Don't be held hostage

You go to school to learn all you can about a subject, then graduate to be able to go on and use what you’ve practiced. With personal training and coaching it should be no different. Trainers and Coaches should be educating their people to be able to understand the fundamentals of what they are training towards.

Many trainers just write plans without explaining the methods behind them, creating a dependency between the client and the trainer. As soon as the trainer is removed, the client most likely will fail at their program, whether due to lack of accountability or lack of knowledge. A trainer should not be creating a relationship where the client is solely dependent on them… that’s a hostage situation.

...“But isn’t that a bad business model for a trainer?”. Yes, it is if a trainer relies on a client constantly failing at their goals so they have a paycheck. For example; if someone is repeatedly coming to a trainer for fat loss, but the trainer doesn’t teach them how to exercise on their own and/or teach them how to read basic nutrition labels (instead relying on a cookie-cutter meal plan), they are setting that client up for failure. Whether this is intentional or due to incompetence, it doesn’t matter, the results-or the lack thereof-are the same; the client is a hostage.

A good trainer will teach their client techniques to succeed and not need to keep rehashing the same struggle over-and-over again. That doesn’t mean that the person can’t remain a loyal lifetime client with their trainer/coach… it just means they need to learn how to succeed at that goal, make NEW GOALS, and “graduate” to a new program. For instance; once a weight-loss client has reached their bodyweight goal, the trainer could help them maintain while refocusing on new goals like “Run their first 5k”, “Compete in a local weightlifting meet”, or “Go backpacking for a weekend”. One of the most important jobs of a trainer is to keep their people consistently moving forward towards their goals.