In my twenty-five (plus) years of managing gyms, owning gyms and working on gym floors, I’d say that about one person per year asked me about my qualifications and academic background. Yep, one person. In my time as a trainer, I personally completed more than 40,000 (mostly one-on-one) sessions. That’s a lot of listening and observing, I can tell you. During that time, rarely did a client ask me a technical or scientific question and rarely, did I talk about myself or my life beyond the walls of the gym.

Physical or Psychological?

Yes, I would give them relevant advice, direction and feedback regarding their physical transformation (of course) but mostly, what we talked about was not the science of the getting-in-shape experience (as such) but rather, the people stuff that drives the whole process. We spoke about their feelings, beliefs and fears. Their family. Their history. Their experiences. Their expectations, hopes, dreams and goals. In short, we spoke about them. Their purpose. Their reality. Their life. Why? Because (1) people love to talk about themselves (2) they like someone else to care (3) they want someone to be genuinely invested in their transformation and (4) the session was always about them – not me.

What People Want

I started working in gyms when I was eighteen. Before I was nineteen I realized that my greatest asset as a trainer and coach would be my ability to make people feel valued, respected and important. Nearly thirty years down the track, my advice for anyone in a teaching, coaching, mentoring and/or management (type) role is to pay attention, ask great questions, pay more attention and talk about you only when necessary