though his passion is with athletes from the business side of things, he believes if you want to stay in business, you have to be able to do a variety of things well, when another side of your business is slow.

I watched Joe work with an senior client today, who has very serious issues. She is in her late 60s and has had spinal fusion surgery in her neck. She also has intestinal problems and is struggling with arthritis, particularly in her hands. This is tough because she is an artist and makes her money with her hands.  She runs her own business and is very active. She works long hours and spends a lot of time on her feet. She is on several medications to help with her issues but they also have side effects which can cause other problems.

Joe is very cautious in the exercises he does with her.  There are many exercises that they just can't do  because of limitation or danger. He says she is his most challenging client currently in a good way and he has to put a lot of thought into how to train her properly. Each session is literally determined by how she is feeling that day and many times he has to completely adjust her training on the spot.

Sports may be his first love but he says he his most proud and rewarded by the work he does with her.   He says she inspires him and he is grateful to play a part in keeping her in the best shape she can be in to continue with her work.

I really admire her too, after meeting her and watching her work through her sessions I hope I can be as dedicated and active in my older years as her.

Nutrition

LIVE TO EAT, OR EAT TO LIVE

This week we took a step back from shadowing to talk about nutrition. Joe says of all the different services he provides, nutrition coaching is hands down the most important one. Nothing will decide more whether you reach any physical goal as much as whether you are eating a healthy diet or an unhealthy diet.

When he was first starting out he says he didn't know the importance of nutrition as far as a client achieving their goals. He remembers working with a lot of weight loss clients and telling them all they have to do is show up and work really hard and they would lose weight. He learned very quickly that training alone wouldn't do much for weight loss.

He credits an older trainer with teaching him that he needed to learn a whole lot more about nutrition and that you should always be honest with clients and tell them that what they eat will play the biggest part in whether they reach their goals or not.

Below I share a list of basic nutrition tips that he shares with all of his clients no matter what their individual needs are.

Trainer Joe's Nutrition 101:

1. Drink water with every meal and snack
2. Reduce the consumption of sugar in all forms almost to the point of elimination
3. Eat protein at every meal
4. Eat healthy fat at every meal 
5. Eat fiber at every meal
6. 80/20 RULE: 80% OF YOUR MEALS WHAT YOU NEED, 20% WHAT YOU WANT
7. Reduce portions or even better stop eating when you're full

 

Shadowing Part 3

LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERYDAY

Although Joe says he will be covering a few more topics as far as the business coaching is concerned, we are pretty much focused on shadowing at this point. This week I watched as he worked with one his high school athletes from his sports performance program.

Joe was a scholarship football player and has a serious passion for sports. He tells me that working with athletes is what he wants to be doing with the majority of his time. Although he says he will always make time to work with people from all different backgrounds and needs, he believes he can do something really special working with athletes.

The athlete is a football player and will be entering his freshman year of high school next year. He is a safety and cornerback. He is injury free so far, and his dad wants Joe to mainly work on improving his speed. He made it a very big point to make sure I understood that even though they were working on a lot of mobility, jumping, sprinting, and agility, the absolute best way to improve an athlete's speed is to improve his strength.

In this situation, the athlete is doing most of his weight training at a gym that his dad works at with one of their coaches, so Joe is doing what he calls the "fine tuning". Still he does work in some weight training with him. He focuses on the trap bar dead lift with all athletes as it is easy to teach, safe, and more than any other exercises, directly improves speed.

His approach to sports performance training is to get the maximum results, doing the minimum amount of work, because it decreases the chance of getting hurt.

Even though I don't see myself working with athletes because I'm more interested in training body builders, it was a very fun and interesting session to watch. I could tell how much he loves this type of training more than any other.

Shadowing Part 2

BEFORE YOU CAN LEAD, YOU MUST FOLLOW

This week I shadowed Joe during another client session. He is trying to expose me to different types of clients with different profiles, goals, and challenges. The session was completely opposite of my first experience. 

Joe was training a male client in his mid-forties whose primary goal is to add muscle and stay generally fit for his recreational basketball passion. He is a married professional with no children who trains 2x week. He is in generally good shape and health but does struggle with some minor lower back issues that mostly express themselves through stiffness. Joe is careful to not overdue lower back focused exercises, like dead lift and bent over rows.

Currently they are in a mass building phase. Joe has him on a standard mass program, mid to high reps, moderate to light weight, and a lot of variety in exercises. The only difference in this clients program is that traditional strength work is mixed in periodically because he wishes not lose the progress he has made in his strength gains.

I personally have a passion for body building so shadowing this session was very interesting for me because it gave me a first hand look into a mass building session.   

Education

"EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS ALREADY INSIDE YOU" BILL BOWERMAN

To complete the formal part of our internship, in Joe's words, he saved the best for last. On the surface he said he was informing me of the basic education requirements and paths that I could take to equip myself to meet the minimum requirements of being a personal trainer.

Essentially, I can go to college and pursue a degree in exercise science with several different possible concentrations. Or I can go the certification route of which below are listed the 7 most common and respected nationally accredited certifications. In addition, I could do a combination of both college and certifications.

Digging deeper, Joe said the real secret to success in all things is a daily, life long commitment to education. Further he said the word education comes from the latin word educere, which means to draw out what is inside. He told me that everything I truly need is inside of me already, and if I am humble and educate myself everyday, I will uncover within me the answers to all I seek to know.

Education:

Undegraduate (Associate or Bachelor's)/Master’s Degree

Exercise Science

-physical education

-kinesiology

-exercise physiology

Certifications:

ACE

NASM

ISSA

ACSM

NSCA (C.S.C.S.)

NFPT

AFPA

Shadowing

CRAWL BEFORE YOU WALK, WALK BEFORE YOU RUN


After covering a lot of interesting and important information about the basics of personal training, Joe feels I'm ready to begin shadowing him during his sessions with clients.

This was my first time ever observing a personal training session. The client was a woman in her mid-thirties and her main goal is to lose weight. She is a single professional with no children. She trains three times per week. She is working her way through an ankle injury, so Joe is careful to check in with her about how it feels but also to include exercises like calf raises and step ups that help strengthen the ankle and improve its mobility.

This session's focus was on total body circuit training, which Joe says is the best approach the majority of time with weight loss clients. I noticed this client was very talkative and Joe used a lot of silent cues to keep the client working, like walking toward the next station and picking up the weight or equipment that would be used next. The client got the message to get to work without him having to actually say it to them.

As far as a first session goes, it was pretty basic, and I felt like it reinforced a lot of the basic info Joe shared with me about training programs and how to run a session. I'm looking forward to more of these experiences!

I was also left alone with a bootcamp class one day. This was scary and intimidating at first, but I ended up communicating with the clients and began to time them and give them spots as needed. This experience really made me feel like trainer!

Business Administration

STRICTLY BUSINESS

Joe talked about the business administration or management end of things. Joe describes this as "the least fun part of the work" but very important. You can't be a successful trainer or business if you don't do handle the matters below.  

Joe breaks things down into five major areas to help him organize his business and uses what applies specifically to him.

Finance/Accounting

Income

Expenses

Operation

Marketing

Facility management

Transportation

Information Management

Schedule

Records (business/financial/client/employee)

Communication (internal/external)

Human Resources/Personnel

Recruitment/Hiring/Firing

Employee training/development

Company policy

Employee review/counseling/discipline

Professional networking

Compliance

Payroll/benefits

Research/surveys

Legal/Compliance

Federal, state, and local laws required for business

Exercise Order & Selection

WITHOUT ORDER THERE IS CHAOS

In recent weeks Joe has been going over all the different aspects of actual training. This week we wrapped up training with a focus on how to choose exercises and how to order them properly during a training session.

Below are seven principles Joe uses to decide what exercises he uses and when he uses them:

1. Larger muscle groups before smaller muscle groups
2. Compound/Multi-joint exercises before Isolation/Single-joint exercises
3. Free/body weight exercises before machines
4. Weaknesses before strengths
5. Underdeveloped before developed
6. Corrective before general
7. Plyometric/Power before strength; strength before endurance

Training Philosophy

"HE THAT IS GREATEST AMONG YOU SHALL BE YOUR SERVANT" JESUS

Beyond understanding the different training approaches that relate to specific goals, Joe stresses that you need to have philosophy or set of principles that help guide your approach in the bigger sense of what it means to be a trainer.

The following are Joe's Ten Commandments of being an effective personal trainer:

1. Professional/Role Model (punctual, communicative, healthy, well-kept)
2. Personable (you need to be likable, engaging, good listener, sense of humor)
3. Flexible (adapt to changing schedule and client circumstances)
4. Education/Experience (learn through experimentation, mentors and study)
5. Empowerment (assign homework, encourage clients to do their part)
6. Attentive (your focus should be on your clients safety and effort)
7. Custom (training should be customized to the goals/needs of your clients)
8. Corrective (programs should seek to correct structural imbalances/limitations)
9. Progressive (programs should follow a safe, effective progression)
10. Assessment/Evolution (All of the above should result in evaluation and growth)

Programming

FAIL TO PLAN, THEN PLAN TO FAIL

Programming is where the best of the best set themselves apart. Joe says you would be surprised how many trainers have a one size fits all approach to training clients. Different goals require different types of training. If  you want to have long term success, educate yourself on different training approaches based on goals and customize accordingly.

Here are Joe's 4 most commonly requested goals from clients and the basic approaches to take for each one:

Weight Loss

• Total body (compound lifts: squat/deadlift/bench press, isometric)
• Circuit training
• Light to moderate weight
• Moderate to high repetitions
• 30s or less rest

Fitness

• Total body (compound lifts: squat/deadlift/bench press, isometric, plyometric)
• Various training protocols
• Light to heavy weight
• Low to high repetitions
• Less than 30s to 5 min rest

Strength

• Total Body (compound lifts: squat/deadlift/bench press)
• Heavy weight
• Low repetitions
• 3-5 min rest

Body Building/Physique (compound lifts: squat/deadlift/bench press, isolation)

• Body part
• Light to moderate weight
• Moderate to high repetitions
• 45-90s rest

Training Consultations

GETTING TO KNOW YOU...

Now that we have explored our purpose with clients, how to get them, and how to set prices that will hopefully play a big role in keeping them, we can finally begin to discuss the actual process of training clients.

Before you do any training, you have to get to know your client, what they want, what their limitations are, etc...

Joe describes this as the evaluation/consultation and below are the areas he feels you need to cover in order to do your best:

Evaluation/Consultation

• Goals
• Motivation
• Current nutrition/exercise profile
• Injury, physical/medical limitations
• Marital/Family status
• Financial/Employment status
• Availability

Disclaimer

Be honest from the very beginning with your clients about the work they need to on their own as it pertains to their goals (you will avoid being a scapegoat when clients are not progressing).

Pricing

THE COST OF BEING THE BOSS

We spent this week discussing pricing. Pricing is a very important part of a successful business. Joe explained how you can lose customers right from the start if you don't understand how to set prices correctly.

Here are a few key things to think about when it comes to pricing your service or product:

• Price is determined by market (high income=high prices / moderate income=moderate prices)
• Market is the income, habits, wants and needs of consumers in a specific area
• Offsite training is more expensive than onsite training
• Independent trainers generally make 70-80% of training price after expenses
• Commercial trainers generally make 20-30% of training price set by gym and doesn’t account for taxes being deducted

Client Acquisition & Marketing

HOW TO BUILD YOUR CLIENT BASE

This week the focus was on how to acquire clients through different types of marketing. Below are the main ways that Joe uses and recommends:

Immediate circle (family, friends, members)

• Need to be personable, professional, pro-active
• In a commercial gym floor hours, cold calling, management referrals

Social Media

• Set up a professional branded page for your personal training persona
• Post consistently
• Utilized paid advertising
• Engage with and respond to your friends/followers

Print Media

• Business cards
• Flyers/Handbills
• Posters

Merchandise

• T-Shirts, hats, hoodies etc…

Complimentary Session/Services and Promotions

• 1-3 free sessions depending on circumstances (you have to give to receive)
• Annual, bi-annual, or quarterly promotions are necessary to grow a successful business

Word of Mouth

• Once you have established a good reputation, the recommendations/referrals from your existing clients will always be the primary way you acquire new business

Purpose of Training

PURPOSE

This week I learned what the purpose of personal training really is. In Joe's professional opinion, it means to help people achieve their personal physical goals.

Joe believes this is the most important thing to learn because many trainers focus on what they want or think is best for the clients. However, it has been his experience and observation that trainers who do the best in the business in terms of retaining clients and achieving goals and financial success, are the ones who understand what the client truly wants and help them to achieve it.

It doesn't mean that a trainer shouldn't utilize their expertise to help guide clients in the right direction or help them gain a better perspective of health and physical fitness, but ultimately it is not our place to decide for someone what they want for themselves.

NEW YEAR, NEW YOU!

NEW YEAR, NEW YOU

As we head into the new year, Joe wanted to discuss the increase in business due to New Years Day resolutions. With the new year comes a natural increase in return and new clients, but it is important to understand that many of these clients will not remain consistent in their training beyond a few months. Therefore, it is important to make sure you maximize earnings from your clients.

Another reality is that people will make resolutions but become frustrated when they do not happen fast enough, which plays a big part in the reason they stop training. However, goals are a good thing to have and if you can help your clients change their resolutions to something more realistic, it can increase the amount of clients who remain consistent.

The SMART goals model is a good way to help clients set more achievable goals.

SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achiveable
• Realistic
• Timely

Using this as a guideline to set goals is a good way to ensure you create goals that you can actually reach.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog! Every week I will be posting info, tips, and tricks that I learn from Joe during my internship.

This week as we head into Christmas, Joe shared with me information about training during the holidays. First, overall business slows down during this time period and it's important to save money in preparation. Next, it is a very good time of year to offer promotions and discounts to stir up more business as the new year approaches. Finally, Joe shared with me a list of holiday health tips that he shares with his adult clients.

• Train before holiday parties or dinners.
• Reduce meals or fast until the big event of the day (save your calories).
• Drink plenty of water and eat protein and vegetables before starches and desserts. 

This is just a sample of what this blog has to offer so stick around for more!