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Personal
Training: 5 Easy Steps to Sanity on the Road
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by: Aaron
M. Potts, ISSA CFT
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If
you have been a personal trainer for any length of
time - or any fitness professional, for that
matter - then you know what it's like to spend a
lot of time on the road. For trainers who work
with their clients in homes or a geographic mix of
local fitness facilities, you especially have some
serious time behind the wheel on a regular basis.
Regardless of where you train your clients, most
trainers spend a good deal of time driving to and
from training sessions, seminars, and other
work-related activities. For most people, that
time ends up being "dead time", during
which you really can't be very productive. Listed
below are some great ideas for making the most of
that time, and making it time that you even look
forward to!
Audio Learning
Audio learning is listed first in our list of
great ideas because it is VERY powerful on many
levels, and there are numerous resources available
for this productive practice. The basic idea here
is that you listen to any number of audio learning
resources while you are driving. You don't have
anything else to do, and you can't effectively or
safely do anything with your hands, but your EARS
are just fine, so put them to work!
Here are some of the educational and motivational
items that you might consider listening to, and
many of them have resources geared specifically
for fitness professionals: Self-help programs,
Audio interviews, Recorded conference calls,
Recorded radio programs, Career enhancement tools,
and Motivational recordings.
As you can see, there are enough ideas for things
to listen to while driving to fill up endless
hours of time, and if you know where to look,
there are literally more things to listen to than
you will even have time for.
We won't get into too many details, since it would
take a large amount of text, but here are some
great resources to get you started. Self-help,
motivational audio, and recorded conference calls
are items very specific to your individual tastes
and situation. As for the rest, here are some
fitness industry specific resources:
Audio Interviews:
http://www.personaltraineru.com
Recorded Radio Programs:
http://philkaplan.com/thefitnesstruth/RadioShowMENU.htm
Career Enhancement Tools:
http://www.fitnessdestinations.com/fitnessinfoproducts.html
http://www.fitnessdestinations.com/sixfiguretrainer.html
http://www.fitnessdestinations.com/personaltrainersecrets.html
Planning Workouts
Driving time is a perfect time to work on the
training protocols for your clients. If you are
doing the same workouts week after week and month
after month, both you and your clients are going
to get bored doing the same thing all the time. A
great way to keep your own motivation up while
also keeping your clients from hitting plateaus in
their training programs is to change up the
training routines on a regular basis.
Think about all of the muscular and cardiovascular
training principles that you are familiar with,
and come up with new and inventive ways to put
those resources together in effective training
routines. Also, for specific clients, you can
spend that driving time thinking about their
individual workouts, and ways that you can make
them more intense, or fill them with more variety.
This is a valuable practice, especially if you
have long-term clients who need things to be
changed up on a regular basis.
Working on Products
Another trait shared by many successful trainers
is that their actual training wages make up only
part of their income. They also have many products
that they sell to their clients, through their
websites, and via their newsletter distribution
lists. However, just as with training, the same
products can only be utilized so many times, and
driving time is a perfect time to think up new
product ideas.
Whether you are talking about
"information" products, such as books,
e-books, CD's, DVD's, manuals, etc., or if you
construct actual training equipment, use that dead
time when you are driving to think of cutting edge
product ideas that will not only help your target
audience towards their goals, but will also make
you a nice residual income in the process.
A great example of this is the Ultimate Complete
Personal Training Business Kit. This kit was
constructed simply by taking the experiences and
knowledge of one trainer, putting it all together
in a downloadable package, and making the kit
available to others in the fitness industry. Learn
more here: http://www.completepersonaltrainingbusiness.com.
Making Phone Calls
As most trainers have realized, phone work is an
integral part of keeping a steady flow of clients.
Contacting and following up with prospective
clients is a sure-fire way to keep your training
schedule packed from week to week.
In addition, you can call your present clients to
check on them. See how they feel after yesterday's
brutal leg workout, or find out if their sore
shoulder is feeling any better, or maybe check in
with them to ask how their job interview went, or
their anniversary dinner. TALK to your clients!
When they know that you care, they will keep
training with you!
Nothing!
One of the most effective things that you can do
as a busy personal trainer when you are driving is
NOTHING! Just let your mind be blank. Pay
attention to the road, obviously, but otherwise,
just enjoy some mental down time!
You spend hour after hour every single day
training, motivating, and educating countless
people. Sometimes to the point that if you tell
one more person the proper way to do a push up,
you just might have to SCREAM!
Let those mental energies have a well deserved
break! Listen to some relaxing music and (safely)
let your mind wander. Crank out some hard rock and
sing your frustrations into the wind. Plan your
next bout of Karaoke - whatever! The point is that
you are doing anything BUT putting your brain on
overdrive.
Conclusion
Your time traveling from place to place is YOUR
time. Use it well and you will find both your
success and your sanity under control, and keep
both headed in the right direction!
About the author:
Aaron Potts is the author and creator of The
Ultimate Complete Personal Training Business Kit,
a quick-start kit and business guide for new as
well as seasoned fitness professionals. Aaron's
experience as a Fitness Professional has included
management positions with local and nationally
known fitness facilities, as well as in-home and
outdoor training with clients from all walks of
life. Find out more about Aaron's programs at http://www.completepersonaltrainingbusiness.comor
his personal training site at http://www.aaronspersonaltraining.com
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