Be A Better Training Client

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Welcome to There Is a Method to the Magnets. My name is Rob Maxwell, and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's fitness programs, and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works, and most importantly, why things work. Hence the name There is a Method to the Magnets. Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilding of the Gilding Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. Good morning, everybody. Good afternoon, good evening, whatever time you are listening to this podcast. I'm really glad that you're listening to this podcast. I wanted to share some pretty cool news. I got an email from Buzz Sprout who hosts my podcast. And um turns out my podcasts have hit the 50,000 download mark. That's pretty cool. Like that's more than so more people listen than download, by the way. Unfortunately, in my world with this, like the way that they look at it is through downloads, because that's a way for them to measure it. Um, naturally, more people just listen to things versus download the episode to play later, and not everybody hits automatic download. I wish they would because it helps my numbers with that. But thinking about 50,000 people have downloaded, so I would guess double or so have listened, that's pretty cool, you know, to think that I wanted to do a uh a local podcast on physical fitness, and I talked about it for a long time. And um, you know, here it is, and a few years later, hitting that mark, which means that people are, you know, into it. And uh more and more people have been finding me on social media from the podcast, like what I have to say. So um I think that's that's pretty darn cool, you know. So I will repeat, as I've said before, the purpose of this podcast is to really get to the real deal. I mean, that means that there is a method to the madness, like there's a reason why things work, and there's a reason why things don't work. Like that whole, you know, thing of, well, I started getting in shape, I'm not really sure why, but you know, and then I got out of shape. Well, there's a reason. Like there's a reason these things happen. There's a reason why we get muscle imbalances and then get injuries. There's a reason why we gain weight. There's a reason why we lose weight. There's a reason why we gain muscle. Like there is a method to the madness. And I feel like the more that that is explained in every issue, the more likely people are going to get motivated to work out, to exercise, to take on a healthier lifestyle, which is kind of like my big calling, I believe. You know, it's what I'm interested in, it's what I love doing, it's what worked for me. And in one of my very early college courses, in a uh course called Human Motivation, my professor, the great Dr. Fisher, said, you can't motivate anybody. And I was like, okay, so why am I taking a class on human motivation? But anyway, you know, he's right. We can't, I can't motivate you. But if you know more of the reasons why things work or don't work, you might be more motivated to actually get into the habit of exercise. All right. So that was another brief summary of why we do this. Today I'm going to add to those 50,000 downloads, hopefully, and talk about how to be a good client. Later in the week or early next week, I'm going to also launch the How to Be a Good Trainer podcast. But I have done that and similar subjects before, but I haven't always touched on or I haven't specifically touched on in one episode how to be a good client. Because believe it or not, a good client is going to get more out of it than a quote bad client. So I'm going to give you the ins and outs of how to be good, which is great, would make my life easier, but that's not why I'm doing it. There really is a reason, a method to the madness of why some people get more out of their training than others. And I am going to talk about that. So let me start out by saying that I go to places like I've gone to master's swim class before, I've gone to counseling before. I'm sure there's been other. Oh, I've gone to massage therapists. Uh, you know, I mean, I've gone to different professional services to get something out of that service. Now, when I do that, because I've been doing this, a personal trainer, exercise physiologist for roughly 31 years, I know kind of the mistakes people make when they go into things. So I don't want to do that because I value my money. I mean, you know, massage therapy is gonna be anywhere from say 70 to 120 bucks. Counseling can be more dependent upon your copay, but you're gonna have to pay for it and you should pay for it. Chiropractic's gonna be a certain price. I mean, master swim wasn't very much, but I still paid for it. So I wanted to get the most out of it. So when I went to these things, I was always, especially like in the area of physical fitness related, you know, and massage therapy can kind of be like that because as soon as you tell the massage therapist that, you know, what you do, they sometimes automatically go, oh, well, you know that, or oh, you know that. And, you know, I don't want to be in that situation. But really, where we'll fall into that as trainers is like when we're doing other types of fitness classes. Like I said, like master swim. I don't do that anymore. But when I'm just trying to learn how to be a better swimmer, I'm going to go to an expert to learn how to swim better. They're gonna give me drills, they're gonna push me, they're gonna, you know, help me on with my weaknesses or whatever. I'm a personal trainer, I'm an exercise physiologist, I'm a strength and conditioning coach, I'm a nutritionist, I'm those things. I'm not a swim coach. So swimming is very technical. I I don't know. I mean, I do now because I've had some lessons, but I damn sure am never going to teach that because I'm not a professional at that. So, you know, for someone to think, oh, well, you know, you're a trainer, you can do this, like that's the wrong methodology. So when I would go into these things, even though in some cases some of the coaches would know what I did for a living because maybe I would refer some of my clients to them, or vice versa, I still would go with the beginner's mind. Like that's how we have to do things. The beginner's mind, meaning, no, no, don't, don't, don't say that. Like if I get the old, you know, if I get it too much, I just won't go back to the class. But if I get the two, you know, oh, well, you know, oh, well, you know physiology, oh, you know, you know, I know I just whatever. Just, you know, beginner's mindset. Don't worry about physiology because that has very little to do with swimming instruction. And just tell me what I'm gonna do. Like, I just wanted to go, jump in the pool, you know, have my stuff ready and go. Like, number one, I was on a time crunch. Number two, I wanted to learn. So I would go into these things with a beginner's mind. Like, just tell me what you want me to do. You know, something we talk about in personal training a lot when we are talking about the value of personal training, is a thing called decision fatigue. When certain populations of people, certain industries are used to like making decisions or helping people make decisions, like my field or counseling or whatever. Like the last thing most of us want to do, unless we're utter control freaks, and then by the way, we're not gonna be a good client if we are, but like the last thing we want to do is make up our mind or you know, make more decisions, you know. Oh, I don't know, Rob, you know, we were gonna go um, you know, 200s, but would you rather do 100 meter repeats today or 50s or or 200s? I'd be like, oh shit. Like, I don't know. Like, you just tell me what you want me to do. Like, I'll do that. Like, I'm making decisions often for people in the workouts. That's my job. I don't want to do that here. So, like, I would go into that and just want to be told what to do. And that is one of the best ways. That's lesson one, how to be a good client. Be willing and wanting to be told what to do. Like, that is critical. When I meet with clients, when I meet with clients for referrals or, you know, just meeting with them to see if they're interested and if I'm interested in taking them on, you know, I always talk about we want to create a win-win. Like, that's how all relationships are going to win. If it is a win-win, they get the client gets the training, the education, the accountability, the form correction, the pushing, the tough love, and all of the things that they're paying for, and I'm getting paid, and I get to enjoy my career because I do enjoy my career. So it's a win-win. That's the bargain, that's the relationship. You never want to be in a situation where it's not a win-win, where it's not an equitable balance of give and take. That's never going to work. So when a client comes in for that, that's what they're paying for. So as a client, the first thing you have to really want, if you want success, is you want to be told what to do. Maybe with some choices. Like we'll say, all right, so for your homework, we're gonna have to do 150 minutes of cardiorespiratory exercise per week. Like that is the recommendation for starters. So that basically works up to 30 minutes five times a week. I mean, that's just a very standard recommendation that we start with. Now, we might say, so would you prefer to do that walking or cycling? Like, in other words, do you have access to a bicycle? Is it safe? Do you have an exercise bike? Like we ask all of the good questions. And then we tell them, well, this is what you need to do. Now, if they say, you know, well, can I do both? Yes, like that's not there's nothing wrong with that. Like, that's fine. But for the most part, you want to be willing to be told what to do, obviously within reason. Like, if you don't trust the establishment, if you don't trust the trainer to tell you to do what you're paying for, like what is best for you, then why are you there? Like, I don't understand that one either. When I go to a massage therapist, I might I'm gonna give them feedback. Feedback is great. Feedback is not trying to take over the workout session. Feedback is giving feedback. We teach our clients what kind of feedback to give. So if I'm getting a massage, the the massage therapist may say, you know, how much pressure is this on a scale of one to ten, with ten being too much pressure. Oh, a seven. I don't say back off. I listen to their questions and I answer them. Anybody trained in allied health is gonna know how to ask the questions. We teach, for example, we'll say, okay, so we're doing this here on the leg extension. We're gonna start at 30 pounds per usual, yada yada yada. So we get like three or four reps in, and I'll say, is that light, medium, or heavy? Say, I'm not sure. Okay. Is it does it feel easy? Does it feel kind of moderate? Does it feel hard? And then based on what they say, we make a determination because we're asking the right questions and they're listening feedback. Now, that doesn't mean if the client says, oh, it's too hard or it feels hard, we owe it back off. No, because strength training is supposed to feel hard, but we're trying to get a gauge for maybe their pain threshold or what they feel and where. Like there's a lot of things we have to figure out early on. What we don't like is when the client says, reduce the weight, or hey, make that heavier. No, you are not in charge. We have a method to the menace. And quite frankly, I couldn't even imagine saying that to a trained professional. Like, that's just not in my way of doing things. I don't know if it's just like some people are rude. I think some people are clueless, but like, I don't get it. And usually if a person is way too controlling and they're unable to let go of that control, they're gonna have a hard time getting better. All right. So we will ask for specific feedback and then want to hear what the person has to say. All right. So again, you want to be told what to do. Like, decision fatigue is one of the big parts of why personal training is successful. Like, I wrote a book on this, and it's actually sold pretty darn well. So, like, enough people are reading it to go, oh, this is pretty cool. So, decision fatigue is important. So, you want to come in and be like, this is what's going on, this is what I want to accomplish. What do I need to do? And then be willing to do it. Like, be willing, like maybe you're not able to. So, let me get back to that cardiovascular prescription, the cardiorespiratory exercise prescription of 150 minutes a week. Say, look, Bill, when we do this, we're gonna really want to try to build up to 150 minutes per week so you can start to get a baseline of cardiorespiratory fitness. Okay, I'm gonna really do my best. I'm just gonna tell you right now, I'm in a time crunch, but I trust you, I'm gonna do my best. Okay. So, Bill, how did you do last week in your cardio? Man, I was close. I was 120 minutes. I mean, we're not gonna go, oh man, you loser. Come on, man. No, they're telling you they did their best. And if it was more than the previous week, it's a win, right? Like these are recommendations. We're we're telling people what to do because we know the research, we have the experience. So those are recommendations. But if they come back and they go, I don't know, man, I don't think I need to do cardio. I, you know, I'm reading online, you know, that, you know, people just need to strength train and eat raw meat all the time. You know, whatever. I mean, you should hear the crazy shit I hear all the time, you know, from from know it all. It's like, okay, like you're basically telling me my job. I mean, do you know how insulting that is? You think, Rob, people don't do that. No, yes, they do. I mean, it may not be as extreme as I refuse to do cardio and I eat raw meat. I mean, although some people are like, I'm not gonna do cardio. It's like, okay, um, you know, your doctor said you had high blood pressure, and one of the best ways to bring this down is cardiorespiratory exercise, along with a good dose of strength training, low sodium diet, and yada yada yada. Yeah, but I don't I don't want to do cardio. Okay, so do you want to get better? I mean, yeah, I want to get better. I don't want to do cardio. Okay. I mean, I'll just be like, then why are you here? Like, if you know so much, why are you here? And, you know, this this kind of brings me to a funny story. When I was working at Stuart Marchman years ago, then uh back then it was just Stuart Treatment Center. It was a a it still is an alcohol and drug rehab center. And I was working in the RAP residential adolescent program, so I had the adolescence. And, you know, outside of this job, it's the probably the second favorite job I've ever had. Like I loved it, it was, it was great. It just, you know, I wanted to get into physical fitness, I wanted to become a trainer, so I kind of left the field of psychology and got my master's and went this way. But I did love the job. But I remember when I was early on the job, I was working with this guy. He was like been there a few years longer than me. And uh he was training me. And there was a guy, there was a kid in there. And you know, look, these are well-meaning people who have been sentenced to rehab. I'm not making fun of them. We get why they have the attitudes, and we try to help them, but you know, sometimes tough love is the way. I mean, it really is. And I can remember this one particular day. It was a great lesson for me, and I'm sure the kid as well. And the kid was just ranting to this senior counselor. He was just like, you know, telling them, you know, he doesn't know anything, and he's not gonna do that, and you know, go F yourself. You know, he was basically in just a rage, and you know, I'm sure had to be, you know, I don't know, like put in time out or whatever. And um, maybe it didn't even get that far. Maybe we just I can't remember. I don't remember it being that bad. And I do remember scenarios where situations did get pretty tricky. Um, it wasn't one of those. So I it was verbal, but um I remember him letting the kid kind of rent and he goes, So can I ask you something? I don't remember the kid's name. You know what? It might have been Brian, actually, but in any event, I think it was. And by the way, Brian turned into a success story in graduated treatment, so that's cool. And I think that's who it was. I usually have a good memory because I build relationships with people. So this kid who was probably 16, 17 at the time, you know, again was ranting, and the counselor looked at him and says, you know, Brian, if you know so much, like why are you here? Like, I don't think like you came here having your best day. So, so why are you here? If you're such an expert on mental health and substances and addiction and you know, behaving yourself and staying out of trouble, like if you're if you're like so, if you're so grounded, why are you here, you know, and I'm getting ready to leave, the door's gonna slam behind me because it is locked. You're not allowed to leave. I'm gonna go home to a nice spaghetti dinner with my wife and watch some great television, and you're gonna be sentenced to your room in about an hour and not allowed to leave the room until you get up at 6 a.m. And you know, naturally the kid kind of looked at him with an attitude, and it, you know, at the moment nobody likes to admit they're wrong. So I don't remember exactly. I just remember like a couple days later there being a complete change in him. And as I said, if it if it's the same kid, and I believe it is, he graduated and got out and and hopefully got his life together. I mean, these are kids just trying to get better. But the point is the same is true for personal training. Like, we hear it all the time. Like, if you want to be a good client, you got to let go of control. If you know so much, why are you here? I had a longtime client and I liked her. She's she was a great woman. She um, you know, just she could be very difficult. And I would have to have, I don't know, every few months I'd have to kind of recalibrate her a little bit. And I'd say, I'm just gonna make up a name because you never know, she might be listening. But I'd say, Jane, you're in the wrong seat. Get out of the driver's seat, get into the passenger seat, and just do as I suggest. And you know what? You just may hit your goal. You know, and then doing that, of course, she, you know, would you know be a little snippy, but then do it. She knew what she was doing. I mean, some people who are over controlling or overbearing sometimes, they know it. You know, and the thing with me being a trainer doing this 31 years is I don't care. Like, I'm gonna tell you, like, if you want to get the most out of your fitness training, come in and listen and do the best you can. And if you don't, again, I'll repeat what that counselor said like, why are you here? It it kind of blows me away when people try to tell trainers what to do. All right. So getting back to those examples, when you come in, if you want to get the most out of your training, you're going to want to simply trust your trainer, trust that they absolutely know how to help you and they absolutely want to help you. Like, why wouldn't a trainer who's busy want to help a client who wants to get better? Like, we love that. Like, I love that. Like, that makes my day. I mean, at least once a day, there's a scenario where I look at somebody and I go, hey, isn't that pretty cool? Like, when you came in, you couldn't do a single push-up. And now you're at like 15 or so perfect ones and 20 to 21 really good ones. Obviously, this is a specific example because I'm remembering the exact numbers. You couldn't do a pull-up. Now you're doing three. I mean, to me, things like that are really, really cool. Or they come in as rehab patients, and now they're able to do like really high-functioning events. Like I have two clients that are doing the max fit gain. No, three, three. One of them isn't pure rehab, but I kind of put them in the rehab category when he started. But there are two that absolutely started because of rehab, and both of them started for back issues. Both of them started because they were having back pain and back issues. And two of them, one of them's been with me for years and years now. The other one's been with me maybe a little bit over, maybe close to two years. And they're both competing in the games this year, and one of them has for the last, I don't know, five or eight years. I mean, think about that. You come in for back pain, and now you're at the point where you're gonna run a mile, and it's been even more vigorous than that. You're gonna do 100 squats, 50 push-ups, farmer carries, things that are taxing on the body. And you're not doing it like as a moron, meaning, you know, oh, I'm just gonna like fight through the pain. No, they don't have pain anymore. They're good. They do these things because they can and they're proud of themselves. And then the third person came in because he's he had some injuries from playing college sports, but he wanted to get basically back in shape, but he still has had some issues that we work through rehab. I just I guess I wouldn't label him a rehab patient when he started. He signed up because he feels capable now. I mean, you don't think as trainers, we don't love that? Like, that's what's awesome. Because we want to be able to do the stuff we want to do. We want to be able to play our sports, we want to be able to be with our grandkids, we want to be able to be high-functioning, physically fit adults. And so many people in America aren't these days. And you know, we love when people want to get better, so why wouldn't we? And guess what? The ones who don't excel as much, the training stays the same. I had a great mentor in college, Mr. Gurgley, he was my advisor for my master's program in exercise physiology. He used to say, Maxwell, one, you got to be all things to all people. Like you're gonna have the difficult ones, you're gonna have to know how to deal with them. You're gonna have the easy ones, you're gonna have to know how to deal with them. You know, and you need to meet people where they are. Like, okay. You know, and he's dead right. You know, we meet people where they are. We don't change a lot though. Like the program's the program. And the ones that get the most out of it just suit up and show up. They come in with an open mind, they tell you the goals, they don't try to micromanage their plan, they don't yeah, butt you, you know what I mean? Yeah, but, yeah, but I mean, we love that. I mean, those are especially fun in the weight loss situation. Yep. So can you tell me, you know, I really need to drop a few pounds, you know, yada yada yada. By the way, I'm yada yading and given this like made-up scenario because ultimately I won't work with people with this because it is so like annoying. And people can be so difficult when it comes to this. So that's why I made my one book, You Can't Out Run a Poor Diet. I give it to them, and I'm like, look, I'm help you a little bit, but for the most part, like you you gotta kind of do this on your own because weight loss people can be the biggest yeah butters you've ever known in your life. And I know people struggle with it. I'm not making fun of it, and it is hugely important when I was an adolescent. I was overweight. I 100% get it. But I also hundred percent understand that most people don't want to take advice on this, they just don't. They just don't say, well, you know, you have to create a caloric deficit to lose weight. That's the only way. You have to eat a little bit less than you're taking in, you got to move, you'll lose weight. Yeah, but I tried that. You know, I I logged my food and I did this and it didn't work. And I mean, come on, people, we're looking at you like, come on. Like, okay, so you're physio, it's physiologically impossible, by the way, for you to take in less food and not lose weight. I'm sorry, but that's the case. You know, you're just unwilling to kind of do what we need you to do. So, like the yeah butters are gonna drive a trainer nuts because they're we're just trying to help you do what you need to do. And if you're always coming back with, yeah, but I used to do that, yeah, but I did. I mean, I mean, how many are you gonna give before we look at you and say, what are you here for then? So I'll kind of like finish this one up because ultimately, how to be a good client, isn't it obvious? Don't try to control the workout in the program. You're not you're not the boss. It's funny, I play softball now. And um I just thought of this when I said you're not the boss, because there's this guy who annoyingly always yells from the dugout, you're not the boss of me. I don't it it it's kind of a running joke. But anyway, like you're not the boss of us, people. Like, we're trying to help you, and if you know what you need to do, go do it. I mean, so the way to be a good client is to not be a control freak. It is to take the advice, do the advice to the best of your ability, and keep an open mind. So I'll finish with like just this kind of a brief story right here. When I was in my previous location, um, I don't want to necessarily say where, because some of my clients still live there and they're fine people, but there was a greater tendency for people to look at my personal training studio as a convenience. And it was. I mean, it I get it, it's convenient, you know. But like one of the things that would just really, really irk me would be like they'd come in, we do a consult, we talk about things, and especially then, because I was still pretty new trying to build up clientele, now I don't really have to worry about it too much. I just have to keep doing what I do. So, but when they'd say, Oh, and you're just so convenient, we don't want to have to go to the why. And like, uh, you're gonna be one of those. So I don't take people like that. Like, I'm a trainer, not a gym. If somebody wants to simply come in and use my facility, even if they're paying for personal training, but really they're just doing it for convenience, I do not want them as clients. I used to have this friend that used to, like, when I'd talk about this when I'd figure out that that was the person's motive, because I get really frustrated with them because, like I said, I mean, like, I'm a type A. I want people to get better. I I'm not happy with mediocrity. I'm really not. Like, I like people to get better, and then I like them to kind of peak, and then we try to keep them there, you know, and peak and getting better is different for every person, right? But like I'd say to my friend, I'd say, I would kind of complain, and they'd say, Well, Rob, green is green, man. Who cares? They're paying you, just kind of sit there, grin and bear it, they'll get through the workout, they'll leave, you're getting paid. I'm like, nah, man, I can't. Can't like I take my job too serious, not too serious, I take it serious. And no, I can't. I can't. So it's like, I can only do it for so long that I'm like, you know what? They're just coming here because it's convenient. They just want a place to work out. They don't want to be told what to do, you know. They just want a place to work out. So if you're hiring a trainer, don't have that mentality. The trainer is there to guide you, support you, help you, and educate you. It should not be a convenience factor for you. It's not that. And if somebody's taking you on as that, just know that you're probably not getting your money's worth on that. All right. So, next time we'll be talking about how to be the best trainer. And a big thing I've been talking about this week is tell showdo. I want to thank everybody for listening to today's show. I want to ask you to please hit automatic download on wherever you get your podcasts, whether it be Apple Podcasts or on Spotify. It really helps me and it helps the show. Please, if you would send this podcast out to people that you think might really enjoy it. I would appreciate that. And before I leave, I want to thank our other sponsors. One of them is Overhead Door of Daytona Beach. They have their premier garage door product and the premier garage door service. I can vouch for Jeff and Zach Cock, the owners, and like they say, their garage doors go up and they go down. No problems, no maintenance. So if you need any garage door help, give them a call at 386-222-3165. And also, I want to thank Procharge Liquid Protein Enhancer. Let me tell you, it's taking the whole supplementing of protein to new levels here. It's in a gel form, and each bottle has 40 grams of protein per bottle. So you get two per serving. They have passed a USP, a 51 preservative challenge. They have a very high bioavailability, 90% absorption rate. What I think is great about them is you can throw them in a suitcase, take them wherever you want to go, and you don't have to mix those annoying powders. All right. Right now you can get those on my website. Just go to fit to themax.net and go to the section that says pro charge and give them a try. Until next time, everybody, be max fit and be max well.