How to train a client w/ a stroke w/ Poojan

A client leaves a voicemail that would make most trainers panic: “I’m 79 years old, I had a hemorrhagic stroke, and I need someone to train me at home.” We’re joined by Poojan from Shaw Athletics to walk through what happens next, step by step, and how a qualified coach thinks about safety, scope, and real progress with a stroke survivor who still wants to feel strong and capable.

We start with what took Poojan from “textbook cert” to real coach: getting in rooms where serious education and serious people show up. He shares what he learned at the Real Coaches Summit, why networking with doctors, DPTs, OTs, and dietitians changes the results your clients get, and how those connections keep you from guessing when the stakes are high. Then we zoom into the case study: movement screens, medical clearance, collecting contraindications from physical therapists, and using a gait belt to protect the client and build confidence while walking and training.

You’ll also hear the business side that too many trainers ignore. Poojan explains how his Google Business Profile drives consistent personal training leads, why five-star reviews matter for “personal trainer near me” searches, and how “provide real value” becomes a repeatable marketing system. If you care about senior fitness, stroke recovery training, strength training for longevity, and ethical coaching that works with medical professionals instead of competing with them, this one is packed.

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Transcript

Welcome And Quick Announcements

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showfitness.com. Also make sure to check out my book, How to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Howdy, y'all. Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness podcast. Today we have this young hunk number three, Mr. Pujan. How are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:35

How's it going, Chris? Thank you for having me on again.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

One of my favorite guys to pick your brain because you went from textbook cert, got out of crunch, started your own business, and now you're doing what most trainers don't do. You're going out there, you're going to seminars. How was the coaches summit? Why don't you give us a little rundown of how awesome that was?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Real Coaches Summit was one of the best seminars and conferences I've been to. I've learned about 12 different topics each one hour, one hour each. So uh we went through different things, such as how to get clients to stop emotionally eating, things about PCOS, how to train women that are going through menopause, weight loss medicine, PDs versus peptides. There was a bunch of education that I learned, which is going to help my business and help the clients that I'm training. And it made me realize like I have to get myself out there even more and connect with different medical professionals to help clients even more than I already am. So it was uh I suggest everybody goes to Real Coaches Summit and different seminars like Show Up Fitness and Farnsworth.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Speaking of the devil, he's gonna be out here October 23rd for a one-day seminar. And yours truly, the belt buckle trainer, I will be presenting next year at the Coaches Summit. So that's exciting. They have 24 uh special guests, and I'll be one of them. And again, I think it's just really cool to see the opportunities. You don't do it with the intent, but just doors open. And you know, look at Phil. He went there a couple of years ago, and then last year he was on, or this year, he was on the side stage doing a presentation. And I think even more valuable from what you'll gain from those hands-on experiences, the education is definitely top tier, but it's the connections that you meet with other people. I'm sure that you have an endless list of people you've networked with, but your following is now growing, and now you have new resources who you can reach out to.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Yeah, it's amazing, man. I met a lot of cool people, a lot of uh medical professionals that we connected on Instagram as well. So if I ever have a question, I can shoot them a text, they can shoot me a text, vice versa. And it's just a great way for the coaches industry and medical professional industry to grow with each other and help clients more than we are.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

And you think about when you got that baseline textbook cert, you probably never would have thought you'd be having conversations or be in the same room as doctors and therapists and RDs and people that is just doing phenomenal things, but now you're in the same conversations. They don't see you as a dumb trainer either. They see you as a competent coach and someone who they would definitely want to work with.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Uh Phil was introducing me to a bunch of the other trainers, the doctors there. Um, and I don't think I've met anybody at the summit that had a NASM certification.

Getting Clients Through Google Reviews

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Now they're they're too busy just uh trying to get that next textbook cert and that's why they're not making more than 50 grand, which brings me to you. You you cleared 120 last year. And you know, this isn't a podcast about how much of a hunk you are. We didn't know that. It's about a unique case that you recently started working with. And first, let's uh amplify and just highlight how you're getting clients because I don't think people realize as an independent trainer that you are your own business. And if you are not in the top search, when people type in trainer near me or personal trainers in my area, you're gonna be missing a lot of opportunities. So, how did you get this client? And let's start talking about how to train someone who's experienced a stroke.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Yeah, so the way I got this client was through my Google business page. I put a lot of effort into my Google business page with getting reviews and keeping a five-star rating up. So what she did was went on Google and she looked up personal trainers near me, and then she filtered it by the highest rated. So I came up at the top of Lancaster County, and that's how she filled in a submission. And that's exactly how I get a bunch of other clients as well. Google is one of the main channels I use for client acquisition, along with the gym I partner with. So whenever someone fills in a personal training application to the gym I'm with, that gets straight sent into my inbox. And then that's when I uh follow the steps and get them in for a consultation and sign them up for personal training.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

Now you can see in the background, volume two of my book, one of the 10 R's of getting clients. I talk about reputology and getting reviews. How many reviews do you have?

SPEAKER_01 5:05

I have 111 five-star reviews.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

How the hell did you get 111? You've only been doing this for not even a couple of years.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

It's just providing the value, man. Uh, you provide the value. You ask if there's anything else that you would like to see in the program because this hour, when I'm with a client, this hour is for them. Let me provide the most value that I can. Let me get them out of pain. Let me get them a little bit 1% closer to their goals every single day. And just through showing value, they're going to leave you an amazing review. And that is, it's it's easy to get reviews, but you have to put in a lot of value for the clients.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

That's all because you're a qualified coach. And one of the pages I have, I you know, we we we don't struggle, it's just a constant pissing contest where trainers want, oh, I'm I'm competent. I got 13 acronyms behind my name. But in my book, I have this one page where it's like, have you trained all these people? And one of those people is someone who's had a stroke. And I think most people would probably shit their pants. And as you've worked with tons of people when it comes to shoulders and hips and knees when they have pain, most trainers are going to default to just a random exercise. They don't know the why. Those are things that we teach at the seminars. And when you have a great team like Docs Farnworth, you know, you're able to understand why you're doing certain screens and the best exercise is to help them feel better. So that stuff's easy for you now. But then when you come across someone like a stroke, you're like, oh, this is a new opportunity. And we had a cool conversation, but you know, I didn't tell you this is what you need to do. It's just like, no, you you're smart, you know how to do it. You know, reach out to the doc, maybe get a medical clearance, maybe some contraindications. But you know, take us through that process of how you met this lady and you went to her house and what the training's been like and some of the conversations y'all have had.

First Call With A Stroke Survivor

Screens, Clearance, And Gait Belt Safety

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Okay, great. So let me start from the let me let me start it off by she called me through my Google business and uh I couldn't get to the phone on time. So I have a voicemail. She she left a voicemail, and then in the voicemail, she said, Hey, uh, I'm 79 years old. I had a stroke 14 years ago, and I need someone to come to my place, right? So I'm like, okay, let me see what I can do. I call her up and I'm like, hey, you were asking about personal training. So I have a few questions to ask you to get to know you and your goals a little bit better. You had a stroke 14 years ago. What kind of stroke was it? She said hemorrhagic. And um, I got to know her goals a little bit more, and she needed someone to come to her place, right? Now, when I first started my business, I told myself I am not for mobile personal training, like going to people's homes. It's just not my thing. There's nothing wrong in it. Logistically, I make more money and my business grows more if I stay at the gym, right? But I'm like, you know what? Let me let me listen to more of your goals. Maybe I can refer you out to somebody. And the more she started speaking, later on in the conversation, she said these exact same words. She said, Please, I need your help. And I I don't know, that kind of just like melted me. Like, I can't say no to that. So I was like, screw it, let me go in for an initial consultation. Let me see what I can and can't do. Uh, because it's still my decision if I want to take on this client or not. So I went into I went to her home, uh, we did the consultation, and basically, like the the way her lifestyle is set up, if there was another trainer training her, they would 100% end up injuring her. And I can't have that. So this is the first mobile personal training client I'm working with. Um, so yeah, that's uh that's like the background of it. But then when we got to the consultation, we did just basic movement screens. Uh, we saw her medical clearance, and then I signed her up for personal training. So, what I did for that process was I reached out to three doctors of physical therapists in my network that I know, and I gave them a list of contraindications and I sent them a video of her movement screen as well. So they basically gave me things I should and should not do. And one of the best things they said was get a gate belt just to start so she feels comfortable walking and uh there's no risk of injury, and you can protect her and hold her and keep her close to you. So I got a gate belt. Um, and there were different things the DPT said, Let's like this type of population, they need to work on power, right? Because they're constantly sitting down, so they have no like explosive energy, and yeah, so just work on power, and then we have her doing little things like uh sit to stands with a little stomp with the foot that is completely healthy, right? She's getting a lot better at that. Um, and she is loving it. So I've taken everything that all the DBTs have said and put it all together into a program using the CCA for her.

unknown 10:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

So when you say that word power, force times velocity over time, people think you have to have a med ball and throw it against the wall as hard as you can, but it's it can also be reactiveness because as we age, yeah, sarcopenia, but because of her medical history, she has that damage. Is it to her left or right side? It's to her right side. And so that side can be very um tonic where like the maybe her hand can't even open up. And so a gate belt G-A-I-T belt is what they use in like hospital settings because if you can't leverage yourself, if you just have your hand out there and she falls backwards, well, you you don't have that support system. So that's a great recommendation, and it just gives you a lot more confidence, but more importantly, it gives the clients confidence. And then you do like reactive drills, and you'll be able to surprisingly people think like, oh, stroke. Now, this is a very common type of stroke. There's also AVM, and that's what I've worked with the most. It's a lot rare, but it is the recovery is more substantial than the more most common one that you're working with. And you're just gonna see, like, wow, you know what? They're pretty damn capable. And I don't necessarily within you know, within our scope, we know how to quote unquote baby, but it's pretty cool to see what an organism can do because I'm sure that she's wowing you on, like, oh wow, that's pretty let's go a step further, and let's go a step further. And you know, your brain, because you are a critical thinker and you have a great team around you, you're able to constantly progress, and that's the most important thing. If you just played, you know, cards the entire time, she's not going to get the the neurogenesis and the adaptation from strength training, and that's what she needs. And and so was there anything that presented or any of those contraindications that you were like, oh my god, I don't feel comfortable at all. What was your mind thinking like with that?

Training Power And Building Confidence

SPEAKER_01 11:39

There weren't too, too many contraindications. The only thing that came up to my mind was, hey, just be careful and have fun with this process. She had a stroke 14 years ago, so there's not too, too much we can do. We can slow down like the aging process and uh work on a little bit of quote unquote injury prevention. Um, but what I was hoping for was a little bit of cross-education. So we work uh on the left side, make it super strong, and see if some of that strength can go over to her right side. So that's really what it was. And one of the biggest things, in my opinion, was so she's 79, she's turning 80. Her husband passed away four or five years ago. Her daughter lives about two hours away in a different state. So if I put myself in her shoes, if I had a stroke and I'm 80 years old, a lot of medical professionals will underestimate me, they'll try and baby me, and that will rub off on me the wrong way. And then as a result of that, I'll kind of get a little grumpy, right? So I'm like, let me put myself in her shoes. I'm gonna treat her like a normal client because the body is capable of a lot of things. So I go in there every single day, I challenge her, I make her sweat, and she has been loving it so much. And we are progressing her also because we even took the gate belt off. And we have her doing little walking drills with just her cane. And she said, I don't need a gate belt, you are my gate belt. So that was uh that was a really cool compliment that she gave me. But contraindications, man, like there's obviously certain things that we can and cannot do, but I think my whole mindset with this is what is the best exercise we can do while keeping it safe? Because she's not gonna fall, right? I I'm gonna make sure she's not gonna fall. And how can we have fun with this? So, what we do is we do little throwing drills. I have a little squeeze ball, and then uh I have her throw it at her door, or I'll open up the trash can and we'll play like a little basketball and things like that. Then I'll have her stand up using the stomach, and then I'll put my finger in front of her eyes and just tell tell her to follow my eyes. And she's also partially, like super partially blind in her right eye as well. So that is one of the like hardest things out of everything that we do, all the squats, all the pulling, pushing, just her tracking my eye, standing up is the hardest thing for her to do. So you say her left side of the body is affected, right? Uh, it is her right side, right side of the body is affected.

Why Collaboration Beats Guesswork

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Yeah, and so it's just it's fascinating to see you know what the bodies are capable of doing. And it's it's when you give them hope, it's really, really empowering. Does she ever have any seizures or anything? She used to have seizures, but she got off her seizure medications back in January. And that's that's one thing that the client who I work with, he has seizure medications, so he brings that every single session. If he if you need anything, he takes a little no nasal spray and it's fine. Uh she gave you a pretty cool compliment, and I think it's an important thing to talk about. What did she tell you recently?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

So she told me uh these exact words. Like when I came into her apartment for a session, I think this was only like the fifth or sixth session. And I sat down, I'm like, hey Kay, what's going on? How are you doing? Uh, just get bring up the vibes, and she started smiling, cracking up. And she told me my personal training services and the way I train her are far superior than any OT and PT she's worked with in the past, which is such a humbling and cool experience. But the only way I'm able to do that for her and provide a service that good is by networking with other medical professionals like DPTs. Because I took what they said and combined it all together to give her the best results.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

That's unfortunate. It's not to knock PTs or OTs as you know, you're a smart guy, but a lot of times we take this approach that's like you're in your 80s now, and it's almost almost like this hospice where let's just let them, you know, kind of fail out. But it's so cool to see that when you stimulate the brain and you challenge it, you get that type two recruitment, their power can increase. It's like the example I give is like you're dropping, uh you're jumping out of a plane and you're just falling like a rock. Well, as we strength train and we train the brain and everything, you're you're getting a parachute. And it doesn't matter if you are 80 years young like she is, you're closer to the ground. We're all gonna die, get over it. But you're giving her a parachute at the very end so you can provide sustainability, longevity, and most importantly, it gives them hope. And then she looks forward to these sessions and she's getting uh adaptive aspects from what you're doing, and it's just really neat to see this is why we do it is to help people. But most trainers wouldn't have the whereabouts, and unfortunately, they probably wouldn't even reach out to a physical therapist. They're gonna say, Oh, you know, I'm gonna go on YouTube or Reddit. Have you ever trained someone? And the information that you're getting is a flip of a coin. So at least you know that I can text this professional. And it's not that you're second-guessing your skills, you're just doing your right of passage. This is what you should be doing as a coach, is you're checking to make sure that you are aligned. And there's a lot of therapists out there that are just going to underload, and there's occupational therapists that are not going to incorporate strength training. It's just going to be more of you know, just sitting in her chair and you know, moving around to improve her activities of daily living. Again, not knocking these professionals. There are numerous great therapists and occupational therapists and ATs and whatever, but too many of them can potentially look at the individual and just, oh, you're about to die. Let's just, you know, sustain this for as long as you can. But you can actually improve it. And that's exactly what you're doing.

Where To Find Pujan And Closing

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, like I said, the DPTs, every all the medical professionals I'm uh collaborating with and reaching out, they've helped a tremendous amount. And all props to them, hats off to them, because they are one of the only ways that I can train her and provide a good level of service. And one other thing also is I want to say before taking this type of client on, like, yeah, sure, I was a little bit nervous. I'm like, oh, what if this happens, what if that happens? But and those are just like automatic negative thoughts that we all think of, the the ants that you speak about. But I think the mental models that you kind of pass down, like, hey, this is not tricky, this is not challenging. Look at it as fun. Take on certain clients that will scare you because you will learn a lot from them. That confidence, like over the past three years, I've been taking a lot of clients on like that. And that confidence from the past few years is helping me now because I would have never taken on a stroke client uh when I first started my business. But now I'm like, no, absolutely. I know this is going to help me uh a ton out. So thank you for that, Chris.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

No, you gotta give props to yourself because you're a competent, qualified trainer. And as you said, CCA, it doesn't matter if you have a stroke or you're overweight, it just simplifies stuff, but it allows for your brain to work in a safe and appropriate way because you can look at her, look at her activities of daily living and say, okay, well, let's try something here. But it's safe. I know that I have this support system. And as she gains the confidence, okay, we can take that away. And okay, what can we do next? And what's gonna happen three months from now? What's gonna happen six months from now? That crossover effect is really powerful because just like with injuries, if you blow out your ACL on the right side, train the left side, if that one gets stronger, it's gonna have that carryover effect to the right side. And it's the same thing with recovering the brain. And so it's just really cool to see that you are a competent coach who's willing and capable of training anybody, and that's the big difference between qualified trainers and the average trainer, understanding how to train the human body, where most trainers are just gonna, you know, guess and they're gonna do things that, oh, that wasn't good, and then they get hurt. And it's just unfortunate because now we're working with human freaking bodies. Like this isn't human right here. This is an actual person. We shouldn't be doing trial and error. So when you surround yourself with great people, the sky's the limit. And excited to get you back on here in the future because you'll be clearing 200,000 soon. You're making more, you're helping people, you're making a huge impact. If you head to his page in Lancaster, leave him a five-star review, give him some props. Anything else you want to add out there, make sure to tell us your IG handle as well.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Yeah, my Instagram handle, you can find me at Shaw Athletics on Instagram. And then my Google business, if you look up Shaw Athletics, it's gonna be the first one that pops up. It has like 20 pictures on there. I think I have like uh, yeah, 111 five star reviews at the moment. My goal is 150 before the end of the year. So if anybody could leave a review, I would highly appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 20:09

Love it. And remember, big biceps are better than small ones and keep showing up. Have a good day, my man. Thank you, Chris. You too.