The journey of behavior change is a nonlinear process and clients progress and regress through several stages as they grapple with adopting new lifestyle behaviors that support their larger health goals. As a result, lapses and relapses are possible and common. In the...
Erin Nitschke
Consumer Psychology: What Fit Pros Need to Know
Personal training is a people-oriented business. Like any business that provides services to consumers, personal training relies on the professional’s ability to recruit and retain clients in order to turn a profit. To effectively accomplish this, fitness...
Sharpening Your Virtual Fitness Coaching Skills
It is an interesting time to be (or become) a fitness professional. As a result of the novel coronavirus, mandated closures, and social distancing rules, the fitness industry’s once traditional practices are morphing into new and innovative approaches to training and...
Five Tips for Successful Virtual Fitness Coaching
We are all working to adjust to a “new normal” as a result of the novel coronavirus and its widespread impact on all sectors of the population – private, public, and personal. While the presence and rapid spread of the virus lead to business closures, shelter in place...
Benefits of a Barre Approach to Fitness
If you’re looking for an exercise approach that is easily implemented yet surprisingly challenging, I encourage you to explore adding barre workouts to your arsenal of fitness techniques. Barre is a style of exercise that draws inspiration from ballet, yoga, and...
Create Positive Experiences for Fitness Clients
For fitness clients to adhere to an exercise plan and commit to lifestyle change, they need to feel that they can trust the professional they’ve hired to guide them on that journey of change. This is accomplished by building rapport with fitness clients. Rapport is...
Why Health Professionals Can Benefit from a Personal Trainer Certification
There are numerous professionals in the health field – chiropractors, physicians, nurses, other medical experts, mental health counselors, and beyond, and most would benefit from adding a personal training certification to their bios. Each type of health professional...
The Carbohydrate Conflict: Why Carbs Don’t Make You Fat
No doubt, nutrition is a complex and confusing topic for many, especially our personal training clients. It is further complicated and “muddied” by the constant creation and perpetuation of myths and misconceptions that ultimately drive the development of trends and...
Five Rules for Building Muscle
One of the primary cited goals fitness clients have is to build more muscle. After all, the benefits of resistance training and adding lean tissue are limitless and benefit us not only physically, but mentally. However, sometimes in the quest to lose weight and build...
Five Must-Have Professionals in Your Personal Training Network
One of the most valuable components of a successful personal training business is the presence of a quality referral network. Personal trainers are experts in their field and possess a deep body of knowledge related to kinesiology, functional movement, exercise...
Structuring Feedback for Fitness Clients
Providing fitness clients balanced, constructive, and positive feedback about performance and progress is crucial to success. They rely on it in order to learn and grow. Without feedback, learning doesn’t happen. Not only is its inclusion important, how it is...
Are Your Clients Sabotaging Their Fitness Efforts?
Most fitness clients have loosely defined, but well-intended, fitness goals that they hope to reach by working with a personal trainer. These goals are often centered on losing weight, building muscle, increasing energy, or improving daily dietary habits. Even the...
Ten Reasons Why Start-up Fitness Studios Fail
Opening your own fitness studio is a complicated and challenging task. To be successful, you must consider everything from start-up costs to monthly overhead to equipment maintenance and building space. Before you consider embarking on this build-it-yourself business...
What is Flexible Dieting?
Flexibility. But I'm not talking about joint flexibility here, but the kind of flexibility that allows one to handle life's challenges with aplomb-- a coveted quality necessary for many aspects of life. Flexibility is what allows us to manage stress, think deeper,...
Scope of Practice for the Personal Trainer: Goal Setting
Goal setting is an important aspect of personal training and the client-trainer relationship. Setting goals is crucial as they outline a road map of where the client wishes to go and, more importantly, how the client will achieve a desired outcome. As important as the...
Cardiovascular Health and Fitness
The cardiovascular system is foundational to exercise, and our understanding as personal trainers of how it works and how things can go wrong is critical for the performance, success, and safety of our clients. Consultation with a medical professional and a physical...
Scope of Practice for the Personal Trainer: Romantic Relationships with Clients
It’s common for personal trainers and their clients to develop close relationships. A trainer often transitions from a coach and role model to a confidant and friend. In fact, a sign of a healthy trainer-client relationship is the strong bond that forms. That said, it...
Scope of Practice for the Fitness Pro: Upselling Products and Services
Personal training is a business. Therefore, a large part of personal training is selling your services to potential clients. If you don’t effectively recruit new clients and maintain those you currently have, you don’t have a product or service to sell. Personal...