What is your goal in working out? Why do you want to “Get in shape?” What are you trying to change in your life? Why is losing 20 pounds so important to you? What has changed in your life that you are now thinking about starting to workout?
These are all questions that a fitness coach should be asking clients during the first contact, the first phone call. If the coach doesn’t know your goals, your purpose in working out, he/she cannot effectively provide you with a program that will help you reach those goals. Your goals should be a priority whether you are in a group fitness class or personal training. If you have a fitness goal, and your coach doesn’t know it, then you are left to trusting that the program you are given will hopefully help you reach that goal. But, it might not. People don’t quit a fitness program because they decide they don’t want to do it anymore. People quit a fitness program because they are not reaching their goals. They are not receiving value for the money they spend.
The Group Class
What most people don’t know is that CrossFit started as personal training. Greg Glassman, CrossFit’s Founder and CEO, began working one-on-one with clients in regular gyms. He was kicked out of just about all of them in his area because the gyms didn’t like what he was doing. By that time, he had enough of a following that he opened his own gym. As he grew, he didn’t have enough time to coach everyone one-on-one, so the CrossFit group class was born.
Thankfully, the group class setting works for 90% of a CrossFit gym’s population. Additionally, CrossFit has done such a good job of standardizing movement that an educated and experienced CrossFit coach can run a group class while providing everyone personal attention. We often say a CrossFit class is personal training in a group setting. However, the group class may not be for everyone, especially members with fringe level fitness goals like focusing on a particular fitness endeavor (e.g. a marathon), adding a lot of weight to weightlifting movements, developing olympic lifting skills, or high end gymnastics.
Why We Offer Personal Training
A few years ago at Industrial Athletics, we added a program to our repertoire called the Coach’s Corner. We added this program because we started to see that certain members needed and wanted specialize attention with fitness goals. Some members came to us about building up to their first muscle up, learning to do double under, or wanting to add 10 pounds to their snatch. The Coach’s Corner program has allowed us to meet one-on-one with members and provide them personalized programming to help meet those goals. Take a quick scan through our social media, and you will see how successful this program has become.
However, despite the success of the Coach’s Corner, we have identified its limitations. To fill the gaps, we have created two additional programs at Industrial Athletics. First, the Practical Diet Revolution was created to address diet/nutrition issues through a formalized system. Next, the Industrial Strength Personal Training program was created to address individual issues that are holding members back from reaching goals even though they are being provided excellent programming directed toward those goals. For example, let’s assume a client comes to us wanting to develop the ability to perform high rep full planking pushups. One exercise we may prescribe through the Coach’s Corner is lying hollow body holds (a core crusher). However, if the client not performing the movement correctly, then he is going to miss its effectiveness. The Industrial Strength Personal Training program allows coaches to provide personalized programming and make sure a client is receiving the full benefit.
The Benefits of Personal Training
Along with making sure clients are performing movements correctly, personal training allows you to focus on your goal. If you struggle in the group class setting, want some privacy, need some special attention, or whatever reason you have for wanting personal training, the coach should make your goal the number one priority. At Industrial Athletics, this is our number one priority when we are working with a personal training client. Personal training allows us the freedom to modify a complex functional fitness program for you. Want to train for a marathon? Great, we can provide the endurance programming needed to train for distance, the bodyweight program needed to build the strength in that endurance, and the weight program needed to strengthen the muscles and protect the joints. That’s the beauty of personal training. It’s all about you, the individual.
Limitations
Personal training also allows your coach to work with limitations or mobility issues your might be experiencing. Sometimes, if a client has had surgery, the aftermath may leave the client with limitations. These limitations may include the inability to perform certain movements, like a snatch, or issues with mobility from scar tissue. Personal training allows the coach to address these limitations head on. That might include avoiding certain movements while modifying a program so that you still receive a full benefit. It might also include adding specific movements to address the limitation so that you can work past the limitation. Want to squat 400 pounds, but you don’t have the mobility in your hips to get below parallel? Your personal trainer can program mobility exercises for you to do to gain that mobility first.
Accountability
How many fitness programs have you started and quit? Do you find that you get really excited to start a fitness program, you join a class, love it for a bit, but then stop going? You probably don’t lack motivation. After all, you were motivated to start. You probably lack a level of accountability that you need to get up, even when you don’t want to, and get to the gym. Personal Training is great for those with an accountability problem. When you are working one-on-one with a coach, you are building a relationship with that coach. The last thing you want to do is disrespect your coach by missing a scheduled workout. You have paid for her time, she has put time into designing the program for you, she has reserved time for you. These factors, abundantly present in personal training, will keep you coming.
It’s All About You
It’s been said now a few times, but can’t be emphasized enough. Personal training is all about you!!!
Some clients are looking for a full fitness program. We might meet with a client three to four times a week. Full program clients usually have a large general fitness goal. Some of our clients in the Industrial Strength Personal Training program want to develop overall fitness so they can keep playing with their kids as their kids age. They may also have more specific goals for a new fitness endeavor. A personal training client may be looking develop the fitness needed to pass something like the FBI Physical Fitness Test or the Physical Fitness Test for the Army.
When we are working with personal training clients with general fitness goals, we may start by building a base of cardiovascular conditioning. Next, move onto the ability to move one’s bodyweight. Finally, develop strength through weightlifting. All along, we follow a progression of mobility, strict strength, then dynamic strength.
Personal training also allows us to help members with very specific fitness goals. Members may be looking for attention developing specific movements or lifts. For these members, we are able to provide very specific programming with guidance to address individual goals and limitations. We will often use the skill development from our regular CrossFit class with the private programming similar to what we would use in the Coach’s Corner. A coach is able to be laser focused on individual problems that may be missed or left unaddressed in the regular CrossFit class.
If you would like to talk about the benefits of the Industrial Strength personal training program, or see how we can develop a program for you, please reach out.
