Lift The Bar

Most trainers come into the industry because they like the gym, love sport or have had some kind of physical transformation. Then they learn about realistic rates of muscle gain and weight loss, gain experience from working with themselves and clients, and make assumptions - because that’s what our human brains do. All of this means that it’s common for trainers to believe Personal Training should result in weight loss and PBs.

There are several problems with this.  The biggest being that it reduces the acceptable outcomes of personal training, limiting its power and marginalising the many other benefits it brings.

Not only does it end up reinforcing the inaccuracies and biases about personal training, bodyweight and exercise already prevalent in society, but trainers start to believe their worth is tied to outcomes they have no control over. That if their client’s scales aren’t moving in the right direction and the amount of weight lifted isn’t going up then they are failing.

Alongside this, it can leave clients feeling like their views are being dismissed in favour of the preferences of the personal trainer, leaving them feeling incompetent or judged.

None of this is good for us, our clients, businesses or the industry as a whole. So, it makes sense to think about ways to avoid it.  Here are some ideas for ensuring we all win.

 

Don’t Get Caught Up in The Numbers

Quantitative results are not more valuable than qualitative ones.  This can be challenging to recognise as we like things that come with a nice improvement in numbers. Whether that’s a change in the amount lifted, a change in clothing size or an improvement in medical health markers, we love being able to quantify things. When we start looking at areas that are more open to interpretation it can feel like we struggle to identify them or discuss them in a meaningful way.  In reality, the numbers are arbitrary references and are far less important than the feelings experienced by our clients when they can do more in their daily lives and experience the confidence and joy at knowing they are capable of far more than they ever realised.

 

Don’t Assume Clients Value The Same Things As You

Not every person will be excited by changes in the weights they can move or the numbers in the gym and, however excited we are, their response can be underwhelming. Rather than being disappointed, pay attention to the things they do value.  The comments they make about things that bring them joy from outside of the gym that relate to the things you do in the gym.  Help them see the links between the work they do with you and the wins they are experiencing in day-to-day life.  Being able to move freely without having to pause for pain or discomfort, walking upstairs without being out of breath, feeling the strength of muscles working rather than effort, being physically able to do anything they haven’t before.  These are all things that make movement seem worthwhile.  

Often, when a client notices something, they mention it to us. They’ll be discussing their weekend and say they managed to walk up a local hill and didn’t feel knackered at the end of it or they noticed how much easier it is now to get off the floor.  Of course, we say all the right things at the time but by capturing this information we can build up a file of results for each client.   This can help in a few ways.  If the client is having a wobble we can remind them of how much they achieved using things that are meaningful for them. If we are having a wobble we can remind ourselves of the great things we are helping our clients with.  Plus, we have inspiration for content and adverts, social proof and proof of concept, and much more.

 

Question Your Beliefs and Search for Proof That Challenges Them, Not Just Proof They are Right. 

Societal beliefs that health and fitness can be determined by the amount of body fat an individual has, and the main purpose of exercise is to burn calories, are damaging to individuals, the fitness industry generally and society as a whole.   Unfortunately a lot of the qualifications we do to become personal trainers and continue our CPD build on the misconceptions that are prevalent in society.  They add to the insecurities many trainers already have, that if they aren’t helping clients lose weight, they aren’t doing a good job. In reality it’s physical activity that gives the amazing health benefits, irrespective of any changes in body fat.  If this is something you want to know more on check out the references at the end of this blog.

 

Focus on The Positives of What You Want to Do 

I’ve had lots of conversations with trainers who say something like “I’m not a proper personal trainer because I …” or “I don’t like working with weight loss clients, but I have to because it’s what everyone expects”.  It’s never true.  Personal training encompasses a wide range of approaches and outcomes.  There is no specific formula for working with clients, nothing you “have to” offer and, if there are expectations you don’t agree with, you get to rewrite the narrative.  

There are loads of trainers who don’t work with weight loss clients and even more potential clients who aren’t interested in weight loss as a goal so, unless you are particularly restrictive in the type of people and outcomes you want to work with, there’s nothing stopping you from going for it.  Focus on who you want to help, what they value, and how your service will help them and don’t waste energy on the stuff you don’t want to do.

 

If we let go of any preconceived ideas we have that limit the role of personal training further than the ability to help people through physical activity, then we open up a world of opportunities for everyone.

 

 

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Interested in learning more about weight and health?  Here are a few studies you may want to look into:

 

1. Harjunen, H. (2019). Exercising exclusions: Space, visibility, and monitoring of the exercising fat female body. Fat Studies, 8(2), 173–186. https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2019.1561101   

• Shows how visibility and monitoring in fitness spaces reinforce societal beliefs about fatness and health, leading to exclusion and harm

 

2. Ross, C. (2022). Fitness v fatness? Bodies, boundaries and bias in the gym. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 15(1), 104–122. https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2022.2098808 

• Deconstructs how gym culture reinforces fat-phobic beliefs and calorie-centric exercise, with negative consequences for inclusion and mental health

3. Ashdown-Franks, G., Meadows, A., Pila, E. (2021). “Negative things that kids should never have to hear”: exploring women’s histories of weight stigma in physical activity. Journal of sport and exercise physiology, 44(1), 1–13. DOI: 10.1123/jsep.2021-0139

• How early exposure to calorie-burning narratives and fat-shaming in physical activity settings leads to long-term harm.

4. Kyle, T. K., & Stanford, F. C. (2016). Body Fat Percentage Should Not Be Confused With Lifestyle Behaviors. Mayo Clinic proceedings, 91(6), 820–821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2016.04.005

• Body fat percentage is not a ‘lifestyle behaviour’ and the two should not be conflated. 

5. Bevan, N., O'Brien, K. S., Lin, C. Y., Latner, J. D., Vandenberg, B., Jeanes, R., Puhl, R. M., Chen, I. H., Moss, S., & Rush, G. (2021). The Relationship between Weight Stigma, Physical Appearance Concerns, and Enjoyment and Tendency to Avoid Physical Activity and Sport. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(19), 9957.  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18199957

• Focus on weight and appearance cause exercise avoidance!

6. Heitmann, B. L., Køster-Rasmussen, R., Meyer, L. B., Larsen, S. C., Thorsteinsdottir, F., Sandholdt, C. T., Bojsen-Møller, K. N., Overbeck, G., Waldorff, F. B., Kousgaard, M. B., Specht, I. O., & Dirksen, C. (2024). Debating Weight Loss vs. Weight Neutral Strategies for Improvements of Health. Current obesity reports, 13(4), 832–842. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13679-024-00587-8

• Most people will not achieve sustained weight loss without medical intervention. 

7. Zuest, L., Lee, S., Leedeman, J., & Clifford, D. E. (2022). Creating Weight-Inclusive Climates in Fitness Spaces. Kinesiology Review (Champaign, Ill.), 11(3), 251–260. https://doi.org/10.1123/kr.2021-0045

• Why moving away from weight loss is important. 

8. Gaesser, G. A., & Angadi, S. S. (2021). Obesity treatment: Weight loss versus increasing fitness and physical activity for reducing health risks. iScience, 24(10), 102995. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102995

• Physical activity consistently improves health markers despite no weight loss.