I am often asked the following question: “What advice do you have for becoming a great trainer?”
Simply, imagine you are being evaluated or shadowed by someone you respect every time you train your client(s).
Imagine your mentor will provide feedback on your ability to:
- Choose appropriate exercises for client skill, injury or primary health concern
- Keep your client on task throughout session
- Convey directions clearly and concisely
- Inherently know when an exercise is too difficult / easy
- Keep your client motivated and encouraged with their progress to date
- Listen to your client
Be ready to defend all the choices you make while training. When students or new trainers shadow my sessions, I often find myself answering the question ‘why.’
I suppose there is one last item – put your phone away! A great trainer gives 100% at all times and is never caught checking their phone during a session (this may simply be a personal pet peeve of mine, but am interested in your feedback on this one).
-Aaron
