Whether it was a coach for sports, a coach in the work place, or a fitness coach, we’ve all had some sort of coach in our life. Since we’ve all had a coach before, that means we all know how someone can be either a great coach, or a terrible coach. The standards are the same when it comes to choosing the right personal trainer or online coach for YOU. There definitely can be a difference in results and experience based on who you choose to help you reach your goals.
What is a “good” fitness coach?
A good fitness coach will have a lot of great qualities to help you succeed on your fitness journey. The way I see, there are basically two very important factors that a coach needs to have to be considered “good”. The first distinguishing factor is that the coach needs to have a passion for helping others. The second is knowledge.
Passion
When someone decides what career they’d like to go into for the rest of their life, you would hope that person is passionate about what they do. This is no different for a career as a fitness coach. In order to be a great coach, you must love what you do. You must want to help people change their life! You must see the benefit of what you have to offer a client and know that you can indeed make their life easier and better. Along with passion comes empathy. You must be able to see the situation from the view of your client. A good coach puts themselves into other peoples’ shoes to better understand what they’re going through and how to change their program to best help them. Let’s say you’ve hired a fitness coach who gave you a workout plan for 6 days a week. Now let’s also say you have a full-time job, 3 kids, and are going to school. A coach without empathy is going to push you to make it to the gym 6 times a week or else! A coach who shows empathy will understand the hardships in your life, and adjust the plan. I’m not saying a good coach isn’t tough on their clients, because without pushing yourself you will not see change, but they adjust accordingly. Maybe you will go down to 3x a week in the gym and have 2 at home workouts to complete on your own time. Maybe your coach will adjust your calorie intake to make sure you still see progress even though you cannot workout as much as they’d like you to. Finding the right coach is a lot of give and take. By most importantly, they are there to help you reach your goals.
Building Rapport
Another part of passion, which also goes along with empathy, is building rapport. Your coach should know a lot about you! They should be asking you a lot of questions about your lifestyle, likes, and dislikes. If a coach has not done this, then they are not committed to helping you. The more your coach knows about you, the better your fitness plan will be! There are a lot of variables that go in to making a fitness plan, and no two people are the same, so it is necessary to ask those questions in order to tailor it to you! One way a coach should build rapport is by knowing your goals. A workout plan cannot be created without knowing what someone is trying to accomplish! One of the first things a good coach will ask is “what are you trying to do?”
Motivation/Consistency
A good coach will also show passion for your goals by giving you important tools to succeed. Some of these tools include motivation and consistency. A good coach will check in as often as needed to make sure you feel comfortable with the program and are completing what needs to be done. They should be open to changing your plan if needed, and also open to any questions you have. A good coach should be someone who gives you praise when you hit milestones and pushes you to your limits when you feel like giving up.
Responsibility
A good coach is responsible. Not only for completing their work, but also partly responsible for the progress their clients see. Obviously I can’t be with my clients 24/7 to slap food out of their hands or tell them they can do 5 more reps, but a coach is partly responsible for a client’s success. A good coach will set expectations for a program. This could be telling a client how many reps to do, or even checking in with the client each day to make sure that the workout was completed. A client should feel a sense of responsibility to follow the guidelines given to them if they have a good coach.
Knowledge
The second distinguishing feature of a good coach is knowledge. Now, I know it’s difficult, but just because someone looks lean or toned doesn’t mean that they are a good coach. Appearance doesn’t have anything to do with how knowledgeable someone is about fitness. A good coach is qualified. There are many accredited certifications out there for personal training, but in my opinion the two best are ACE and NASM. Your coach should be certified in order to be able to give you direction on how to improve your health. Along with being certified, a good coach should be able to do just that… coach. Just because you work out by yourself, doesn’t mean you’d be any good at coaching others to workout. It takes time to learn the language to use, how to describe an exercise, and how to correct an exercise.
Personalizing Programs
Part of the knowledge that a good coach must have is how to personalize a exercise program. Most bad coaches will send out a cookie cutter program to all of their clients, no matter their goals. Just because a program worked for one person, does not mean it will work for another. A good coach should take into account health issues, injuries, and experience in the gym when it comes to creating a plan for a client. Each piece of information given to a coach is crucial for making sure a client’s program has the correct exercises, repetitions, intensity, and design. Injuries are very common when you are a personal trainer. In order to be a good fitness coach it is important that you have an understand of anatomy and physiology and also know how to strengthen muscles that may be under-active during any given exercise.
Asking Questions
There are a couple of questions that a good coach should ask in order to make the most effective program for an individual. Some of those questions include:
- What is your stress level like?
- What is your experience with exercise?
- What is your everyday nutrition like?
- How many hours of sleep do you get on average?
- How many times a week is realistic to make it to the gym?
- What are your goals?
- What is your biggest obstacle for achieving your goals?
These are just a few questions that are crucial to creating a great fitness plan. Asking questions shows both of the outlined key qualities of a good coach; Passion and Knowledge. If your coach isn’t asking questions… it might be time to find a new coach.
What is a “bad” fitness coach?
I don’t want to go into bad fitness coaching too much because from my thoughts above, it is pretty easy to distinguish good from bad. One key factor of a bad coach is someone who is selling their services without being certified. I’m not saying that everyone who is not certified is a bad coach, in fact I have met many who were excellent without being certified! But in order to give great prescriptions for fitness and really have an understanding of what they’re talking about, I believe a person must be certified. There are a lot of pyramid schemes out there selling you quick fixes to your problems. The reality of it is that you didn’t end up this way overnight, so why would it be reversed with a pill overnight? People who are involved with selling these magic items are usually not certified, not in the health profession, and are not qualified to get you a health plan. I used to be one of these people. I know, GASP. I fell into the Beachbody crowd about 5 years ago. I started using their products expecting to see a quick change. Some of the products I did actually like, but most were not even comparable to others of their type out on the market. I sold some stuff, got paid a little, and then realized I had no idea why I was telling people to take these products or do these workouts. At that moment I decided to quit and got certified as a personal trainer. I felt so much better knowing that I could give a great exercise plan to someone and tailor it to their needs and actually be able to explain WHY I was having them do it. Knowledge is power my friends.
Another quality of a bad coach is someone who just doesn’t care. If they don’t care about your workouts, then why would they care about your goals? If they aren’t asking questions, trying to be involved in your life, and praising you for keeping up…then what are they doing? They’re taking your money is what they’re doing. Many coaches will send out a general plan that anyone could do and sell it as a personalized plan. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, just because it worked on one person, doesn’t mean it works on everyone. Make sure your coach is invested in your success.
So please, before you choose a coach or hop on another pyramid scheme bandwagon, remember that this is your life. You want someone in it that actually cares about the outcomes. Find a coach who cares. Find a coach who is knowledgeable. Find a coach who is understanding and WANTS to help you change your life. They’re out there, I promise.