How to Motivate Clients As A Personal Trainer

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Keeping clients motivated is critical for personal trainers. When your clients lose motivation, they stop showing up. When they stop showing up, they go back to old habits and never get the results they want. And when they don’t get the results they want, they are unlikely to refer you to their network, leave a positive review, or do anything else that can help you grow your reputation and business as a personal trainer. So if you’re wondering how to motivate clients as a personal trainer, you’re in the right place.

In short, mastering personal training motivation is everything if you want to grow your business.

So, how to motivate clients as a personal trainer, even when you know you’re asking them to step outside their comfort zone? Here are some excellent personal trainer tips for clients who would rather stay in bed than join you at the gym.

Figure out the client’s “why”
Set attainable goals
Use fitness challenges
Use a client management software
Use positive reinforcement
Don’t overhype short-term results
Create a sense of community
Create accountability
Keep things simple
Be empathetic

Tips on motivating clients as a personal trainer

1. Figure out the client’s “why”

Personal training motivation starts by digging deeper than the obvious, “I want to lose weight,” or “I want to wear a certain size.”

What is really driving your client’s decision to get healthier? Are they concerned about their health risks? Maybe they’re newly single and want to feel confident on the dating scene. Or perhaps they want to travel without worrying about health restrictions.

If you want to know how to motivate your client as a personal trainer, help your client focus on the reason they keep showing up, especially when they want to call it quits.

2. Set attainable goals

Some personal trainers set audacious goals to be motivating. But, unfortunately, when goals are too unattainable, the opposite happens. Clients give up because they know they’ll never reach the goal you’ve set for them.

Your role as a personal trainer is to take the goals of your clients and break them down into small incremental steps that are easy to achieve. An ideal goal for your client wishing to shed weight would be losing 4 pounds every month.

3. Use fitness challenges

Designing exciting fitness challenges is a significant part of learning how to motivate clients as a personal trainer. Instead of focusing on weight or pant size, have your clients try to meet physical challenges that push them to meet their potential. Fitness challenges amp up personal training motivation.

Fitness challenges are a great way to keep clients engaged and motivated. The fun part is that fitness challenges work for both your online and on-site customers. While creating these challenges, make sure you give your clients a realistic goal, a deadline, and the right tools. Don’t forget to regularly check in, track the progress, and cheer them on along the way. If you can incentivize them towards the end with some merchandise or a certain discount on their next payment, that would motivate them even more.

Some examples of fitness challenges are:

30-day fitness challenge: A 30-day fitness challenge focuses on all muscle groups during a 30-day period. For your offline clients, you can encourage weight training by including various equipment. However, for online clients, equipment-free exercises like lunges, squats, and burpees should be included.

Ab challenge: This could be a fun challenge and give your clients a chance to show off their abs and collect compliments at the end. A 30-day ab challenge will include core-focused exercises like sit-ups, crunches, mountain climbers, etc.

4. Use a client management software

Fitness client management software allows you to monitor and communicate with your clients when they aren’t in the gym with you. It also lets you create and send workouts virtually, which can help clients stay focused when they’re on vacation, on a business trip, or just unable to make it to the gym.

Using client management software streamlines the whole process, making it less intimidating, and giving it a more personal touch. Both you and your clients have a centralized place to collect feedback and respond to it promptly. It’s also a great way to ensure that all of your financial transactions are timely and accurate.

5. Use positive reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is a big part of personal training motivation. Focus on the positives, and offer small rewards when you see clients exhibiting good behavior. It can be as small as telling them “great job” after a challenging workout.

You can also give them a shout-out on social media or a free pass after they reach a goal. You might even consider starting a “member of the week” wall that highlights someone new every week to create friendly competition between clients.

6. Don’t overhype short-term results

Personal training is all about getting your clients to push their limits and build a routine that’s sustainable beyond their time in the gym. The ultimate goal is lasting health, strength, and wellness that they can carry with them for life. Yes, you want your clients to feel good about short-term results. But you also want them to keep pushing to reach their long-term goals.

If you overhype short-term effects, your clients might feel like they’ve “made it,” leading them to quit their training before getting where they wanted. So when they’ve lost the first 10 pounds, mastered their deadlift form, or finally been able to hold a minute-long plank. Celebrate these wins but also gently remind them this is just the warm-up lap and these small checkpoints are a part of a bigger picture.

7. Create a sense of community

For those learning how to motivate clients as a personal trainer, creating a sense of community is a great start. Anyone can work out alone at home. However, people join fitness clubs to be a part of something bigger. Whether you see personal training clients solo or offer group fitness classes, it’s crucial for members to be part of a shared community. Host in-person events for members to get to know each other. Create a social media page where they can talk to each other and share fitness tips and advice.

When you’re wondering how to motivate your client as a personal trainer, don’t underestimate the value of members’ encouraging each other.

8. Create accountability

One of the most effective personal trainer tips for clients is creating accountability. Being friendly and flexible is important for building long-term client relationships but that doesn’t mean you take accountability out of the equation. Cheering on your clients is easy but a sincere trainer knows how to appropriately make them accountable for their shortcomings or downfalls.

One powerful way to hold your clients accountable is to assign them some good old homework. Nothing too complicated. Ask them to run up 2 flights of stairs or do 15 pull-ups.

Regularly checking in with your clients is a no-brainer. You don’t have to pester them every day though. An email or a text message twice a week is a good place to start. When you schedule a monthly progress meeting in person, celebrate their wins and devise a roadmap to overcome any roadblocks.

Another way to level up their motivation and increase accountability is to pair up your clients with each other and hold some friendly fitness challenges. Your clients will need some tough love every now and then. Don’t be afraid to give them that especially when you notice them slacking off or coming up with excuses.

9. Keep things simple

Don’t be that trainer who loses their clients’ attention with long, unnecessary lectures or complicated workout plans. Your clients want action. So, during the session that’s what you should focus on.

Keep the workout routine simple and easy to follow especially for your new clients. As they progress, add new things into the mix but still try not to overcomplicate. You can always share the educational content with your clients outside of the sessions.

10. Be empathetic

By now, you must already know how each of your clients is dealing with their own struggles and insecurities. How they all have their own goals and personalities. You can become their absolute favorite trainer when you start being empathetic and understanding.

Try sharing with them something about yourself that’s relatable to them. Why? Because your goal is to make them comfortable and motivated.

In Summary

Figuring out how to motivate clients as a personal trainer is a challenge all personal trainers face. Start with the basics when figuring out how to motivate personal training clients. Take the time to get to know your clients personally and build a supportive community they won’t want to walk away from. Let’s rewind and take a quick look at the ways personal trainers can increase client motivation.

Figure out the client’s “why”, and their motivation behind wanting to work out.
Set attainable, realistic goals
Use fun fitness challenges to keep them engaged. Give your client a realistic goal, a deadline, a roadmap, and the right tools. Track their progress and if possible, incentivize the challenge
Improve your client relationships with a management software
Use positive reinforcement
Don’t over-hype short-term achievements. This can end up getting your clients distracted from the end goal
Create a sense of community
Create accountability by giving your clients some homework, checking in with them regularly, and pairing them up with each other for friendly fitness challenges.
Keep the workout routines simple and focus on the action during the sessions.
Be empathetic to your clients and show them you understand.

Now that you know how to keep personal training clients motivated, we hope you’re able to help them change their habits, achieve their fitness goals, and have a long-lasting business relationship with them.