Column News Personal Training

Rate Your Personal Training

July 20, 2011

How would you describe the personal training experience at your club? More importantly, how would your members describe your personal training?

A) Grueling and painful
B) Highly effective
C) Highly effective, but enjoyable
D) A workout partner
E) A waste of time

In a rerun episode of “How I Met Your Mother” I recently caught, the gang decided to join a gym. They say, apparently in 2007 that was the thing to do — don’t fret, it still is the best solution to get in shape. Throughout the episode, different people use a trainer that beats them to death. At the end of the episode, the narrator says they never went back to the gym . . . ever!

Think about your members and their experience at your club, and with your personal training department. Do you think your members meet over beers at night, sore and dreading the next personal training session?

Option B and Option C should be your goal. However, if TV writers are poking fun at the severity of personal training, there is probably some small amount of truth.

I’m not trying to say that life is like a sitcom, but everyone has seen that intense trainer that pushes his/her client to the point of complete exhaustion. As a club, you need to ask yourself, “Do our members want to be put through a college football style practice, or do they just want someone to show them how to get in shape?”

Maybe in Texas you should stick with football camp simulations, but I would bet most clients just need some good info for getting in shape. Remember, the vast majority of your clients are probably new to a gym. They see all this equipment and they have to figure out how to use it to their advantage. As a trainer, you can help them get in shape, develop long-lasting routines and discover a love for the club.

Trainers can be much more than an exercise slave master. Your trainers have the inside track on what’s going on inside the club. For people that join your gym as a single, they can help them to meet people and become more comfortable place to get fit and socialize.

Currently, your club is probably perceived by the majority of the population as strictly a place for fitness. Use your trainers to help change that perception. Discuss with your trainers the power they have to make your club a fun place that members look forward to going to — oh, and don’t forget to pick B or C and get them in shape, too.