Before and after fitness photos are a great tool for personal trainers. These pictures serve the purpose of referencing the progress of respective clients; similar to how a map or GPS helps to direct and navigate.
Having a client’s images prior to starting their fitness journey helps us trainers to make any changes in direction when need be, take an alternate route or simply heed a “Dead End.” Let’s look deeper at how having images of a client’s progression along the way can enrich his or her fitness journey.
Picture-Taking Techniques
As a trainer in this industry, you have either taken a before and after picture if a client or seen a ton circulating through social media platforms. Why do some garner more attention than others? Personally, I am drawn to the quality and professionalism of the picture taken in addition to seeing noticeable changes in the client’s body composition.
What this means is that the background of these images should be clean or bare. This helps keep the focus on the client and not the clutter to his or her left or loud and disturbing colors. For the sake of simplicity and consistency I have clients take three separate pictures in three different poses (Front, back, sideways); this way those looking at your images get a better take of the breadth of changes that have taken place during the client’s weight loss/gain journey.
Popular Body Parts for Before and After Photos
Arms – Typically where the changes are seen first; women are usually more concerned with the tricep area and men the shoulder area.
Abdominals – Usually where the changes are wanted the most yet the hardest to yield quick changes (requires a fair amount of cardiovascular training).
Legs – Where a great deal of weight loss/gain derives as the legs have the largest and most powerful muscles in the body (quadriceps, gluteus, hamstrings).
Tracking Weight Loss/Gain
Like the saying goes: “you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you came from.” With this in mind having before and after pictures helps you track subtle and huge changes in your client’s weight or body composition; this also helps with accountability (link article).
Your client’s “Day 45” pictures would be noticeably better than the “Day 1” pictures. Having the day 45 pictures highlights your client’s fat loss/muscle gain and any other changes that have occurred during that 45-day span. Documenting weight measurements that you as the trainer have taken of the client along the way can als0 help reference progress made.
Marketing Your Before and After Photos
Now that we have your before and after photos ready, it is time to let the world see your “body” of work..or your client’s magnificent 42 LBS WEIGHT-LOSS! YAY! Before posting any pictures of clients online for social I get consent first. When sharing, I use quality images, properly edited and cropped – I keep the client and areas of greatest change as the focal point of the image (chest, legs, shoulders, nicely, hips, abs, which body part(s) that were the main focus during the fitness journey.
A great finishing touch I add to all of my before and after photos are the “Before” date (day, week, month, or year) that the journey was started and the “After” date as a frame of reference of the length of time taken. This way of marketing my before and after pictures garners the most interaction for me on social media as it shows that I kept track of everything related to my client’s weight-loss/gain goal, and them smiling in the after picture is the icing on the cake.
Before and After Picture Examples
Sharon Guy: Age: 28. Sharon has become a staunch health fanatic, coupled with being newly vegan this helped me as a trainer as she already has the mental discipline and knowledge of clean eating. Sharon has been following my full-body program for the past 8 month during which she has dropped a staggering 42 LBS.
Julyanna Afonso: Age: 23. Julyanna is a new client of mine yet she has already made ridiculous progress. Julyanna has a background playing soccer, swimming, and dancing. All of which has equipped her with the athletic condition and mental fortitude to endure my intense sessions. Though she is new to proper dieting she is an avid learner and slowly gaining the basics of nutrition in helping her along her fitness journey.
Before and after photos are the perfect motivation and progress proving tool for many clients. You never know what kind of results may come from your work with a client. It’s too late go back and take a before photo after the fact, so if a client is open and willing, snap that shot in case it could come in handy later!
Mr. Dassin is an NFPT certified trainer, NFPT author, and fitness model. A staunch humanitarian and intellectual, Stephen boasts over 15 years of experience in the areas of health and fitness. Stephen’s approach to personal training is methodical in nature; his methods take an interpersonal and scientific based view of the connections of the human mind and the human anatomy and it’s capabilities. His passion for fitness is unparalleled. His athletic background fueled his poise in becoming knowledgeable about nutrition as well. This added fuel to his desire to help others achieve their own individual goals in the area of fitness such as himself. Join Stephen on his journey, not just a fitness journey but the greatest journey of them all: Life.
