WARNING! Are you burnt out on personal training?

Posted on January 4, 2023

To watch the full video, click here: https://youtu.be/Yv_YmKELgF8

Hey there coaches and athletes. My name is Michael Hughes functional movement specialist and founder of Gymnazo Edu. And if you’re watching this video and you’re feeling exhausted, if you’re feeling unmotivated, depleted, stuck, depressed, sluggish, loss confused or anything else in this realm, then you are burnt out. But that sink in a little bit because you are running an unsustainable level of life, and it’s going to cost you your career in the fitness industry. That’s a sad thing, because people need you. So today, I want to talk about what you can do to avoid burnout and build a sustainable career in this industry. But first, please make sure to like and subscribe to our channel for weekly content on all things related content, including business tips, and coaching skills. Now, just about every trainer burns out at some point, I’ve done it honestly, I’ve gone through about two or three cycles of burnout. It’s almost an inevitable part of being an entrepreneur, right? But building my business, I figured out a way to work reasonable hours, where I get to cash, go on paid vacations, spend time with my family, I have two kids didn’t start that way, started single got a wife, then it got two kids still running this fitness business. And I still have a life outside of serving and training my clients. Basically, I’ve created a sustainable career for myself and for the trainers who work with me within this industry. That doesn’t leave me or them in a constant cycle of burnout. So I’m going to share you a blueprint, a way of thinking that you can get to your sustainable career that you can find the same success that I and my team have had. So you can reclaim your life and still help others live their best pain free lives as well. A tough topic, but I need you to really kind of dive into this blueprint. Because it’s not just go rest. It’s not just go sleep in more, those things don’t fix cycles. Those are band aids. For these processes, even going on vacation does not fix a burnout cycle. If the burnout cycle is your job, you have to change how you do your job. So I’ve got seven different points here that I’m going to unpack for you that may seem different. But again, that’s the point we have to fix the cycle of burnout, versus just warded off for another six more months. So if you understand me on that one, these points are going to make a lot more more sense. So the first thing you’re going to have to do to break your cycle is change how you think about movement. You’re going to have to start thinking about movement as a principle first thought process, meaning what are the truths, undeniable truths and principles of movement that are out there that are known by all mankind by all science? What is the truth about the physics what is the truth about Chain Reaction biomechanics? What is the truth that how people think and act and want to be coached and change their own personal life, because if you can understand the truths, basically mass momentum, ground reaction forces, Newton’s laws, basically, from the physics side, if you understand that the body has three dimensional capacity through in all joints, and all muscles and all connective tissue, that there is a component of, of certain people’s chemistry that pushes recovery that pushes growth that can get over burnt out on their own system. If you go too hard, too fast. If you understand that people need to think as individuals and be encouraged to change themselves, that people want to be spoken to how they want to be spoken to, not how you want to speak to them, that people really want an environment of positivity and change, not negativity, and over being burdened. These truths are inherent in all of our lives. And typically, as fitness trainers, we’re waiting for somebody to tell us what to do, how to think. We’re waiting for someone to say this is the new evidence based practice. This is the new journal that’s coming out. And what it does, it puts you on the backfoot you have to wait for people to tell you how to think so you can feel the confidence to go relay that information to your own clients. Versus if you think from a principle first standpoint, you unpack the truths you. You create the alignment that you want in your practice, because you’re thinking about the truths first. And from those truths, you build your own strategies. And those strategies, therefore will deduced into your techniques into your programming. But we cannot wait on CSCs or NSA or whatever the case is to start saying, Oh, this is the new thing and fitness. Give it a shot. This is what we found by studying stiff 50 people. No, no, no, you’re back footing it. You’re being very, very reactive to the industry versus being pro proactive. First start thinking about principle first thinking about movement related and training related components. So you can be on the cutting edge. And that’s a key piece on not being burned out. Because if you’re, again, you’re always waiting for something you are feeling, you don’t have control. And you do have control, because you’re a smart individual who wants to help people. And the truths are already out there. But we have to put them into the strategy. And we have to put them into the techniques that someone can’t tell you what to do, you have to deduce that yourself. principle based thinking about moving is step number one, on a second thing, that’s an absolute must is you must start treating your clients and your environment like a five star, Ritz Carlton Hotel, though may not look like it, though it may not have the finances behind it like it, you’re going to treat it like that. Because in this industry, that’s so well known for three star customer service. And when you’re getting to more stars, but when you’re putting that extra level, that extra care to your customers and your clients, you’re going to make your life and your marketing and your sales, so much less time intensive. Easy to be said how to get more clients, by first got to get a few, right, and that’s going to be however you want to get them work your tail off, charge them less, whatever you got to do get a few get a handful of clients, once you have those handful of clients, treat them extremely well, because they’re gonna give you the next doubling. And then you treat those 10 clients amazing, and they’re gonna get you 20. It’s this simple knowledge, that reciprocity in this industry is the one the biggest sales and marketing tactics that is just not spoken enough about, don’t try to trick people to come into your doors, treat the people that are in your doors, like a royalty, and they will do the marketing for you, this is gonna save you time, this is gonna save your energy. And you’re gonna realize that they have friends that want to be treated just as well as you’re treating them. And they’d be like, Whoa, what a cool experience. This is, I want to take care of myself that I want to be in an environment that people are taking care of me. And that’s what they’re going to say and it’s going to be huge peace. Got to break the cycle of burnout by reducing your amount of time that you spend in on sales and marketing. The third thing I want you to do, and I want you to start to communicate to your clients that you have, based upon their own personality style. This is a big one, this is a skill set you’re going to have to develop. Because when you start to speak to clients how they want to be spoken to, they start to respond back in a way that makes their communication much more clear. It reduces their anxiety and their energy to make sure that they get the best value out of the session. And overall, good communication is easy for everybody. What happens in this industry so often is that the trainer trains all their clients, the way that the trainer wants to coach people, it’s like their own brand. And if you don’t fit within their brand, then you wait, you just go somewhere else. Well, that’s a really good way to lose clients, when all the coach has to do is understand different personality styles. And there’s basically four basic ones that we’ve broken down, give you a quick little cheat here, quickly cheat sheet. Think of people from a very type a perspective, from a very outgoing, boisterous, like flout exciting style, from very quiet, introverted style. And for those that are very just extremely detailed oriented, those are the four different major client personality types. So you’re going to come across, there’s more details between all of those. But just to make it as simple as possible, train that type a person, like a type A person make their make the examples in the descriptions and their help short and sweet. And to the point, don’t believe them don’t draw something out into super long explanation they want short and quick, they’re going to have so much more connection with your communication and coaching style, that their energy is going to be so much more fluid, and you don’t have to fight with them on whether this person just does too much or not. You’re going to give them right the information they need to know moving on that person who’s a huge talker over the top, you know, interrupting your descriptions, right.

They also want some limelight, but they also want people to kind of jive with him. So partner them together, put them together in a workout but also make their corrections and their descriptions short and simple. Because they also they want the attention to be on them versus the attention to be pulled off them onto you so they’re going to kind of fight for that attention. So give it to them and part of them together so they can feed each other in your workout. For those facilitators for those people who are just kind of quiet and and talkative, you know, don’t yell across the facility to give them this This energy, they don’t want that. But they’re gonna want energy from you that it’s close and localized, where you they can feel your presence and you’re coming alongside them, without blowing them up across the way members, treat them that the way they want to be treated. And they will feel like this is a home for them. And you will get your client retention to crazy, crazy heights. For those detailed tracker kind of devils in the detail people, that’s the people you go into extreme detail with your nerd out with a little bit on the knowledge that you have about movement, and the human experience about in movement, but you do with them, and only with them, you’re into a quarter long drawn out story, you make your workout to description 15 minutes long just to serve them no, no, given the basics, and then during the work is Hey, check this out this Sarah wants you to get that 13 degrees of toe in, sorry, I want you to get that good kind of hip to trunk to shoulder, we’re gonna get this cool word called shoulder protraction going on. That’s where they’re going to be eaten up. So get a quick description of each one of them. And how you communicate to them explicitly how they want to be spoken to, the energy in the room is going to be huge, it’s going to save you the time and energy to try to connect all these people together. Because they’re going to be like knowing that, wow, this coach treats me just the way that I want to be to be treated, I’m in a great spot, I feel good about it, I feel at ease. And then the energy of everything else is huge. So check that out, communicate to clients effectively based on their personality style, then the next skill set you’re going to have to develop to get out of your sustainable or to get into a sustainable career and out of burnout, you’re gonna have to start to understand how to tweak exercises, in the moment on the fly for your group training clients for semi private clients in real time. Because what happens is, as you start to get more more clients, you start to get more people to learn how to manage each and every one of their little movement dysfunctions and the load injuries. And if you don’t know how to tweak exercise to keep them in the groove to get them in the workout and not have them getting benched. Then you’re going to keep a client for a long, long time, every client you’re going to have is going to get tweaked or injured or at some point it is a matter of time. So what do you do about it? How do they not leave your facility, then you’re spending all this time fighting to get new clients back. You keep them in there by understanding how this human body works from a chain reaction biomechanics method. Now there’s a whole whole list of things behind that. But if someone is essentially in their workout and is going through movement pain, don’t just bench them. Understand that if you can change the angulation, you can change how a foot hits, you can change your reach pattern, you can change your range of motion, you can change in an environment of what they’re standing on, you can tweak those little pieces, you’re going to realize that they have so much more to give in that workout. versus saying like, Oh, I can’t do this lunge, I’m have to go do something else they feel removed from the group, they feel removed from the environment. And whenever they feel removed from the environment, it’s like a chunk of them is being torn out of them. And they lose connection with the brand. And that piece, not trying to blow it up to make it something bigger than that it is but it’s these little pieces touchpoints time and time and time again, that allows our clients to feel connected to your facility and your brand or slowly removed from it takes time. But if you can continue to connect and connect and connect and realize Gosh, this trainers just like whenever something’s wrong, like they can manage it, and they can help me get through the workout because getting through the workout is like winning a race. It’s like finishing a race. Right we want to continue to provide positive reinforcements positive reinforcements I can do I can do versus I can’t do I can’t do. And if you know how to tweak exercises in the fly, to reduce movement dysfunction in real time, your clients just going to tell them more people write always comes back to client retention, your ability to keep the clients you have in the door versus fighting for more and more and more. The fifth thing you’re going to need to do. Another skill set brought into your practice is programming sustainable workouts. This may sound basic, this may sound simple, but too many clients too many trainers are experiencing this combination of I’m going to work you out as hard as I possibly can. Every single workout. Even though they’re not professional athletes, they don’t have professional care. They don’t have the massage therapist, they don’t have the nutritionist, they don’t even have a lifestyle that can sustain that for more than a few months. It’s not about how hard you worked with clients but how smart you work your clients. It’s about programming not to kill them to burn as most amount of calories possible to get all the and reps they possibly can. That is not a way to keep clients. It’s a way to get rid of clients. Long term clientele need to be able to work out with you for the rest of their lives as they go through their decades. 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s 80s What if you kept your clients for the next 40 years of your career? Crazy, right? The only way that you can do that is by training and programming for them. So they can actually manage the progressive loads and durations and stresses and intensities that you’re going to give them. Because again, they will hit an injury phase, it’s going to happen. Well, what if they hit 5080 90%, less of those injury phases? Just because you’re programming is smarter versus harder? Again, how do you do those things? Well, we’re gonna talk about that at the very end. But you got to have pre programmed sustainable workouts, if you yourself don’t want to be overworking managing all the different clients, and all their injuries and all the problems that they bring to you on a constant basis, remove those from the equation, smarter workouts. 16 good enough to skill up on to make to get to the next level, is start to conduct movement assessments on your clients, as they begin in your facility as they begin their programming as they begin their journey with you. Because you’re going to catch so many little details from the beginning of their time with you. And they’re going to feel such care and such support from the beginning, that they’re going to be like, gosh, I’ve never had had a coach do this for me, I’ve never had a coach understand my movement dysfunctions from the get go. So they can start to train and partner with me along the way. Think about if you knew every little movement discrepancy about a client of yours before the first workout?

How prepared would you be? How prepared would you be to just say, hey, here’s a trainer you hired on, here’s what they already have. They could take that information and crush that workout. With the customer care, the customer experience a pre tweaked exercises, the communication points that made them feel just so well taken care of that no other facility ever has treated them that well all because you just did a movement assessment before they started their group programming, or semi private programming or whatever. Those little details what movement assessment Whoa, there’s a few of them. How do you do those things? Oh, there’s some details around that. All things we’ll talk about in the end of this video. And the last one, this is the hardest one this is gonna be some that’s gonna have to be leveled up on leveled up on leveled up on is you have to be able to problem solve for movement dysfunction, you have to be essentially a physical therapist in skill set in knowledge of chain reaction biomechanics, in the understanding of human biomechanical processes, and evolutions of movement. How do you do that? Well, it’s a lot of studying, it’s a lot of background. But if you can do that, now you’ve created an ecosystem within your business, where there’s no large reason why a client should ever leave you because of a movement problem. Because an injury that you can’t solve for, because that’s really what has most people leave, they will have a lack of motivation, lack of connection in your in your space, feel like they’re getting beat up, or they did get beat up, physically joints over the top. So if you can solve for each one of those, and each one of these points I have has a means and a system behind it to solve those things, then you’re basically going to keep clients for decades and decades and decades. And you’re only going to add more clients. This is a huge piece of the puzzle that we’ve solved as a business. We put all these seven things into a system into practice. Because it’s basically the system of burning out is that your systems and operations are not being leveraged enough. So your skill sets have to be challenged over and over and over again, you basically want things that run smoothly and efficiently and efficiently. So you don’t have to spend all the manual time and labor time reorganizing yourselves and making something more than what you already already have. So if you want to know our systems, if you want to know our checklist, if you don’t know our processes that we use to run our business, and the list of these things that I mentioned this video, then you have to check out our MDMC mentorship in the description below. We’ve taken all this knowledge and all the best practices helped us create our current business model and pack it on an online community based learning environment that has helped trainers map their own success for their own clients in their own community. And if you want to know more about any of these above skill sets that I talked about in this video, please drop a question in the comments below. Or we can dive into more on our free and new online training community called the movement collective on Discord. Look for that link in the description below as well. We are super excited to offer this community for those who are looking to push themselves and the boundaries of their fitness industry higher and higher. Alright, that’s it for this video. I look forward to hearing from you in our movement collective disk Your channel and I look forward to talking to you next time cheers.