Following up on the previous post “What’s Wrong With The Fitness Industry”, I wanted to share my thoughts since so many of you we’re good enough to share your take on the problems our industry has.
First off, I think there are a variety of problems, not just one or two. So here’s my list:
A Focus On Everything But Results – If you go to the mechanic, you go to get your car fixed…not just worked on, right? It’s pretty much that way for any service.
If I drop my clothes of at the dry cleaner, it’s because I want them clean and pressed.
In fact, if my car isn’t fixed or my clothes aren’t cleaned – the service provider didn’t do their job.
The fitness industry’s job is to get people results. Not just ‘work them out’.
These are far from perfect analogies because they deal with objects like cars and clothes – not people – but the point remains.
If gyms and trainers were graded on the outcomes they deliver to their clients – most would get an ‘F.’
You can argue that their job isn’t to provide the outcome – it’s to deliver the tools or the process.
Fair enough – but if that’s the case they shouldn’t be using the outcome (results) to sell the clients.
If the industry focused more on delivering results businesses would be a lot healthier and clients would be a lot happier.
The Typical Health Club Approach To Business – For the most part health clubs do nothing more than rent their members access to their equipment. They put little if any effort into building relationships with their members, helping members achieve their goals and essentially delivering on the promises they made in order to sell the membership.
They’re too busy chasing the next member.
It’s little wonder the typical club only has about 30% of their members actively using the facility and only about 3% involved with personal training.
If a member hasn’t visited the club in a couple of weeks, do they get a call or a note wondering where they’ve been? Nope – no one cares…until it’s time to renew.
I know of no other ‘service’ business in the world that provides less actual service than big box clubs.
Personal Trainers That Don’t Respect The Profession – While a lot of people get caught up in other things like ‘there are too many certifications’ – I just think that most of the trainers you find in clubs – and a significant percentage of the trainers in the industry as a whole just don’t get it.
As simply as I can put it – the job of a trainer is to make their client ‘better.’
‘Better’ can mean any number of things depending on the client’s goals.
Unfortunately, most trainers are just busy making clients tired. They just give them a workout with no real concern as to the client’s goals.
If you go to a doctor, you don’t just want a random prescription. You want one that will cure what ails you.
Same thing applies here.
That means more focus on trainers becoming better trainers. More education. More assessments. More thought to program design.
It makes me throw up in my mouth a little when I read someone suggesting that they just dream up their bootcamp workout as it’s going on.
If you’re charging someone for a professional service, treat the service with respect.
Bad Business Models – Only offering 1 on 1 training so only the affluent can afford training held back the personal training industry for so long it’s scary. Finally the industry has evolved so that more people can afford to work with a professional coach / trainer. Multiple offerings = better reach. That’s one side of it. The other side is that most people with the title ‘personal trainer’ work in a club setting and make $7 a session for 4 months then decide to get a real job.
To deliver a professional level of service the business model needs to accommodate paying professionals. In most club settings, the only person in the training department making a decent wage is the person doing the selling.
Don’t mistake this for needing to start every trainer out at $25 per hour or more. They just need a career path that allows them to grow within the profession if we want more stability and a better quality of service.
No Career Path For Trainers – Personal training is a very young profession. How many retired trainers do you know of?
With this youth comes a lack of development within the profession. It’s kinda like the wild west in a sense.
Once you get a certification or a degree and decide to set out on your career – where do you start?
For a seldom few – they get to do an internship with someone really good and are set on a sound path.
For a few others, maybe they come across a blog like this or the IYCA where I (or someone smarter) can help them pursue an entrepreneurial path.
But for most, they head to the local health club and get caught up in the turn and burn nature of that environment. A few survive, but most move on to another career. And the club members are probably the biggest losers of all as they only the rawest of trainers and a club environment that is focused far more on sales than service.
Honestly, this is an area that I would like to one day be able to look back and say I had an impact on helping to develop career paths for fitness professionals – but this is at best a work in progress.
No Understanding Of Social Support – Too many people in this industry think that there is a magic program that fixes everything and give little concern to the other variables (outside of discussing nutrition) that impact results.
Clients don’t live in a vacuum.
To really make change happen you need to embrace the other things that impact client success. Atmosphere matters. Community matters. Social support matters.
If you as the trainer or a gym owner creates an atmosphere that is motivating to your clients – average programming will deliver above average results.
If your clients have a community – they have social support – they’ll be more accountable not only when they’re in the gym, but for the 23 hours they’re not each day.
I don’t care if you love programs like CrossFit and Zumba or hate them. They certainly do one thing better than most everyone else in the fitness world – they create a community atmosphere. People wear the fact that they do CrossFit or Zumba like a badge of honor. If other programs got their participants to become ambassadors for what they do like these programs do – retention and reach would be far smaller problems.
Too Much Sizzle – Junk ab gizmos on TV promising you’ll fit back into your skinny jeans for only 3 easy payments of $49.95. Magic pills to make you thin. 5000 diet books all trying to say ‘Eat Less’ in a catchier way. Hundreds of E-Books all providing the secrets to being buff – with 2/3 of them written by people with less experience working with clients than my 8yr old has.
The consumer gets so caught up in the bullshit that they often either give up or don’t have a realistic perception of what attaining results requires. Or worse yet – we get caught up in the bullshit and focus on the quick buck instead of building a high-impact career.
Those are the big problems I see in the fitness industry right now. Next week I’ll tell you how I think you can take advantage of the opportunities they present.
In the mean time, tell me what you think below.
Dedicated to your success,
Pat Rigsby
Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.
Tell me what you think?
Am I off base?
Is ‘too many trainers’ more of a problem than I suggest?
I think that having a career path will weed out the bad ones – but am I wrong?
Do we need to be licensed like Physical Therapists or Massage Therapists?
Tell me…
Pat,
I consider myself an expert in two areas, corporate wellness and personal training, and the common problems within each area is that there’s a whole lot of talk and very little action.
We talk a good game, but when the rubber meets the road, there’s a huge disconnect between what we say and what we do.
I recently spoke to a group of CEO’s, HR Directors and Corporate Wellness Leaders, at the Corporate Wellness Conference, in Los Angeles, CA. My message was simple…SHUT UP and TAKE ACTION. As Elvis Presley’s song said “A Little Less Talk and A Lot More Action” is what we need.
My advice to trainers is to quit telliing people how good and wonderful you are and just delivering results…they’ll tell everyone else how good you are and your studios and camps will be full of healthy, happy clients and campers.
Pat,
I remember trying to get some articles printed in the industry magazines. The chains don’t want to hear and the magazine editors don’t want to lose their sponsors.
Have you noticed the clubs have yet to embrace social media? It’s a one way conversation and all about the bottom-line. As you say, Pat, there is no setup either for community support in achieving results. It’s no longer just about when people showup (or don’t) for workouts. With techonology today, they can feel part of something 24/7.
I’ve heard club owners talk about how they compete with Leisure in general – ten pin bowling, cinema, skating etc Think they know what their product is – let alone know how to measure and track results?! Enough said.
But what an opportunity for forward thinking freelance personal trainers … when clubs are so slow to adapt …
Fantastic post Pat. I so agree on the fact that our main concern is to get results for our clients. The way you worded your first point says exactly what I’ve been thinking about our local health club (YMCA) since I started up business.
I live in a very small country town and everyone here has been so disillusioned by the fitness industry and have just about given up on ever changing their health and fitness levels.
I’m setting about changing this. Starting with 2 friends for clients, I’m showing people that everyone can be fit and healthy if they put in the effort and follow the right program for them.
I’ve developed a community/tribe of about 60 (so far) clients who have become addicted to fitness and work together towards what is overall one common goal.
I’m loving this as I see them literally disappearing before my eyes, gaining energy and getting that sparkle back. Most of them look 10 years younger than when I first met them and they sure as hell feel it too.
Thanks so much for the inspiration you provide
Jo
I really love what you had to say, Pat.
I’m in a small-medium sized town and am having problems getting my boot camps up off of the ground because people are sick of what they’ve been fed in the past. Our town used to have one fitness club and two small gyms. Now there’s two large fitness clubs (the old original one closed up), and tons of women’s fitness clubs, and a smattering of small gyms all over the place. The people who have come to my camp most recently love what they are experiencing, but they are extremely hesitant prior to starting, thinking that my boot camps are just another gimmick. They are shocked when I offer them a complete nutrition plan and that I actually take the time to talk to them individually if they have questions or concerns. ??? Why is this? What are these other trainers in town doing? One lady actually was injured doing a one-class-fits-all boot camp and she never heard back from the trainer to see how she was doing.
This town I’m in is definitely going to be a challenge but I’m hopeful that I can make a difference one client at a time. (But I’d take a couple dozen if they wanted to come…)
Well put Pat…thank you for your share.
May I add a point of view to what you speak about regarding results?
I agree and ask why do trainers sell the outcome as results? A client comes to bring his own results. Results are not delivered, as it is not the trainer doing the work like the mechanic or dry cleaner. Good, quality, intelligent trainers perhaps choose to not sell results nor catch people in a net with promises and hype.
And if I may add you your well said point, there is too much sizzle out there that folks get so caught in confusion of BS…
Seems like we need some influentials in the industry such as yourself to nudge a paradigm shift for the world of trainers. You speak about trainers in gyms, but in my neck of the woods there are plenty of independent trainers in the community that could use a shift.
Hey Pat
Thanks for the great post on your thoughts about the fitness industry. There are more and more personal trainers around now and many think that certifications and college degrees are all they need to get their clients through the door and ask them for training. The sad truth is this is not the case. People who engaged personal trainers want results. And most personal trainers are not learning enough outside what they learn in school that actually impact their clients’ results. Right now, I guaranteed my clients results or they get their money back. And I was able to do that because I am always learning and reading about what other great personal trainers are doing to get their clients the best results.
Great post! Looking forward to the follow up
Pat,
I have to say that you have done a very good job highlighting points that are wrong with our industry. By acknowledging some of these shortfalls, I have started to set about getting group exercise instructor qualified because I do really enjoy the group format. In any case, that is also the reason I also coach as an Independent Beachbody Coach. The Beachbody website allows members to also have access to many coaches, fitness experts, and other exercisers who can support them 24/7 in an online format. Many of these people also get together in person to support each other. I am also working on a fun group exercise for kids.
I think that as we see the shortfalls in the industry, we need to support each other in finding quality solutions.
Thanks again, Pat.
Nice Post. You effectively voiced some reasearched/factual information with INFORMED opinion. All of the post in this forum have been productive for me. I’ve re-launched my business efforts this year and your post will be the “conscious” of my efforts.
I’ve already discovered an opportunity or two. Looking forward to follow-up as well.
I agree.Also I agree with Tony above(thanks Tony,i have used some ideas from your website) . As you know i have re-launched my own business and thanks to lot of pat and bj’s efforts which i have put into practice the sky’s the limit for me.
The situation here in England is exactly the same and i have worked in a club setting myself and i was well aware of the crap that went on around me.
I also agree with Greg,I personally walk the walk and so i am able to talk the talk.Overweight trainers being a particular bug bear of mine but they defo exist. Of course a trainer needs HQ qualifications but experience only comes from time in the trenches working with and getting results with clients.
keep the stuff coming pat.
Nicely worded, Pat. I concur totally.
In the words of the late Jim Rohn, “Results is the name of the game.”
I believe it goes beyond that, to some degree. Positive, measurable results based upon the clients desires is the name of the game.
As Greg eluded to; if you provide that level of service you’ll have more business than you know what to do with.
Thanks Pat.
SP
Hey Lisa – I mention the ‘club trainers’ mainly because that is the most common entry point for new people – no risk of owning your own business and a high volume of hires – and it’s a business model that usually leads to inexperienced people to the industry being hired as the compensation is fairly low.
This mean that the first experience these people have is one that probably sets them up to struggle.
There are people that reflect poorly on us in all corners of our industry, but all things being equal I’ll take my chances with people that own their own business or work in a facility owned by a fitness professional vs a box gym.
Pat,
Great post-I couldn’t agree with you more!!
Hi Pat,
I have been reading your articles and could not agree with you more.However I have bee out of the PT business since 2007 due to frustrations that gym owners put me through…and that is in Nairobi city,Kenya(East Africa,Africa).Now I want to go back but run the show on my own and am very keen on Corporate fitness.What is you take on how you can help me.
Thanks,
Eli
Pat there’s not really much more to say because its seems like you covered so many angles of the industry in this article. I just had a heart to heart talk with my 17 year old son about providing a service to help people instead of just looking for a buck. He wants to be a entrepreneur with lots of money and influence but my teachings to him is its OK to make money but if thats your sole purpose (To make a dollar) than you run the risk of not providing good quality service and are digging your own grave so to speak. To make a long story short, I think this is the same thing in the fitness industry, everyone’s trying to make a quick dollar and are sacrificing their clients in the process. If more trainers really cared about results more than dollar signs, I think the fitness industry (CPT’s) would be looked at by other health and fitness professionals in a totally different light and the industry would move in a progressive way and gyms would not be able to get away with paying us $7 dollars an hour.. Don’t mean to sound preachy but it is what it is, right!
Take care Pat and keep up the good work.
YO Pat, good info bruddah man, I believe the poor will get eaten alive by the highly qualified Coaches, who bring more than just results, but also a life changing experience.
The BIG chain clubs are in the worst position as they must hire fast and get coaches in, even if the coach is average at best.
Those Bigger places need outside experts coming in to constantly re-educate their coaches, keeping them on cutting edge,.
We just won’t get through to everyone, as I see a BUSY trainer at the gym next door to me
He always has his sleeves cut off, yet he has a BIG gut and skinny ass arms, and he’s always talking to his clients in the middle of their set.
But, it’s NOT his fault, it’s the person’s fault for being so ignorant to hire such a coach who does not even walk the talk.
Restaurants that suck put themselves out of business.
Unfortunately, we have some great coaches out there who need help w/marketing and then we have shitty coaches who know how to get clients.
I agree dude, it’s best to see clients working w/coaches who own their own place, not always, but for the most part!
–z–
This is too true! No we can’t deliver the results like a mechanic fixing a car but we can inspire our clients to change and hold them accountable to something outside of themselves. I so often see the trainers making excuses for themselves and their clients. This is what brings failure excuses!
Don’t make them for yourself and certainly don’t make them for your clients. Not everyone wants to be buff and that is OK but help them set realistic goals that matter to them and then help them achieve them!
That is what we get paid for! to help make change.
Pat, I agree. Most trainers do not deliver results or focus on clients goals. I have seen many a trainer teaching weight loss clients that come 1x a week cleans or some other technical exercise. I love Olympic lifts etc. but if the person is coming for one session a week and their goal is weight loss you have to get them moving!
Perhaps some of the trainers know they are not delivering results so that is why they do not assess. I know if my clients are improving or not and if they are not I look forward to the assessment and saying are these (no results) what you wanted? What activities are you doing outside the gym that are costing you what you want. In order to make a change people need to do more than hit the gym a couple times a week. Nutrition, lifestyle and training on their own have to be addressed. The trainer has to deliver accountability for these other areas for their clients to see results. That is why a community (like you mentioned) is important. Get people to help each other. We do set 21 day challenges that get all my boot-campers and training clients talking , strategizing and sharing the experience of giving up alcohol or sugar or caffeine and adding in more workouts. Check the blog on my site http://www.precisionathletics.ca/january-21-day-challenge-is-here/ for an example. Most of the prizes were donated in exchange for the exposure of being emailed to client list.
Keep up the great posts!
I think you’re right on target, Pat. I see a lot of parallels in your gripes about the fitness industry and things that hold martial arts instructors back in the MA industry. Good post!
I dont think the issue is to many trainers, there aren’t enough “real” trainers in the business, I mean that have the credintials and experience to deliver what the client(s) are looking for. Not just in weight loss, but on the field or the court or in the school system.
I agree with how you worded your article to get the point across though, AND that it makes sense by going to the root of the problem. Education and continued education is a never ending process. We should want the best for our clients not just to have them paying us for 5 years, then I feel that we’re not doing a job properly. For that I mean for the general population not and inseason athlete or weekend warrior, but you can’t continue to grow if your continuesly seeing the same person day in and day out.
Just my two cents
Pat, great insights. I need to review this a few more times and think about a lot of it. Thanks for the post
Hi Pat
Very interesting responses. I agree with all the points mentioned. As a PT I have come across plenty of Gym Chain Prima Donnas. The problem with a lot of them is as already mentioned, lack of education. So they start out as a GI and progress to PT. Dependant on time frame you simply can’t buy experience. The whole body has to be taken into account, not broken down into sections as in the conventional medical approach to supposedely fixing the body.
I look at what my clients want to achieve and what is really stopping them from moving forward. Some may have had a traumatic experience, possibly going back years which they might not think of as significant.
As I mentioned in my last reply to this site, I do want to make money.
But that won’t come at the expense of delivering quality to my clients. I’m a great believer in referral as it’s better if my clients sing my praises than me singing them.
Lastly like life I see this service we provide as a lifelong learning experience, where we can educate the population as we become better educated ourselves thereby helping them lead a better more productive life.
Thanks for taking the time to put this together. It’s certainly needed as quality needs to be recognised again at last instead of the pile them high and sel them cheap model.
Richie
Well put Pat. When I was going to personal training school one of my instructors mentioned that he thought the industry was going down a road to where trainers would need to get licensed. I’m for it. That could lead to insurance sponsorship for personal training. Dental insurance pays a lot more (if not 100%) of preventative care on teeth.. so far in none of the heavily debated health care reform system have I heard of a stronger stand to reducing health care cost buy promoting an active life style more aggressively. You mentioned a statistic in another blog that only 16%(?) of Americans have a gym membership.. then only 30% of those actively use it like they should. Imagine the weight that would be lifted(no pun intended) from the health care system if those statistics were dramatically changed. What do you think?
Great stuff Pat! I do feel that most large clubs are similar to the guys on the beach and they are a little extreme with asking for the sale. One of things I pride myself on is the fact that I educate and inform so much that I rarely need to even ask for the sale.
I also pre-qualify everyone. My pricing is everywhere and so are the benefits and advantages of training with me so by the time people call or schedule an assessment with me they are well aware of what they are about to agree on.
When they come in I just gather all the information I feel is crucial for me to get them the results they seek and they really sense that.
They understand that I am holding myself accountable to them by offering all of these great results and I show them exactly how to hold me to my word.
I absolutely love it when people come back and say “well just like you said, I am down 1.5% BF in 30 days!”.
That is why I am a trainer…….the challenge and the love of helping people succeed….not to sell memberships and training they will never use!
Hey Pat,
Thanks for this post.
Your point about ‘getting results’ is the most important issue all fitness professionals must deal with.
And it’s not just short term results that they should be concerned with either … Almost anyone can get an unfit, overweight person with a bad diet to lose weight and get stronger over a four to eight week time-span … But have they managed to help their clients maintain/improve their fitness a year later, three years later?
I’ve noticed fitness pros are fixated with goal setting and training logs for their clients … they say it’s important to measure results, keep yourself accountable etc. etc. Don’t get me wrong, I think goal-setting and training logs are important … but how many fitness pros show their clients THEIR OWN ‘logs’ related to their job performance …
How many of your clients have improved strength/gained muscle/lost fat over the last month, year, three years?
By how much?
What is your retention rate of clients of the last twelve months, three years?
I could go on with the list of important parameters, but you get the point …
I would bet that there are a lot of fitness pros who don’t even keep track of these kinds of parameters. And I would also bet that there wouldn’t be many with the guts to publicly show them, out of sheer embarrassment.
I used to be a martial arts instructor with around 70 clients in a small town. One of the (many) reasons I quit had to do with this very issue … my numbers weren’t good enough. Don’t get me wrong, I had some of the best numbers in the (national) organization, but that’s not saying much if the standard is crap. And my old organization’s standards were on par (or maybe even a little better) with the rest of the martial arts industry in my country.
Before I was a martial arts instructor I used to be a private music teacher. The way I went about things was WAY different …
I’d SCREEN clients. I only accepted clients who I believed had sufficient discipline and talent for me to work with. Then I’d provide a METHODICAL approach to learning their instrument. And finally, I’d INSPIRE my student through my lifestyle (I practiced diligently, performed/did studio work often and had a reasonably high skill-level for them to aspire to). They studied with me, they got better. NO EXCEPTIONS. The longer they studied with me, the better they got. I kept students for years, and had a very high retention rate (over 90%). Many went on to become successful performers, studio-musicians and/or music teachers.
This was NOT my experience in the fitness industry
I could go into details, looking at my own short-comings and the problems I had with the organization and the product itself. But I’ll spare you the gore
Suffice to say, I didn’t get the kind of results I was used to … and given the specific restrictions I was working within, I couldn’t work out a way of getting them to the level I wanted … so I quit (actually, I got beaten up and thrown out before I could quit, but that’s another story all together) 
Nowadays, I do a little private training, applying the same principles I used when I taught music … MUCH better numbers
I know my rant sounds very judgmental towards fitness pros. Please don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the pressures and stresses associated with the job—it’s a hard gig and I do respect those who do it … I just think too many fitness pros put any ‘failure’ at the foot of their clients whilst wear any ‘success’ like a crown. They can’t have it both ways. Fitness pros must take responsibility for the results they achieve (or don’t achieve). If a fitness pro can’t achieve results, they must either learn how, or get out. This isn’t just a business, it effects the very health and well-being of real people!
Cheers.
Greg – awesome post. Fortunately the opportunity is here for the folks who do choose to take action!
Holly – the answer for you is simple…keep overdelivering.
If you keep it up it will overcome all the concerns people have that were caused by previous experiences.
Better yet – these people will be the ones to rave about your business once they know they can believe in you.
Pat,
You have covered alot of the problems with the fitness industry. I have been very successful, 1 because I love the industry and have always lead a healthy and fit lifestyle. And 2, I dont come off like Im trying to sell something. I tell my clients my goal is to show them how to exercise on their own and more importantly how to motivate themselves. Like your readers said overdeliver and educate your clients and they will stay loyal and will refer you.
Mike
Add your Comment.