When new clients start at the studio with us for personal training a common question is “How long have you been here for?”
I have been reflecting on the history of the studio and how we have evolved and thought I would write down some of my thoughts to share.
We opened our doors for business in 2008 and have helped 100’s of clients to lead healthier lifestyles, rehab from injury and illness, be fit through pre and post-natal conditions and to support sports performances.
We have not only helped clients look great but more importantly to adopt long lasting health habits together with an educated mindset about living life in a meaningful way.
We do not intimidate our clients with a “our way or the highway” mantra. Instead we supply a range of tools for our clients to be able to make decisions that work in their lives and in an achievable way.
That all said, I then thought about why people make the decision to use a personal trainer. The most frequent answer to this question would be to get fit(ter) and change body composition. But then I thought about what prompts the tipping point to want to make those changes and my experience from 20 years is the following:
- They realise gym memberships do not work and want better value for money. I.e. they join a gym but then do not know what to do. Gym membership is access to a gym with often none or minimal support.
- They realise they can no longer ‘get away with’ living a lifestyle that they have previously had without putting on weight or feeling unfit
- They are in pain
- A major life event causes them to re-evaluate their lives
- Discontent and a need to change
- Ageing and all that goes with that (hormones/change in body composition/chronic disease)
The first step to success, I feel, is to identify with the person you are working with. We trainers are still on our fitness journey too and it is helpful to a client to know that we understand what they are trying to achieve, how hard that can sometimes be to a. get started and b. to work through changing long ingrained and harmful habits to their health.
At VO2 we are looking to provide not just training (knowing the technical stuff is important but not difficult) but always look to educate our clients to be able to make health decisions independently (as they are only with us a for maybe 1 or 2 hours in each week). Most important in all of this is the person – each client is different, has a different story, different requirements and lives and I believe if you can understand who they really are then chances of their health success is higher.
Personal Training is for us at VO2 is PERSON-al training.