Keeping your clients motivated is part of your job as a fitness instructor or personal trainer. Also, it’s one of the most important aspects of running a successful fitness business. If you don’t keep your clients motivated, there’s a high chance they won’t get the results they are looking for. Consequently, they will drop out, which translates to poor retention rates and low returns on your investment. So, how can you keep your fitness clients motivated and maintain high retention rates? This short guide has the answers. In this post, we will discuss five ways of keeping your fitness clients motivated and dedicated to their fitness journey.
Leverage Positive Reinforcement
Offering positive reinforcement can go a long way in helping your fitness clients to remain motivated and continue working hard towards their goals. So, whenever your client achieves something or does something right, ensure you let them know you have noticed.
For instance, if a client has finally managed to master a routine they have been struggling with or they have unlocked a personal milestone, make sure you recognize and praise them for a job well done. You can also go a step further and reward them with something memorable. The more you recognize them for their efforts, the more they will continue working toward success.
Add Variety and Fun to Your Workout Sessions
One of the most effective ways of maintaining motivation in your gym clients is by adding fun and variety to your workout sessions. As you may expect, it will be hard to keep them motivated and engaged, if they have a miserable, boring experience every training session.
So, try as much as possible to mix up your routines every day and every week. Fortunately, there are numerous ways of achieving this. For instance, you can introduce new exercises in your weekly sessions such as circuit training and interval training, boxing and martial arts, among others.
Additionally, you can mix up the reps and sets, instead of following the same routine day in and day out. Also, you can sometimes take your training sessions outdoors, instead of training in the gym all the time.
Incorporating fun and variety into your workout sessions is a great means of keeping your clients engaged, motivated and looking forward to the next workout session. At the same time, you will be helping them to achieve their fitness goals.
Set Realistic and Achievable Goals
Most people go to the gym looking for instant results. For instance, someone will want to lose 50 pounds in two months. And, once the two months lapse and they are nowhere close to achieving this goal, they will lose motivation and stop working out altogether.
To avoid this scenario, you should work with your personal training clients and help them to set realistic, achievable goals. Using the situation above, if the client is looking to lose 50 pounds, you can set a period of around six months. You can then break down the goal into smaller, micro goals of losing two pounds per week.
With this approach, your clients will be winning along the way, giving them a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Consequently, they will remain motivated and continue working towards the bigger goal.
Create a Dedicated Class for Beginners
If you run your fitness sessions in a fitness center, then it will be highly advisable to set up a separate class for beginners and new members as opposed to having them train with everyone else.
As you may expect, your new members will need more support, compared to the veterans. And, if they don’t get sufficient support, especially during the onboarding phase, the majority of them will eventually lose interest and stop coming for their workout sessions.
To remedy this issue, it will be advisable to have a separate class for the new members or those who are starting their fitness journey. By creating a dedicated class for beginners, you will be able to provide them with all the support they need. At the same time, they won’t feel intimidated by other members who may be more experienced than them.
Promote Group Workouts
Working out in groups can significantly improve member motivation. Besides training together, group workouts will also provide a platform where members can share their goals, motivations, thoughts and results, which can boost member socialization. This will ultimately encourage or motivate your members to continue attending classes.
However, we should also point out that some of your members will prefer working out alone, which is completely okay. And, this is where fitness competitions and challenges come in. Such members can participate in the challenges and enjoy a productive workout, while still completing their sessions alone.
In Conclusion
Keeping your fitness clients motivated is what will keep them coming back for their fitness classes. But as you can see, it’s not as complicated as it may appear. With the tips we’ve shared here, you should be able to motivate all your fitness clients and help them succeed.