It was around 16 years ago, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.
That’s when a cut-and-paste formula for sales was taught to me at my first job in the industry – a fitness chain box gym – that would convert leads into paying personal training clients.
Albeit, 2008 was a different time in this space. But the art of selling – something I’ve never been amazing at – can still be predicated on persuasion, which can be nuanced based on the genuineness of the person or business doing the selling.
Gyms tend to have a bad rap, and there’s definitely a reason. Getting roped into long term memberships, being overcharged for services, not having your dues cancelled in proper timing and more are phenomena that dominate the commercial space.
This can spill over into the way clients can be treated, or “informed” when going through the preliminary stages of working out. And it’s something that I developed a major issue with, quite early on in my career.
Fun fact: For a couple of months in my 3rd year in the industry, I became a fitness consultant at the gym I worked at. I dropped a high number of my personal training clients to make room for more hours spent conducting assessments and selling training packages to new members. I did this strictly to chase a higher earnings potential (I mean, at the end of the day, it’s sales – the revenue potential would technically be without ceiling). My new role consisted of finding a way to convince a client within 30 minutes of meeting them, that they should be paying for personal training with a coach at my workplace. There was a whole script and protocol to follow that was a tried, tested and true “foolproof” way to get numbers on the board.
After building clunky rapport with a client, you’d take them into the office with you to sit down and talk about their fitness goals. Following that, an “assessment” is performed in said office, involving 3 exercises that will yield nearly unanimous feedback from those who try them: The wall sit, push up, and plank. Ask a client where they feel these, and it’s a guarantee you’ll get some version of the same answer by and large.
After that, the idea would be to take them out to the gym floor to introduce them to a method of training very alien to them, ensuring things would not go as smoothly as they’d like when trying it out. This training would usually involve a major demand on their proprioception.
It wasn’t an approach based on deception, but it was one that was definitely… calculated. That’s not my bag.
The pitch was simple: Get the client saying yes, frequently enough throughout the assessment to justify how and why they’d benefit from the help of a personal trainer by the end of it. Amassing a bunch of movements they sucked at was a pretty sure-fire way to plant that seed.
For a long time, we’d been sold the idea that this was the way an “assessment” should go, and it’s no wonder people have been intimidated to sign up for gym memberships or otherwise get started, if this was the case.
Certainly, a fitness assessment for a new client conducted by a professional should involve some acknowledgement of weak links requiring attention. And sure, applying for additional help through the process may be on the table – both for the sales aspect of it and for the kind of important part of it that involves helping others. But when the focus shifts from fostering a positive outlook toward a client’s potential and their chances of success, to instead zoom in on all the things said client has wrong with them, it can be disastrous. Think about this kind of dynamic occurring in basically any other industry and you’ll realize how undesirable it is to be the client in such a scenario.
But there’s more.
See, giving a discouraging assessment as a fitness company usually comes part and parcel with the idea that you’re also not “ready” to perform many standard, classic movements that many other trainees may be doing in the gym. As though you’d be inherently placing your muscles, tendons, and ligaments at tremendously increased risk by taking such patterns on.
I’m here to say that with all things equal, that is ludicrous. I’m also mad it took me 707 words to raise this point. I’ll do better.
I’m a believer that everyone can benefit from some form of resistance training, and staple movement patterns or their variations are within the realms of possibility and accessible for any able-bodied individual.
A person may indeed not be ready to barbell back squat to full ROM. But that same person can still choose from a goblet squat, a box squat, a split squat, a front squat, a heels elevated dumbbell squat, a paused squat, a bottom-up squat, a Smith machine squat, a Zercher squat, a single leg squat, an overhead squat, a Hindu squat, or a Bulgarian split squat to get the benefits from a loaded knee-dominant pattern.
A barbell deadlift from the floor may be better replaced by a thrust, a rack pull, a kettlebell deadlift, a single leg deadlift, a reverse hyperextension, a trap bar deadlift, a pull through, glute bridge, a Romanian deadlift, a Smith machine deadlift, a good morning or some other hinging, hip-dominant move.
You get the idea.
It’s asinine to conclusively avoid heavy lifting of any sort, at all costs, because you completed a 40-minute assessment run by a 21-year-old who said you have poor posture.
To get back on point here, I’m not one to use my blog to talk about direct fitness content, and am more prone to talk about fitness culture. And this kind of fear mongering can be damaging to that culture.
The minority of the world that does engage in resistance training will remain a minority if inadequacy is still the theme of the feature presentation. This reflects more greatly on the shortcomings of the establishment and its professionals, rather than the inadequacies of the client – an interesting juxtaposition.
A good coach will prudently and carefully meet the client where they’re at, and program appropriately and safely toward their goals. If those goals involve strength, muscle, or basically any form of athleticism, you know that means adding resistance training to the mix as a major player. Avoidance is not the answer. And it’s actually probably not “safer” either. Avoidance keeps you weak.
Remember what Makes the World go ‘Round
Like I said earlier, it may be more of a calculated approach with strategic thought put behind it. It could very well be the aim of the business or trainer to keep a client thinking they’re “at risk” if they do popular lifts before building some kind of “preparedness” for lifting with said coach, in order to create a dependency on that trainer and purchase more sessions before they can truly attack their goals and finally lift.
This can work very well to influence a beginner who’s placed his or her trust in the hands of a certified professional.
But the truth of the matter is, you’re ready to lift. Probably after day 1.
Don’t get me wrong
When I assess a client, there are many unloaded drills, activation exercises, and bodyweight staples I go through to get a picture of what’s strong, and what needs improving to promote balance. Everyone should go through some version of this. But the underlying goal is to determine what lifts can be appropriately loaded for the safe development of strength with little to no risk. This is going to create a faster, more direct path toward goals, and is a sound general example of pragmatically meeting a client where they’re at.
You’re ready to lift, now.
If a fitness professional or business tells you otherwise without having a truly good reason that doesn’t involve fear mongering to make weights appear ominous, it’s probably time to find a new place to seek gains. What often comes with a very scientific breakdown of all of the musculoskeletal issues and imbalances you may have in your body, is concentration on the idea that loading these joints in any way as they currently are, will undoubtedly cause them to break under pressure. Somehow we’ve also come to believe that external loading in the form of tangible dumbbells or barbells takes on a different identity and profile than bodyweight work, banded work, or other forms of training that can produce virtually the same strain on the body.
The way I see it, for a person or business to make money, they should be giving the client their money’s worth. It’s a better big-picture approach.
But what do I know? Like I said at the beginning, the art of selling has never been my thing.
And maybe things have changed a bit since 2008.
I’m just out here trying to do a good job with what’s placed in front of me.
