Aside from simply training clients, personal training departments have a multitude of resources at their disposal to increase clientele and further educate existing members. Vic Spatola, the director of personal training for Greenwood Athletic and Tennis Club, said that they “use personalized experience to sell training.” They have found that “the individual experience with a trainer, however small that may be, seems to get the best yield for trainers.”
Spatola’s team uses tracking devices to assist trainers in their instruction, and improve the member experience. “By doing all the assessments and tracking, compared to normal values, we can show the client where they fall for their sex and age range,” said Spatola. “This motivates the client to improve for their age range.”
One system that has worked for many clubs has been PT Training Systems. A one-stop platform for personal trainers, PT Training Systems was designed to help trainers manage individual clients.
“The client receives a login to their own account, which is administered by their trainer,” explained Steven Tongue, the director of PT Training Systems. “The client has their own account to accept or reject future appointments from their trainer, and synchronize their phones and tablets” with the systems set up by their trainer.
Anymore, tracking abilities don’t simply stop with physical fitness. Trainers have the ability to also track dietary regiments for members and coach them through diets specially modified for individual clients.
“Our experience has shown that proper nutrition guidance is responsible for at least 50 percent of the results that a member will experience,” explained John Schirra, the president and CEO of DietMaster Pro. “The implementation of an effective dietary regimen, combined with exercise, will give members optimal results, and improve a personal trainer’s value to the member.”
Tracking software has also revolutionized the way members and trainers stay in contact and work with each other outside of the club. With smart phone technology, clubs have the ability to give members login availabilities, via mobile apps, to help them as they grocery shop, or go out to dinner.
“Members can manage their own nutritional profile and recommend plans through the Internet or mobile phone app,” said Schirra. “Members have become tired of the age-old food diary and exercise logging process, and simply want a plan to follow that meets their dietary and lifestyle needs. Personal trainers can provide a meal plan tailored to the member’s daily caloric needs within three minutes or less. Since these plans are designed by a qualified professional, the member will have a much higher value perception and credibility assurance.”
The personal training department at The Rush Fitness Complex has always used the standard body-fat calipers, or hand-held body-fat analyzers. Rob Rettmann, the vice president of education for The Rush Fitness Complex, inputs age and data from body-fat tests into tracking software to track members and show their progressions. “This has been a process that we use at point of sale, as well as off the floor for our current members and clients,” said Rettmann. “Whether we use the Health Age or new training ‘toys,’ we try to showcase everything in our performance zones, which are normally strategically placed in front of the cardio areas.”
When members are able to continually track their progressions, they can push themselves on days when they aren’t with their trainer. It makes them more in tune with their own fitness, as well as allowing them to develop a greater relationship with their trainer. With modern tracking systems members and trainers are able to reduce the risk of missing appointments or creating confusion within the personal training department.
New tracking capabilities for personal training data, as well as dietary information, allows clubs to give members more insight into their health and progressions. This type of information helps members understand the value of personal training and dietary regiments provided by their club. According to Tongue, the system of tracking personal training data is only in its beginning stages. “This is just the start,” he said. “We are going to be adding many more features.”
By Tyler Montgomery
