Hello folks! Let’s give an update on Aaron’s training, shall we?
His weights continue to rise, as well as his repetitions and his execution of each movement. We look for and find personal records in all forms, whether that be weight, reps, or technical mastery of the movement. My favorite result of working with him for the past few months has been his eventual enjoyment of our lower body training days. We started off with low sets just to get a couple of consistent leg days into the mix – there was whining, there was frustration. But eventually, we hit a point of choosing movements he didn’t mind, and he’s seen the pay off in a big way to the weights on the bar rising, and his 3-km run time getting faster by the week.
I saw a post earlier this week that reinforced that even when things get hard, a client needs to trust their trainer, and I’m not sure that’s something I really agree with. At least, not without further explanation.
Does a client need to trust their coach? Yes. BUT, when things get hard, it falls on the coach to understand the client’s struggle and adjust. And if the work has been done to understand where their road blocks might be and adjust well before they exist, that trust is present and the road block becomes more of a small pothole. The responsibility doesn’t rely on the client to trust the trainer, it sits with the trainer to create that trust well before.
So, how did I build this trust with Aaron?
- Let’s be honest. He’s my brother – which gives me a huge step up with letting him know I’m in it to make him better (but this doesn’t give me full buy-in).
- I’ve paid attention to every gripe, every comment during a program, and made changes immediately when things weren’t working (within reason).
- When he didn’t like something, if it needed to stay, I explained where the pay off was and asked him to stick it out for a bit longer. It was never a command, and always a conversation.
- If a cue didn’t work, or a position felt off, I stepped in and checked in for myself. I’m not all-knowing, I may have made a mistake with an instruction.
- I’m constantly checking if what I’m asking him to do is because I want him to do it, or if it’s because it will make HIM better at what HE wants to progress at. His goals are what matters most.
Trust with a client is built by understanding your client, and understanding humans as a whole. At the start of the session, can I pick a movement that’s hard, and requires a lot of coordination?
Yes. He’s full of energy, and it may not be lovely, but it won’t be terrible. But at the end? When he’s sweaty and tired – that’s a recipe for failure (we humans generally hate failure).
So, what’s the overarching lesson here?
Trust is a relationship, and it starts from the very first conversation between a trainer and client. I not only have to understand your goals, I have to understand you as a human, and continue to ask questions and put pieces together. We ain’t about white-knucklin’ this journey, we will always be about mindset shift to get you to a healthy life. And when you look back, it shouldn’t be a, “Oh man, that was really tough”, I want to hear, “Huh, one day I looked back and realized, everything was different.”