Great Instruction is Very Important!

Essentially exercise instruction is where the ‘rubber meets the road’.

In order for a client to be safe, complete exercises effectively and have a sense of mastery (i.e. I’m really doing this now, and doing it well!) they must learn how to complete exercises correctly.  As a gym instructor /exercise consultant you will demand a lot of your client during instruction because you need to make sure they can understand and complete exercises independently.  For personal trainers there is less urgency as you will have a greater level of contact with your clients, however you will still want to make sure your clients are great at the exercises so you don’t have to spend as much time repeating information and can spend more time and effort on motivating clients and ensuring sessions are enjoyable.

If a client isn’t completing an exercise properly then they are more likely to injure themselves, less likely to get results, more likely to have someone else approach them to offer help (remember big Billy Bob the member who is just so keen to be a trainer!), and less likely to follow your programme exactly (if you haven’t instructed them well they won’t know why each exercise is important and may well miss or leave out certain exercises).

We recommend demanding perfection in exercise execution.  What this means is that you will constantly engage clients on the gym floor to improve what they do and/or reinforce the fact they are doing it well.  A client will never say ‘I don’t want to get this right, so please ignore me and just let me mess my body up’.  We don’t believe exercise consultants and personal trainers should just let ‘okay’ exercise technique go.  One of the advantages of our situation in the fitness industry is that we can see if things are right, and we have the time to fix them if they are not.

And a word about the developing industry practise of having gym instructors or exercise consultants ‘clean’ gear and leave clients to be approached/corrected only by personal trainers.  This is a gargantuan mistake.  We love the idea that a consultant will naturally clean what needs cleaning, and if they are smart use it as a reason to talk to shy clients (clean the kit right next to them and strike up a conversation).  Research into the industry has highlighted that things like cleanliness are very important to clients and make up a baseline expectation that must be addressed.  However, not approaching clients and correcting/reinforcing their efforts is industry suicide.  Again, research is clear on this; the approachability, accessibility and pro-activeness of all staff (gym instructors, exercise consultants and personal trainers) is vital to a clients feelings of belonging, care and value within a club.

There is also a flow through affect here.  If gym clients think that the consultant doesn’t care, why would they expect a trainer to be any better, even if they paid for the attention?  And if they have to pay to get cared about, what will their loyalty to the club brand be like?  And, if the consultants are poor in their attitude, why would they even bother to invest in a potentially poor trainer? 

The key here is that the whole approach within the club is anchored in what is done at every level.  You can not effectively promote PT by demoting exercise consultants.  A favourite analogy is this; if I sold you a 20 inch TV that proved to be really rubbish, then turned up with a 30 inch TV telling you it was fantastic and that you should buy it because I know the 20 inch one was rubbish when you bought it, how would you feel about making that investment with me?

So consultants, get on to the floor, take ownership and polish your interpersonal and instruction skills as much as the equipment.  And trainers – you’re not above grabbing a cloth and cleaning the equipment in the club if it needs doing.  If you’re a little shy approaching people then clean the equipment nearby as a way to help initiate conversation or offer exercise instruction advice.  Remember – the more gym clients feel that all staff care, the more open they will be to trying additional services such as PT.

When does instruction take place?

A significant amount of instruction must take place in the first month of a client’s time at the club.  It should also take place at any time where a client isn’t performing their exercises perfectly yet. 

Research into retention has shown that the contact and support over the first month is vital.

• Nearly 30% of new members visit their club less than once a week in the first month after joining. By the third month 40% fail to visit once a week
• On average, new members make 6 visits to their club in the first month after joining
• There is a dose response relationship between the frequency of visits in month one and the 12-month retention rate
• Low frequency users who increase their usage between months 1 and 3 also increase their annual retention rate

It shows that if you don’t care, they won’t come!

How do you instruct well?

There are four basic processes that can be used repeatedly as needed.  We will cover these in detail subsequent pages at ptdirect.  To summarise though, the four processes are;

1.  Feature, benefit, feel.  What is the exercise? Why are we doing it? What should I feel about it?
2.  Show, tell, do.  Watch me, here’s the key points (no more than 3), let’s do one (physically and verbally cue especially the first few times)
3.  Commend, recommend, commend (sandwich your feedback).  Positive, correction, positive reinforcement.
4.  Question, remind, summarise and make notes.  What, why, when, where, how.  Fill the gaps.  Summarise back and add notes to the programme as required.

If you use these skills and you get to the end of a session and the client isn’t quite sorted, re-book them and go over the trouble spots again.  There is no point in half cooking a meal.

How do you get good at instructing clients?

Practise your instruction all the time with clients and watch the effect it has as you improve at each process. 

Feature, benefit and feel is practised usually when teaching an exercise for the first time and you’ll get lots of opportunity to do that! 

Show, tell, do is usually when you first teach an exercise or if you’re starting again because a client hasn’t been taught an exercise properly.

Commend, recommend, commend is a staple diet for any consultant or trainer as they walk the gym floor.  Also, don’t be afraid to just commend, commend, commend if someone is doing things really well.  People catch on quickly – if you only approach those doing things wrong (even if you ‘CRC’) they will know as you come toward them they are ‘messing up’.  Some will even turn and say ‘what am I doing wrong’ as you get there!  If this is the case, spend as much time positively reinforcing those doing it right, as you do correcting those doing it poorly.

Question, remind, summarise, and make notes is something you will get to do when you teach someone a new programme or update an old one.  You may also get that opportunity when working with clients on the floor if there is something you’ve found they don’t understand well enough when you go up to help them.

It’s always very striking when someone is good at this stuff.  That is actually one of the issues for industry – shouldn’t it be striking when we find someone who isn’t good at this?  If you are working as a consultant and one day want to be a personal trainer the instruction skills covered here will feed your business very well and help immensely with the retention of clients.  Maybe it’s worth working really hard to be great at instruction despite your current pay, your early shift, or your need for a cup of tea.  The more skilled you are...the more valuable you become to clients!