An athlete was asking me questions the other day about the relationships between clients and their trainer. Two of the questions were, “Why do some trainers fit older clients better?” and, “How does a nutritionist connect with and help a weight-loss client?”

I believe the answer to these questions comes from adopting a “Help First” mentality. The trainer must first be concerned about helping the athlete accomplish what they want.

There are many ways for a trainer to do this. I’ll lay out below what has worked for us at RxFIT, but recognize that there are many other ways to ensure that this mentality is adopted.

No-Sweat Intro

When someone walks into RxFIT for the first time, they don’t workout. Instead, they sit down with our gym manager and talk about their goals (hence the name, “No-Sweat Intro”).

We have adopted this approach operationally because we understand that our coaches can’t help you if they don’t know what you need help with.

In fact, we contend that any gym (or trainer) that doesn’t first sit down with you, doesn’t actually care about helping you. At least helping you first.

On-Ramp + No-Snack

After talking to our gym manager, we then have everyone do a one-on-one workout with one of our trainers (“On-Ramp”). This personal training session ensures a common terminology for future workouts, builds on whatever foundation you already have, and makes sure that we have you on the right plan to reach your goals.

Right after that workout, your trainer will introduce you to one of our nutritionists, who will then meet with you one-on-one to talk about your health (“No-Snack”). This is not a pre-scripted meeting, but rather a help-first conversation to figure out how we can help you with the other 23 hours not inside the gym.

Topics like sleep, stress, and connecting with others are discussed in addition to your nutrition. Our certified nutritionists take a holistic approach.

Goal Reviews

Then, every 90-days you sit down again with the gym manager to review your progress.

We ask questions like: “What has gone well over the past three months?”, “Have you been successful at implementing your plan?”, “Where are you struggling?”, “Do you have any new goals?”, and, “Where can we help?”

Help First

This system is what we have adopted at RxFIT to make sure we have a good client-coach fit. Operationally, it ensures that we’re helping the client first.

But this system isn’t the only way. In fact, a system isn’t even that important.

What’s important is that the gym (or trainer) has a “Help First” mentality. This alone is what makes a trainer work well with an older client or how a nutritionist connects with and helps a weight-loss client.

Tyler

WOD

2 Rounds (Rest 3:00 between rounds)
21-15-9 reps of:
Row (Calories)
Wall-Balls