As a personal trainer, it's important to do everything in your power to ensure your clients get the very best results. One thing you can do to help your clients succeed with their fitness goals is encourage them to track their results. You can even go further by providing them with tools that make logging workouts easy with software like PT Distinction.
The general population may not understand why recording results in each training session can benefit them. As their online or in-person trainer, you might want to educate them during their on-boarding process. At the end of the day, their success is your success.
This article looks at 6 benefits of clients logging their training results. Feel free to use any of these and share them with your clients.
The first reason you should encourage clients to track their results is it puts them on the path to progress. The act of writing down what they did helps people understand where they are right now and what improvements can be made next time they hit the gym.
Adhering to this habit will ensure your clients are constantly making small yet impactful improvements so they are on the path to achieving better results.
In contrast, if clients don't track progress, you and them can quickly lose sight of how they're genuinely performing. This may result in plateauing because they assume they're doing enough or are improving when they may not be.
Logging exercises results helps when setting and hitting targets. You can assess how they're doing when you compare their regular data with previous results and easily show clients the incredible progress they're making.
Goal setting is one of the most important steps in any fitness plan. People can often get off track or feel like giving up if they don't see rapid progress on the scales. Recording exercise results and including things like progress photos gives you plenty to show your clients how far they've come and how much they're improving, even when the scales are moving a little slower than they may have hoped.
This extra data not only keeps clients motivated but also helps you set future goals and ensure your clients smash them.
Tracking workout progress helps clients focus on their fitness plans and goals. When your clients don't see improvements in their performance and progress in their workouts, how are they supposed to say on track?
A training log helps clients stay on track as they have a complete picture of their previous workouts and enhanced performance over time. Whether they can lift heavier, run further, or push harder, that chance to look back on where they started and where they are now gives a sense of achievement and makes it easier for clients to stick to their training habit.
Recording results helps you figure out what works and what doesn't for each of your clients. We're all different and have a slightly different biological makeup, be it fast twitch to slow twitch muscle fibre ratios, fight or flight reactions to stress etc... we're all slightly different and don't all respond to the same type of training in the same way.
Recording results helps you see progress patterns and compare them to other goals such as improved body composition, or weight loss to find out what works best for each of your clients to get amazing results.
Recording results helps clients target and achieve milestones such as a 20 minute 5k run, 100kg squat, or even something simple like 10 kneeling pushups, or 10 minutes walking on a treadmill. Each one of these adds to their sense of achievement and gives you an opportunity to give them a well earned pat on the back.
Every small win means happier and more motivated clients.
When people are in the gym, their attention can wander between sets or exercises, and they might end up taking longer breaks than ideal. Practising the habit of logging workouts keeps your clients' heads in the game and constantly focused on what they've just done or are about to do.
Besides jotting down weight, sets and reps, clients can also write down feelings and sensations and their perceived effort rate. You might also want to encourage clients to record any symptoms around their workout days, like sleep, stress, anxiety and more.
Learning as much as you can about how a specific session affects your clients will give you ideas on optimising their workouts for their desired goals.
As you can see, recording workouts can significantly impact your clients' results even if they aren't preparing for a bodybuilding competition or training for athletic improvement. Knowing how exercises affect the average Jane and Joe and their progress will help you tailor their workouts specifically for their needs. PT Distinction offers a simple yet effective way for clients to record results and personal trainers to quickly see your clients results so you can adjust their plans and coach them brilliantly.
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