Are You Asked The Right Questions?

When any professional in the fitness industry has someone approach them for help, that person is putting their complete trust in that personal trainer or coach. That person is signing up for becoming dependant on their advice and guidance. This isn't a profession where we can blindly prescribe a client a programme to follow and hope for the best. This isn’t a ‘sign up and go’ process. If you feel like this has been the case for you so far, then I’d recommended reading through this article and making sure that you are building a relationship with a coach who knows exactly what it is you want, and just as importantly, knows you as a person.

I believe the most important thing you can do as a PT or coach is to invest your time to understand exactly what it is the client wants, how those things might change over time as the programme progresses and how they have an impact on the client as a person overall, both inside and outside of the gym. This game isn't just about getting in and getting it done. It’s a much larger picture than that if we want to see a continuation of success. It's about understanding your client on a very personal level, their individual strengths and weaknesses, their trials and tribulations, and finding a strategy for staying on top of it all. This ensures they continue to flourish in the right way. If you're undergoing some training at the moment, when was the last time your coach simply asked you how you felt, and not just about the weight on the bar? A little TLC goes a long way to making sure that element of trust between client and coach isn't breaking down. Communication between client and trainer is the cornerstone on which everything else rests. Without it, there can be no development of trust or proper progression in the prescribed programme. Before you commit to any new health plan, you need to question whether or not the right intentions have been clearly set out. There's a simple way to do this, but unfortunately, it's something that's often overlooked as some coaches will just want you training under their roof and getting a sweat on, and as long as that's happening, all is good apparently. Questions. Being asked and responding to the right questions. Good communication, building a tight rapport with your coach, being made to feel that your goals and body are valued; all it takes are the right questions. Before I start training with any client, irrespective of experience, ability, background or goals, I'll always make sure they complete a client questionnaire. From day one, this establishes an interest in the client’s current health status, frame of mind, expectations, likes and dislikes, and most importantly, their personal goals. This enables my clients to understand that they can be honest and open with me about anything. So, what are the right questions to be asking? Well, even if you work with a PT, coach or neither, you can work through these questions for your own benefit to make sure your programme has focus and continues to remain focused. Question 1 - Outline Your Goals. I always start off by making sure that I'm on the same page as my clients regarding their need for professional advice and coaching, whether it be fitness, nutrition or both. This comes in the form of clearly outlining their goals. Before anything else, what a client wants to ultimately achieve should come first. A coach should want what’s best for the client too. Too many times have I seen coaches and PTs push their own likes onto their clients. Sometimes this is because they prefer to teach that particular way of training. Sometimes it’s because it will be as far as their expertise goes. When you outline your goals, be sure that the goals are being worked towards in a way that benefits you. If you have an interest in something, it is in proper, diverse programming that it should be encouraged. That's the whole purpose of the relationship between client and coach and the foundation on which any programme develops in the right direction. I like to get my guys to outline three goals, starting with the most significant to them. These can be anything at all, ranging from general better health and fitness to wanting to improve their upper body pushing power for the next years sport's season. Having three outlined goals rather than one hugely overwhelming one allows for a little scope. As a rule of thumb, it can be wise to make one of these goals more short term based. This is great for motivation and the drive needed to reach those larger goals. When you reach a short term goal, replace it. Always have three clear goals to be working at. It's then a good idea to put a realistic time frame on achieving them. Any training programme should have a ‘Rule 1’ that sounds a little something like this; tackle your goals in manageable, small steps. Apply hard work, consistency and patience. Hit these attributes every week and the end game will always look a little closer. Question 2 - Medical Status Once your goals have been outlined, it's now vitally important to make sure that your coach understands any medical complications you might have that could potentially have an effect on your training. If you are doing this without a coach, seeking advice from a professional would be advised before committing to any kind of vigorous programme. Put it this way, if you’ve started training with someone, or somewhere, and your coach hasn’t asked you about your medical health, move on. To me, this is a clear sign that they aren’t invested in your health, and even if they are, they are missing out some absolutely vital information needed to build a good programme.

It’s important to be completely honest here. It doesn’t matter how embarrassing a medical issue might seem to you, your coach should appreciate any information you can provide. It can have huge implications on your programme. If you haven’t discussed these things, then it sounds brutal to say, but you can probably expect something to go wrong at some point. If you are training on your own without the help of a professional, use this as an opportunity to look into your medical condition in more detail, educate yourself about it and find out how it might change the way you eat and exercise.

Tied in with this would be any medications you might be on. In the vast majority of cases, regular training and balanced nutrition is the key to unlocking a healthy lifestyle, but just make sure you have covered all bases. Again, commit to doing some reliable, evidence-based research, or preferably, taking professional advice is advisable. It's also worth considering how any previous injuries might change the way you plan on training. Question 3 - Lifestyle and Habits This seems like quite an obvious aspect to cover before you start training, though, through my own experience as a personal trainer and sport's coach, this is something that doesn't even get a mention by a lot of coaches or gym facilities. Sometimes you have to ask yourself if you're being asked the right questions.

We can keep this simple. There are a few quick questions I like to know about my clients regarding their lifestyle, as each will give me a good insight into their quality of life outside the gym and help me to consider if any aspects of the programme’s foundations need changing in order to help promote good performance and development. These kinds of things aren’t complicated and help to build a picture of the person you are working with. For example, how many hours a night do you sleep on average? Do you smoke or take any recreational drugs? What do you do for a living? Though they seem like highly personal questions, by answering them you're helping to build up that foundation of trust with your coach or PT. Even without a regular coach, it's a nice way to be honest with yourself and track how a programme might be positively changing your quality of life. Questions like this reveal more about your health than you might assume. To make sure you get the best out of your training, it's good to cover all bases.

These first three questions are directly relatable to the client as a person. Understanding exactly what it is they want is paramount. Following this, it’s important to have a good comprehension of their medical history, as ultimately this can have one of the largest impacts on their programme. On a more personal note, it allows you to connect as client and coach on a more personal basis. A client quite often won’t divulge this information to others, so the trust they have there is already something special. This allows a good coach to sympathise and understand where that client may have been, what they’ve been through and how they might still be recovering from it. Lastly here, just understanding the client’s lifestyle habits is going to add more of a ‘human building’ element to any programme. I’ve certainly not been an angel with my time in the past, and not many can say different. This helps to iron out any feelings of judgement the client may feel. It is only after covering these first three areas that I’ll move onto the actual fitness and nutritional side of things. For me, the human, or rather, client, always comes first, then we look at what we have in the bank to build a manageable and efficient programme.

Question 4 – The Fitness & Nutrition Bits

Really, I consider the importance of the fitness and nutritional aspects of a client’s programme to be relative to their goals. For one person, they might want to focus more on the nutritional side of things and may only have the availability to hit the gym two to three times a week due to work and family commitments. Someone else might have their nutrition down to a tee but need help with the way they are shifting the iron inside of the gym. Due to this, realistically it doesn’t matter in which order these questions are asked. As a professional personal trainer, I will still individually develop both fitness and nutritional components that work together in the right way to formulate an overall programme. Much like that of the first three areas I cover in a questionnaire, I make sure I get relevant information from the client.

When it comes to creating a fitness programme, there are again some really fundamental questions a coach should be asking you, or you should be asking yourself. The first is this; how many hours a week can you commit to working out. As far as fitness is concerned, from the get-go you need to set a realistic expectation of how much time you can give. Take into account your career and family. You won’t be able to afford that gym membership without the first, and you’ll be a lot happier with the second than 6-pack abs. The only give here is your social life. If you want those goals bad enough, then you have to make a little sacrifice. No one is saying be a hermit, just accept you’re not going to be hitting up the Xbox or your local every other night. Time management is so crucial when it comes to your fitness. Stay on top of it. A good coach should know exactly how much time you can spare. Spend too much and you won’t be able to maintain your programme. It’ll seem like a chore. Doing more isn’t always the right way to go.

From here, it’s good to know what access you have to complete the fitness part of a potential programme. Do you have access to a gym? If you aren’t attending one, then why not? Is it an educational thing, as in perhaps you lack the confidence to go on your own? What equipment do you have available at home? Again, all of these types of questions can be really revealing when looking at your own habits and potential barriers we might have to getting into some sort of regular training. Write them down, assess them and find the best possible solution to overcome any obstacles. At this stage, it’s also good to know if there are any particular likes or dislikes a client may have. Ask yourself this too. If you are getting into fitness and hate the idea of running, then getting into the gym and trying the treadmill over and over again isn’t going to give you the best experience and sure as hell isn’t going to encourage you to come back. Make sure that you are interested in your programme. If you are interested in your programme, it’s a clear sign your coach or PT is interested in you. Have you tried any fitness programmes in the past? How did you like them? Did you get the results you wanted, and if no, why not?

As far as the nutritional background goes, I take a fairly informal approach here. I like my guys to list (being entirely honest, without trying to impress me) a typical day’s worth of eating habits. This will include their breakfast, lunch, dinner and any snacks and drinks they may have. Nutritional programming can be a delicate and lengthy procedure to get right, so to hit someone with an extensive list of questions can seem intimidating. Keep it short and get a good idea and create a nutritional programme that will develop accordingly alongside everything else. Much like with the fitness side of things, it’s wise to know any nutritional or diet plans that you may have tried, how they felt and whether they worked out.

Sometimes I’ll get several pages of answers. Sometimes I’ll get one-word answers. It doesn’t matter. It’s all relative and reflective of the individual and where they are currently at prior to regular personal training sessions or even remote coaching. I’ll always revisit the vast majority of this material the first time I meet someone face to face. By already having done the questionnaire, a client is more willing to open up and expand on what they have already said. Even if you don’t have a PT or coach, answering some of these questions for yourself can ultimately be a way to stay more honest and in tune with what you’re doing. What I wanted to do here is make sure that anyone seeking professional help in the fitness world was getting what they came for. Make sure that you have a reliable, honest and open relationship with your trainer. Communicated well and always revisit your goals to make sure you’re staying on top. If you stay on top, you can only ever come out on top.