THE END OF PERSONAL TRAINING IS HERE.
I’ve never personally called myself a personal trainer – I’ve only ever been a coach..
Same thing right? Not to me, and they really shouldn’t be to you.
Personal training has long since been a saturated market. That’s not the problem though.
The problem is, the drastic rise in numbers has created a drastic fall crash in standards.
Personal training started out many years ago with great promise, so much so I would say the difference back then between personal training and coaching was subtle, but now they are at different ends of the spectrum.
IN MY HONEST OPINION, PERSONAL TRAINING HAS BECOME A CAREER PATH SOMEONE TAKES WHO ‘LIKES WORKING OUT’ AND IS ACTUALLY VERY GOOD AT TRAINING… THEMSELVES.
Being a quality coach takes more than qualifications, exercise execution, accountability, and a passion for health.
A top-level coach is a problem solver for anyone but themselves, who utilises education, experience, trial and error and sometimes failure to help clients produce results they simply would not have produced if they had tried to figure it out for themselves… or by blindly following advice on social media.
Similar to a personal trainer, a coach takes you on a journey, but a key goal for any coach is for the client to feel comfortable when you reach their destination.
Why is feeling ‘comfortable’ important? So that goals can be maintained for a lifetime, without feeling like a lifelong prison sentence.
After all, anyone can achieve a realistic goal – millions of incredible ‘before and after’ visuals and testimonials are flooded across the internet daily…
But…
How many of those stories have a long-term happy ending? I’d put an educated guess at less than 2%.
If you are one of those 2%, then you have been ‘coached’, not ‘personal trained’ my friend.
Just like successful exercise should not be rated by the calorie burn it creates – but rather the lasting adaptions it produces, successful, realistic goal achievement should not be a fleeting experience, it should be a maintainable, lasting, healthy ‘new normal’ that makes all the continual effort and changing of habits feel like success was inevitable, despite the valuable failures endured along the way.
NO SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY IS WITHOUT TEMPORARY PERIODS OF FAILURE, AND EVERY SUCCESSFUL COACH KNOWS EXPECTS THAT.
In all honestly, it was really hard to create a free online, pre-recorded coaching experience. Not because I was second-guessing my coaching skills, but because everyone who views my website and social media ‘free coaching’ page is in need of something unique to get them started and tackle the issues that are holding them back personally.
Your goals are unique.
Your problems are unique.
Your self-confidence levels are unique.
Your life experiences are unique.
But despite your uniqueness, you are still coachable, IF you embrace the adaptable challenges that are set out within my ‘free coaching’.
I hope it’s now a little clearer why I produce so much ‘free coaching’ on so many different aspects of health and fitness.
If I had my way and was able to push my experience on you having worked with 1000’s of clients over 35 years, you should begin your coaching journey with the ‘find your drive’ coaching section, THEN move on to the ‘Improve your metabolic health’ coaching section, but as you’ll see, I swapped them around because finding your drive, building your ‘why’ or discovering your passion can feel a little weird and intimidating to some, and a little too close to home for others.
MY LAST PIECE OF COACHING FOR TODAY…
If an online coach catches your attention, reach out to them.
Ask questions and be sceptical, but please for your own sake, be open to the fact that a lot of good coaches still do exist in the crazy, fast-paced online world we live in – especially if you give them time to understand what they need to do as coaches to help you, help yourself to lasting success.