Everyone’s “Why”, what all personal trainers should remember.

My last blog was about the benefits of an unregulated fitness industry, and how that can be a good thing. Most people who aspire to enter the fitness industry have some kind of athletic background. Technically speaking I was no different being a marathon runner. During my own training process, I learned about the benefits of strength training for endurance athletes. Now, likely towards the tail end of my time as a runner I spend more time in the weight room instead of my running shoes(but I’ve got a couple more left in me). But for me specifically the goals were always based on performance:

• Improving my half marathon time
• Improving my 1 mile time
• Finding the exercises/ rep ranges to help me be a better runner

Having that feeling of success and achieving personal goals made me want to enter the fitness industry. I wanted everyone to have that feeling of success I did from challenging myself and pushing myself to achieve it, and it FELT GREAT!! Running a full marathon isn’t easy today, wasn’t easy yesterday and won’t be tomorrow!That has a lot to do with why I’ve run 1 for the past 8 years. I can definitely say that anyone that challenges themselves to a 26.2 mile run:

• You’ll be a different person when you complete the journey
• Running a marathon is beyond humbling

During the process of becoming a personal trainer I’ve spent lots of time learning human anatomy, movement and physiology as it applies to exercise science and nutrition fundamentals. Now here’s the real challenge:

Everything I just wrote about I did because I WANTED To DO IT:

• I wanted to train to run marathons
• I wanted you to feel my “why”
• I wanted to learn about exercise science and anatomy (to help you the client ).

But that individual in front of us could have a set of life circumstances(likely isn’t interested in running a marathon)that we may have never imagined. Being able to accept that we’d like to connect with a fitness professional is already a big step. And that takes a lot.So a big part of these earlier steps means seeing things though the other person’s eyes, and being a great person first and foremost and being able to connect with people. Here’s a recent convo with a new client :

• Me, “What’s your goal?”
• Client, “General fitness” (Now I could’ve stopped here. But I would’ve stopped with zero information.)
• Me, “What does general fitness mean to you?”
• Client, “I want to lose 25 pounds in 6 months”.
• Me, “ Why is this your goal now?”
• Client, “ Because when I was younger my weight was down and I felt good!!! I want to FEEL GOOD again!!!”
• Me:”Thats awesome. Because when we feel good we’re confident! And when we’re confident people feed off that energy and doors open up for us!!”

Now we’re getting somewhere! I laid out the game plan for my new client. I made sure he knew were not just gonna feel good, we’re gonna feel GREAT! Interestingly enough, me and my new client ultimately had the same “why”. It just came from different points of life. But in the end we’re all just human beings.

Let’s be great people before we become great personal trainers.