Well the “T” will be the most obvious letter in our acronym.

“T” is for Training.

As in Training your clients.

This is what Personal Trainers and “exercise instructors” do but remember…this is ALL the “exercise instructor” does.

Training your clients in an effective manner is something that most aspiring Personal Trainers need to do better.

All of people get into the business of personal training because they love to work out themselves and would then like to teach others how to do the same.

When I interview a potential trainer that is seeking a job with us I have a 4 step interview process that they must go through and pass.

One of those steps in taking me out on the gym floor and training me.

They are supposed to TEACH me how to do a number of exercises.

The results were surprising at first but after hundreads of interviews the facts stand out like a sore thumb!

9 out 10 trainers could not demonstrate and do some exercises right themselves!

If you cant even do the exercise correctly yourself it is impossible to teach the correct exercise to your client!

10 out of 10 trainers had some degree of difficulty when it came to TEACHING another person HOW TO DO THE EXERCISE!

Even the exercises that the performed correctly they were unable to articulate the steps to the client (me) well enough so that the client (me again) understood and performed it correctly as well.

I would act just like a new client would act. I would purposley do things incorrectly to see how the trainer correted me.

Even if they did explain the exercise well I would do the exercise wrong and see how they would react.

If you have been training for any length of time you will know this is what happens often is the rel world.

Despite your best efforts the client needs additional instruction. 

It is your job to TRAIN and TEACH your client how to do the exercise correctly no matter how long it takes. 

Teaching is much harder than doing.

You have to remember how people learn.

Some people learn by listening. Others learn by seing. And some learn do actually doing! (or a combination of both). 

If you stand there and give your client VERBAL directions and they are a VISUAL leaner how well do you think they comprehend your instructions?

Not well at all.

The method we practice is to cover all bases.

First we (the trainer) explains the exercise to the client.

Next, as the VERBAL description/instruction continues, we demonstrate to the client EXACTLY what we want them to do, how we want them to do it and THE WRONG WAY TO DO IT!

After we have done this we then ask the client if they have any questions about the exercise. This gives them an opportunity to clear up any confusing details of the exercise.

Next we have the client demonstrate the exercise back to us using light weights and we then make any corrections to their form and technique as they are doing it.

How we progress from there depends on how fast the client learns and executes the exercise correctly.

Make sure that you know how to do the exercise correctly yourself is this first thing.

Next you need to work on the process of TEACHING.

The BEST PERSONAL TRAINERS have mastered the art TEACHING  in an effective manner.

Practice what you preach and learn to communicate with your clients so they learn the exercises quickly.

The faster tthey learn the faster you can get on with their program and get them to their fitness goal.