How to be an amazing personal trainer client

In my last post, I gave 5 reasons why your current personal trainer might not be the one to help you achieve your health and fitness goals. Is it time to break up with your Personal Trainer?
This time I want to talk about why it might not actually be your trainer that’s keeping you from seeing results.
It might actually be you!

As a personal trainer, I can tell you that over the years I’ve worked with a ton of amazing people. I’ve also worked with quite a few clients who were very challenging to train. Below is a pretty common list of trainer pet peeves.
Let’s make sure you aren’t guilty of these things!

You always show up late!

We are all going to be late from time to time but some clients are always late. If you consistently show up 5-15 minutes late for your sessions then in my opinion, it’s intentional. Want to get the most out of your trainer? Show up early! There is never any harm in showing up early to a session. You can always spend a little more time warming up. Speaking of warming up…

You have to be asked to warm-up every time

Trust me when I say this is a major pet peeve for trainers. I have clients who I’ve trained for years and for some reason they always come up to me before the session and ask me if they should warm-up.  I’m pretty sure they are hoping every once and a while I’ll give them a free pass or something.

Pro tip: Never skip your warm up my friends…never!

You cancel all the time

This one is really frustrating. Things come up for everyone but there are specific clients who cancel all the time. Even if the trainer still charges you for the session they learn pretty quick you don’t actually care. If you don’t care what are the odds your trainer is going to continue to care? Also if you are booked in a prime time and you cancel often you can be sure you’ll lose that time to someone who wants to be there!

You complain the whole time

Listening to people complain all day is draining no matter what your profession. We don’t find your complaining, eye rolls, sighing and negotiating for easier exercises cute or funny. You’re not paying us to listen to you complain. You are paying us to push you because you aren’t good at it yourself. Stop the COMPLAINING!!

Trainers prefer training with people that enjoy their workouts. If you hate being at the gym trust me when I say your trainer is not only hating their time with you but they will more than likely come up with a creative way to dump you as a client. You want honesty there it is!

Pro tip: Be awesome to be around and you’ll get the royal treatment from your trainer.

You never count your own reps or put your weights away

While your trainer should be tracking your workout details they are not your glorified rep counter. You should also know how much weight you are lifting and be counting your own reps. They are also not your maid. You should be the one who gets your own weights, puts them away when done and wipes down your own sweaty equipment. The set-up and takedown of weights is all part of the workout and you are there to workout my friend…not your trainer.

You don’t do any of the homework we give you

Trainers are often only seeing their clients once to twice a week. If you are after big results you’ll need to be doing some extra work on your own. Even if the sessions you have with your trainer are amazing you will not see results training once to twice a week and “sort of” eating healthy! Your trainer can show you how to eat and exercise when you are not with them but ultimately it’s up to you to follow the advice and reap the results.

The results you see from working with a great personal trainer are completely based on your attitude during the experience. If you show up late all the time, complain about your day, complain about the exercises and just hate every minute of your diet and workouts you will never see results! It doesn’t matter who your trainer is!

Be an awesome client with a great attitude and your personal trainer will go out of their way to give you the best experience they can. You’ll also learn more and get in better shape!

Jade McClure – Vancouver Personal Trainer & Nutrition Coach

About

Jade is a Vancouver Personal Trainer and Nutrition Coach with over a decade of helping people get fit and healthy.

4 Comments

  1. Pingback: Is it time to break up with your personal trainer? | The Jadeway

  2. Danielle Ann /Reply

    As a personal trainer who also does in-home coaching I couldn’t agree more with this post. One of the hardest things I do is motivating people to take action for themselves!

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