First of all, this isn’t the first time this subject has been talked about, but it bears repeating. Over the years, the mental work of writing and running workouts for your clients reduces the motivation to write them for yourself, let alone do a workout by yourself.

There are a few remedies to break yourself out of your rut.

First and easiest, get someone else to write your workouts for you. We do this with the FitRanx Level 8 Club, as well as the 6 Week Phase Workouts. Just print them and go. If you really want to make it easy and mindless, have a fellow trainer (or an employee, friend, etc) run you through the workout, mainly to keep you on pace so you don’t get distracted by cleaning, organizing, and generally inadvertently turning on “boss mode” while you are trying to work out.

Find a workout partner. It can be a friend, spouse, client, fellow trainer, anyone. It is well known that just knowing that someone else is counting on you to show up, will encourage you to do the same for them.

If you have trainers that work for you, and they run small or large group training, simply jumping into one of their classes is a great mindless way to get in a workout. The clients will love that their “head trainer” is getting sweaty with them, and it also gives you a look at the quality of the classes you are offering, and the condition of your equipment. (Just make sure that you let the trainer run the class, do not interfere or give critiques mid-class. If you notice something major, point it out afterwards, but if you want an authentic experience, and don’t want your trainer to quit on you, don’t make every workout like a constant evaluation for them.)

If you aren’t the head honcho and are a trainer in a facility with multiple trainers, seek out other trainers and jump into their classes. I understand that some trainers can be pretty cut-throat, and may be paranoid that you will steal their “secrets,” but as long as you build up a level of trust and don’t literally copy what they do, then you should be able to help each other out. This one is probably the most difficult to accomplish, as some gyms use trainers as sub-contractors, and they would be losing money if they trained you as a favor or even a trade.

That leads me to my last suggestion – PAY FOR YOUR OWN TRAINING!! I know it may sound silly to pay someone else for what you can “do yourself,” but if you expect your clients to invest in their health, you should too!! This can be illustrated in various ways. First, go join another gym – any kind of gym. It can be small or big box, whatever you want. The benefit here is that you can be a perfect stranger there, no one will interrupt you to ask for advice or talk about the terms of their contract. You can mindlessly jump into classes and let the endorphins flow, just as you do for your clients, in fact, it can remind you about what the client experience is meant to be. Second, pay a fellow trainer for their time. Let them know that you respect and appreciate them as a colleague, maybe even encourage them to try out something new on you, before releasing it on a novice client. (For a trainer who might always end up training beginners, it can be exciting to train an advanced individual!)

Most importantly, remember that even though you may have multiple degrees or certifications, you don’t need to search out and train only with “experts” that have more years/certs/degrees/etc than you. Take yourself off of your pedestal and realize that just because someone is younger or newer in the industry than you may be, that doesn’t make them “lesser” than you. There are plenty of new up-and-coming trainers that have plenty of knowledge and insight.   Go learn from them.

You have no excuses not to workout, just as you don’t take excuses from your clients. Now go get moving!!!

Tim Peterson / Chief FitRanX® Instructor