Imagine this scenario: A lifter in your gym convinced his friend Jeff to sign up for a personal workout. After getting to know Jeff a little, ask him what he would like to do with you and he answers:
"Honestly, I just want to get fitter and stronger."
This is a classic fuzzy goal, right up there where I have more strength and work on my health. According to much of the pop coaching literature, this won't hurt.
Whenever we hear Milquetoast intentions like this, we should give them a backbone and:
But first we take a step back and ask the hanging question: why are we pushing these kinds of goals? The intuitive answer is that the customer needs a goal to stay motivated.
Without aiming, they will stop when the training becomes challenging.
This may apply to dedicated trainees, but is it appropriate for Jeff?
Phases of change
According to a popular approach – the trans-theoretical model of behavior change – People go through different phases to make significant changes, e.g. B. quit smoking or adopt a new diet.
SMART goals and sophisticated programming strategies are most effective for those in later phases – action and maintenance. When these lifters come to you, they know what they want and have tried other alternatives in the past. They need specific strategies, practices, and accountability to achieve their goals.
Other lifters are at an early stage and are either not considering any change at all or are just starting to think about the possibility. Trainers can help these lifters prepare for an entertaining experience through conversation and training, but not always.
Lifters like Jeff are in the middle of what the trans-theoretical model calls the preparatory phase.
- You may know what you don't want.
- You probably failed at some point.
- They are not sure how to solve their problems.
The people at this stage are ready to do something, but are not yet taking any major steps.
Jeff may not be motivated by a number on a bar, scale, or stopwatch. By the time Jeff can deadlift £ 285, he has no context of what it is like to put £ 405 on the crossbar for the first time, and he still doesn't know if strengthening will solve his problem.
Setting goals in this phase is a challenge. Motivational goals have a goldilocks quality:
- The goals can neither be completely out of reach nor too easy.
- If we assign Jeff an arbitrary goal based on a level chart or our coaching experience, chances are that he will accomplish one or more of these goals during training.
- Alternatively, it can take too long for the goals to be achieved and he loses interest in them because they were of no real importance to him.
And we as trainers know that – we see it all the time – which brings me back to the question: "Why do we force it?" I think there are two reasons why we achieve goals so early::
- The first reason is that our own experiences and the targeted success stories we hear give us a wrong picture of how people changehow Dr. Prochaska – one of the developers of the trans-theoretical model – explained in a 1992 article.
In the treatment of cigarette and alcohol addiction, experts developed an action-oriented change program based on topics that are effective for the most successful test subjects. However, when used widely, these programs were largely failures due to high dropout rates and poor buy-ins. This was due to the fact that on average only 10 to 20% of the subjects were ready to act at the beginning.
Successful programs brought participants closer to the action, and it was the engagement of the subject – combined with practical strategies – that led to success. - The second reason we are pushing these goals is personal: it relieves our fear. We are not comfortable with ambivalence and are unsure whether the customer could leave, so we fall back on old habits.
We translate your needs into a case study format, set SMART goals, and then pull out our # 2 pencils to get an A-quality answer. Knowing that we have said the right thing gives us the confidence that we are doing our job and the certainty that they will continue to be our customers.
However, lifters are not multiple choice tests, and if they force complex measures too early, they will not be met where they are. By trying to prove our competence, we are selling it.
Move forward effectively
"The preparatory phase is a planning phase in which customers begin to actively implement their plans, so the main focus should be on what is required to maintain commitment to future action."
– Dr. Clifton Mitchell, Effective techniques for dealing with highly resistant customers
If someone comes to us who is not quite ready to take action, efforts to push them forward are likely to fail. We're out of sync, we'll get resistance, and if we're not careful, we'll blame the lifter for not being compliant.
When faced with jacks like Jeff, keep in mind that they don't need to be fixed. Instead, they need clear next steps, evidence that you can help them solve their problem, and trust in you as a trainer.
Delete action steps
As Chip and Dan Heath suggest in their book Switch: "What looks like resistance is often a lack of clarity."
Lifters in the preparatory phase are looking for solutions and preparing for action, but are not ready to make profound changes in life.
So that action steps are effective, They have to be clear and small enough so that the lifter can run them easily, especially in connection with the support and accountability of the trainer.
An example of an action step could be to plan a first introductory and test session. The decision to train is an immediate measure. The lifter knows what to do, and the coach takes care of the complicated part – designing a productive first session.
An ineffective step could be to answer a customer's question about nutrition with: "For now, only try to reduce the intake of processed foods and sugary drinks."
This advice may seem clear and straightforward to a trainer – it is far easier than trying to explain the details of digestion and metabolism. Nevertheless, the lifter must now:
- Decide what is considered processed food
- Revise your dining environment
- Change your habits.
These three steps are too far, too fast.
Evidence of change
Although lifters like Jeff often come with no clear sense of where they're going, they almost always have a problem they want to solve. That motivated them enough to inquire, find you, and come to your gym to pay your training prices. Work with them to resolve the issue and find a way for them to see what the progress is.
- The first halfIdentifying the actual problem to be solved is often more complicated than it sounds. You may have to keep asking yourself why, approaching the question from different angles and deepening your understanding of your struggle in the coming weeks and months.
- The second half– Finding a meaningful metric – seems to contradict the earlier statement that Jeff probably doesn't need goals. In this case, the metric is used to control program changes and to show whether the training is effective and not to set goals so that they are aimed at a specific goal. The process is similar to mindful breathing exercises, where the goal is to become aware of the breath without trying to change it. And just like in meditation, it takes discipline and patience to resist the urge to turn metrics into goals.
If we can clarify the lifter's actual needs and show them the benefits of the training process, we will promote their sustained engagement and put them in a good position to develop targeted strategies that work when they become appropriate later.
build up trust
Finally, focus on building trust and connection.
This process never ends, but especially in the first few months you get to know her as a lifter. Bring your whole self – your personality, passions and projects – to the gym within limits to express the integrity between your life's work and your work as a coach. Take care of their progress and be excited when they reach new premieres and milestones.
Be professional in what you say and how you touch and keep clear, consistent and reasonable boundaries for what you do – both what you do and what you don't. Keep your promises on time and apologize if you are wrong.
It would go beyond the scope of this article – it could be the mission of your life – to explain how best to develop trust. Instead, just respect the value that trust brings to the coaching process.
The time you spent building relationships, connections, developing side projects, streamlining business processes, and celebrating with your lifters is beneficial to both of you, even if it's not tied to a specific goal.
These side tasks can be the most important thing you do.
How to help Jeff
You can't work with someone like Jeff. You can choose to work only with groups that are largely behind this phase. Or you specialize in lifters who are even less willing to change than Jeff, as seen in some employee rehab and mandate programs.
In my experience as a barbell and CrossFit coach, however, most new lifters are in the preparatory phase, and I suspect that this is true in large parts of the commercial coaching area.
And whoever you work with Your willingness to change will go in and out. Your client can fall back into old behaviors and lose confidence, or prepare for a goal or lifestyle change that will take him out of the familiar.
Knowing how to deal with this transition – getting it back into effective routines and getting closer to your new goal – can make the difference between a good trainer and a trainer who can make a lifter happy and successful for years.