So why hire a fitness coach? We’ll, they’re pretty much like personal trainers on steroids, (not literally of course).
They are several levels up from your standard personal trainer and take a much more holistic approach to your training and the methods they choose to train you.
In this article, I’ll be explaining my top reasons why hiring a fitness coach is something you’ll wish you did years ago.
Sound good?
Let’s go…
Most people have heard of gym instructors, fitness instructors, group exercise instructors, and of course, personal trainers. But, have you ever heard of a fitness coach before?
A lot of people haven’t, which means you’re missing out on some pretty awesome benefits they could bring to your training. I’m going to try to stop that right now, by unleashing my top reasons that hiring a fitness coach.
Top Ten Reasons To Hire A Fitness Coach
- You’re more likely to get results
- Your results will last longer
- They’ll really listen to you
- They’ll be realistic with goal setting
- They won’t sugarcoat anything!
- They’ll assess your biomechanics
- They are more dedicated to you
- They’re highly qualified
- They teach you to be accountable
- They establish a deep connection with you
- They don’t only help you get “physically” fit
- They’ll identify and strengthen your weaknesses
- They’ll push you physically and mentally
- They’ll keep up to date with the latest research
- They’ll improve your work/life balance
1. You’re more likely to get results
Your standard PT will take your goals into account when writing up your exercise routine, they’ll then of course walk you through the exercises and push you to work hard, but that’s where things usually end.
A fitness coach, however, takes your whole life into account when setting your goals and creating your workout routine, making sure they are realistic and attainable. By taking lifestyle, psychological and physical elements into account, you are far more likely to be able to achieve your goals.
For example, if you want to lose weight, most standard PTs will tell you to eat fewer calories and exercise more, but what if you have three kids at school and your stress levels are through the roof? It’d be a lot harder for this person to lose weight than it would a person who is calm and has fewer stressors to battle.
A fitness coach will take all this into account, working with your lifestyle and helping to improve it rather than fighting against it.
2. Your results will last longer
It’s a great thing to see people getting great results from their training, I’ve seen plenty of my clients lose a lot of weight, gain lots of muscle, and completely changing their shapes.
But what happens once the training ends? Not many people are lucky enough to carry on training with a PT forever, and slowly over time the clients fall back into old bad habits, come to the gym less and slowly lose motivation.
A fitness coach will teach you how to look after yourself when you aren’t working with them from the start of their training with you. They’ll teach you how to find your own motivation and keep training with the same intensity and enthusiasm long after your training sessions with them have ended.
You’ll not only keep the great results you gain whilst training with them, but you’ll also keep getting better and better!
3. They’ll really listen to you
I’m pretty sure I wasn’t guilty of this as a trainer myself, but I know a lot of PTs that will ask questions during rest periods purely to make conversation and not really pay any attention to the answer. They are really just asking a question so that the client speaks long enough to fill up the awkward minute or so before the next set begins.
A fitness coach really does care about what you say, details of your lifestyle, (no matter how small) can play a huge part in how efficiently their training programs will be.
If they ask what you are up to at the weekend and you say you are going to a bbq at your friends, you can be certain they are going to care about what you will be eating and drinking.
The point is, fitness coaches aren’t just making conversation, they are paying close attention to you, looking for clues like detectives to find potential issues that could harm your progress.
4. They’ll be realistic with goal setting
Walk up to a personal trainer in a box gym and tell them you want to lose two stones within the next one and a half months, I’m very confident you’ll get a bunch of very enthusiastic trainers who will take you up on the challenge. This is mostly because they have expensive rent to pay and will pretty much say yes to any client that comes to them.
A fitness coach is different. A fitness coach should explain that losing that kind of weight in such a short period of time is not only unrealistic but pretty unhealthy too. They will work with you to establish why it is that you need to lose the weight by this time and then set a more realistic goal within the timeframe you’ve given.
This is important because instead of being disappointed by not losing all the weight you wanted with a trainer, a coach will show you how to be ecstatic about the weight you did manage to lose, and then carry on afterward.
5. They won’t sugar-coat anything!
With a fitness coach, you’re paying for just that, a coach, not a buddy, not a friend, and certainly not someone that will sit and tell you that you’re doing great and everything is going well just to keep you happy as a client.
With a coach, you will get the truth, no matter how hard it might be to hear. You’re paying for results, and a coach will get you them, but if you aren’t listening to their advice, or you are directly going against it, you’d better believe they will confront you about it.
Their reputation is built on results, even more so than regular trainers because they are generally more expensive, so if you don’t listen and don’t get the results you’ve paid for, it’s their reputation on the line. They’ll also be blunt because they know you have it in you to achieve what you’re after.
6. They’ll assess your biomechanics
Biomechanics is the study of movement and mechanical laws within the body. It’s important for coaches because they can assess your movement patterns to see where there are weaknesses or mechanical issues that could hinder your progress that need to be corrected.
Some personal trainers have a little knowledge of biomechanics, but only if it’s an interest of theirs, it’s not taught in any of the standard courses that 95% of trainers will have taken. Fitness coaches have extensive skill sets, and generally have a far greater knowledge and understanding of anatomy, this is one of the factors you’re paying for.
Without addressing underlying issues in the body, your progress will be slow and injury could occur. The greater level of care taken by a coach makes sure this doesn’t happen.
7. They are more dedicated to you
As I stated, fitness coaches are more expensive than personal trainers, the benefit you get from this is that they don’t need to fill every hour of their day with clients, giving them much more time they can dedicate to you achieving the results you’re after.
A fitness coach will be able to take the time to sit down and really think hard about how they can improve your workout program, how to improve any mental health issues you are facing, and battle any roadblocks.
This is something I can assure you a personal trainer never has the time to do, which is a shame. I remember having to complete a full sixteen-hour workday and then go home to write programs up before going to bed each night, there certainly wasn’t time to go through each of my client’s personal issues too.
When you hire a coach, you are their client, and they will dedicate as much time as they possibly can to you.
8. They’re highly qualified
Personal trainers are qualified, let me get that straight out there, but for a trainer to evolve into a fitness coach, they are going to need to do some serious additional learning and get a whole bunch more certifications.
Biomechanics, advanced trainer courses, behavioral change, and adaptation courses, you name it, a fitness coach has probably taken a course and is certified in it. There isn’t an actual “fitness coach” certification as such, the role is more of a super-advanced personal trainer.
They will also always be on the lookout for new courses and studies they can learn to help their clients achieve the best results possible.
9. They teach you to be accountable
Your coach can’t do everything for you, only you can get the results you’re after. Your coach can teach you everything you need to know, they can help with the motivation, the drive and remove as many obstacles as possible, but it is up to you to put in the effort and keep the momentum going to actually achieve them.
You may be paying significantly more money for a coach than a personal trainer, but that doesn’t mean anything changes in what’s required of you as a client. You will get a lot more time and effort spent on you, but your trainer will make it perfectly clear why it’s so important that you take accountability for what you get from their training.
10. They establish a deep connection with you
Any athlete will tell you that their coaches aren’t like a teacher in a school, you don’t just finish your lesson and leave, you make a strong connection with your coach because they need to know as much about you as possible.
It’s possible to create a strong bond with a personal trainer, and I always tried to make sure this happened with my clients, but it’s difficult as you can dedicate so little time to them. A coach however has the time to learn everything about what makes you the person you are.
They know your strengths, your weaknesses, what makes you happy, and what makes you sad. This kind of knowledge is usually reserved for very close friends or family, because of this, your coach becomes a big part of your life, which is why they can have so much positive influence and help you to make enormous changes to it.
11. They don’t only help you get “physically” fit
Your main reason to seek the advice of a fitness coach is almost certainly to help you increase your fitness, but they can do so much more than this.
Whilst many of them are not trained psychologists, they will have usually been on courses designed to help people change negative behaviors, and they may have some knowledge with mental health coaching.
Much as they cannot formally diagnose you, you can ask for, and they can give the advice to help you through difficult situations in your life if they feel it is having a negative impact on your training.
I’m sure you have heard about Olympic athletes getting “In the zone” before competition time? Well, their coaches will help them achieve this by teaching them to block out negativity and focus on positive thinking by envisioning a victory. Coaches are great at helping you through tough times both physically and mentally.
12. They’ll identify and strengthen your weaknesses
It’s nice to be told you’re doing great, it’s nice to be told that you’re making great progress, but having a cheerleader always by your side isn’t actually as beneficial as you’d think.
You need to be told where you’re going wrong, you need to be told if you’re not working hard enough, and if you aren’t making the progress you should be, you really should expect a sit-down conversation about what’s going wrong.
Remember, you’re paying for a coach to get you results, not to be your best friend that only tells you nice things. If you want to get the best results possible, you need to expect your coach to both praise your strengths and address your weaknesses.
By finding and not ignoring your weaknesses, they can be worked on, improved and your entire training regime will be vastly improved.
13. They’ll push you physically and mentally
Giving up is not an option for professional athletes, they train hard, they’re focused and they don’t work with a coach for months and sometimes years of their lives just to give up.
A fitness coach will treat you as an athlete, they will push you, and in your weaker moments where you might want to give up, a fitness coach won’t let you.
They’ll fully prepare you for the bad times and how to deal with them, this is especially important because it’s something that personal trainers would love to do but just can’t offer.
For example, a common reason for people quitting training is because they hit a plateau and decide nothing is going to work for them, so they quit.
A fitness coach will explain how a plateau is completely normal, it can be worked through and beaten. They’ll do this with any potential issues either physical or mental that they predict you may come up against.
14. They’ll keep up to date with the latest research
Fitness coaches never stop learning, they’ll constantly be on the lookout for the most up-to-date research, white papers, professional websites, and peer-reviewed literature they can find. This makes sure they’re never left behind if sudden changes in training methods are made.
You’d be surprised how often this happens, dietary recommendations are changing constantly. What was best practice twenty years ago is pretty different from what you see being taught to students these days.
A personal trainer may go on a certification course, complete the nutritional portion, and once completed, never look into it again (not all trainers, of course, I just know a lot that didn’t care about learning once they had their certificate).
A fitness coach would never do this, again, probably because they have the time to sit down and purposefully set aside time for research to help their clients get the most from the training.
15. They’ll improve your work/life balance
You want results, and your coach will do everything in their power to get you them, what they won’t want you to do, is to put your entire life on hold to do it.
A fitness coach teaches you how to work smart and not waste any time. It’s important that when you’re in the gym, you give it your all, but it’s equally important to relax and take the rest of your daily life into account.
Without an equal work/life balance, an intense training schedule is unsustainable. There’s very little chance that after a long day of stressful work, you are going to have the motivation to get in a gym and give it your all. A fitness coach would teach you ways to deal with stressors in your life or to eliminate them altogether.
Conclusion
Fitness coaches cost more to hire than personal trainers, but you get so much more from them. They spend more time planning, organizing, and making sure that they improve not only your physical but your mental health too.
You’re much more likely to achieve your goals with a fitness coach, so if you’ve been disappointed with the results you got from a personal trainer in the past, I really suggest you give a fitness coach a go instead.
It’ll be worth every penny!
Go get ’em!
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