How Do People ‘Change’?

When a new member arrives at a fitness club they have often gone through a number of ‘stages’ of change already.  Rarely does someone wake up one day and just decide to join a club.  It’s most likely a process that happens over time and is driven by a desire for some sort of change in themselves and their lives.  It may be that they want to change how their body looks or functions or how they feel about themselves.  They may have been thinking about making changes for some time and finally, due to their circumstances and their feelings, they have joined a club and want to get started.

This is just one of the reasons why being a warm, pro-active, inviting and professional personal trainer can make your club (and your PTbusiness) highly successful.  Remember, you are not delivering an exercise programme or session; you are treating members to a great experience with you that they will want to come back to.

What are the ‘stages of change’ a member might go through?

The stages of change model proposes that people move from

□   Not thinking they need to change (the pre-contemplation stage)

□   Considering the pro’s and con’s of changing (contemplation)

□   Deciding change would be desirable and looking at options (planning)

□   Choosing an option and getting organised to do it (preparation)

□   Doing it (action)

□   The old behaviour is gone and the new one is in place consistently (termination)

□   The old behaviour has come back and the person is at a different stage again (relapse)

□   the new behaviour has become a real habit and it would feel unusual to ‘not do it’ (maintenance)

Once a person is in ‘action’ it is thought that they will put about 3-6 months worth of effort and focus into changing that area of their lives.  This correlates well with research into retention in fitness clubs.  It showed that after six months of a membership it is extremely (1-2% of the time you can do it) hard to change a person’s attendance patterns.  It seems ‘action’ for most people is a window of opportunity that they only open up for a period of time.

This makes sense as you will see later that unsuccessful change is quite challenging for someone’s self esteem (the regard someone has for themselves).  So to continue when you’re not making headway and your personal feelings are taking a hammering is not smart.  To a degree, disengagement (giving up) after a period of attempting change, is quite logical.

At each of these stages a person can be influenced and encouraged to move forward to the next stage, or discouraged and moved backward.  When someone moves backward it is called ‘relapse’. 

How can I tell which ‘stage of change’ someone is at?

When people are at different stages they say and do different things.  Here are some examples of things people might say at each stage.

What can you do as a personal trainer with people at each stage of change?

Because each stage of change is a little different the approach you take as a personal trainer is also different. 

At each stage peoples’ willingness to take action increases.  You should note that a person’s willingness to take action is made up of a mix of their belief that they can do it (they have time, resources, ability), and that the result is one they desire.  So to move a person from one stage to another your aim really is to affect their understanding of:

□      What am I like?

□      What can be done about that?

□      What might be best for me?

□      How can I do that?

□      How can I adjust this to better suit me?

□      How can I make sure I keep this up or change to another suitable option?

The following table summarises the approach that can be taken at each stage of change.  Remember, that the people who are exercising at your club wont be at a stage before ‘action’, and some will be in ‘maintenance’.  Some non-attendees may have relapsed to a stage before action.  Otherwise the people you meet in the earlier stages of change will most likely be friends, family, acquaintances or the general public.