Have a question? 
If you have not yet signed up for the NASM CNC certification, receive a big discount here.
Get your copy of the NASM CNC exam cheat sheet. It helps immensely in studying for the exam.
My PTP students report cutting their NASM CNC study time and effort in half with Trainer Academy.
Enjoy the insurance of the Exam Pass Guarantee and Retake Fee Guarantee, plus take advantage of my current discount code PTPOCTOBER for 50% off until October 14th, 2024.
Try it out for free here to see if itโs right for you, or read my detailed review for further insights.
Chapter Goals:
- Discuss the verbal and nonverbal communication methods.
- Define and know active listening and its components.
- Find the strategies for building rapport.
- Use communication that is effective and find the soft skills to elicit change.
- Find the appropriate levels of assistance and coaching that are needed for your clients to achieve their goals.
The Science and Art of Communication in Coaching
Health and fitness coaches commit a lot of time to make their craft and building a successful programming scheme that makes a good difference in the lives of their clients. But even if you make the best program possible, it does not necessarily guarantee any success. This depends on so many factors, and many cannot be controlled. But the factors going into the programs to make them successful are effective design, implementation, and the attainment of goals.
Coaches need to be able to communicate information in a form that influences the decision making and behavior change for the clients.
The actual adherence to the programs varies based on many factors, some of which we will cover in this chapter.
Communication is defined as the process of sending and receiving messages in both verbal and nonverbal ways. But it is also much more than that. Communication is a dynamic and complex structure involving the thoughts, feelings, and needs of everyone involved.
Soft skills are personal attributes relating to how well one person works with another person.
Self-awareness is your knowledge of your habits, feelings, and motivations.
Exclusive PTP CPT Offers |
||
|---|---|---|
Gold Standard Cert | Most Popular Cert | Best Study Materials |
A Good Option | A Good Option | Best CPT for you?  |
Nonverbal Communication
Communication is about sharing words, but also a major part of it is what is not said but seen by the person during conversations. They actually believe that only 7% of what is said comes from the words you use; the rest from how you say it, and then around 55% from your body language while saying it. The physical environment is going to play a large part in this also. So, choosing a location free of distractions and clutter will reflect on how well messages are received and how well you are perceived by the clients.
People create their first impressions of you based on several different traits. These are things such as the level of trust and the level of competence they perceive. And those initial judgments they form are unlikely to change over time. One example could be if someone is chatting with their coach and the coach checks their phone in the middle of it, and then they will likely remember how they were not focused on in the future.
Some examples of nonverbal behavior are:
- Body language and posture = things such as slouching your body, crossing your arms, sitting or standing straight up, fidgeting, and seeming worried.
- Facial expressions = are things such as looking down or away from the client, looking around the room, staring for too long, or smiling or scowling.
- The tone of voice = things like raising or lowering your pitch of voice at the end of a sentence or maybe speaking soft when you are requesting something or asking a hard question.
- Rate and volume = things like very slow or too fast speaking or speaking extremely softly or loudly.
Improving Nonverbal Communication
The client’s emotions and apprehensions should be considered when working with new clients. New clients in their first session are likely to be nervous, excited, or even skeptical regarding you or the program, and this should not be taken too seriously.
By mirroring the client, we can create a better sense of comfort and security and allow the coach to notice the cultural differences in their communication style. Some cultural differences may exist in eye contact, gestures, speech rate, body language, and even personal space needs.
Verbal Communication
This specifically is in reference to the words that are used for communication. These conversations occur in person, over the phone, or even via texting.
Word Choice
Word choices should vary depending on the client you have and their age, past experiences theyโve gone through, and the knowledge they may have on a topic. When clients are super ready for the program they are starting, the words chosen need to be brief and simple.
The words you choose when working with people in nutrition need to be considered more so due to the possible emotional responses or alternate meanings that can exist for many clients.
Denotation is the literal meaning that the word has.
Connotation is the emotional meaning or the meaning that is perceived by the person hearing it. It is sometimes just different from that denotation.
Words like skinny or fat often tend to be perceived in ways that are different depending on your past and who you are. Words need to be chosen to give the client a positive image in their head, so part of this involves being familiar with your client and avoiding any trigger words until you may know more.
Exclusive PTP CPT Offers |
||
|---|---|---|
| Gold Standard Cert | Most Popular Cert | Best Study Materials |
| A Good Option | A Good Option | Best CPT for you? |
Focus on positive goal behaviors in these ways
- Decrease mindless eating by teaching the client to eat nutritious things and eat these throughout the day. You should teach them to plan for their day, prepare the snacks for themselves in the proper serving sizes, and ensure they are ready to grab and go.
- Decrease the consumption of carbohydrates by teaching them to take in proper nutrition ratios for health and energy systems. This can be emphasized by educating clients on the nutrients that are out there and then mapping out some sample meal ideas with some goal ratios to shoot for.
- Decrease the consumption of sugars by eating healthy and nutritious treats. This can be done by helping clients to identify healthy drinks and snacks that should be taken in and help with fulfilling their sweet tooth.
- Do not skip meals by teaching the client to eat a minimum of three balanced meals every day. This can be emphasized by helping them to create a plan based on the clientโs daily schedule that provides doable options for each meal.
Supportive Language
Supportive language relates to building efficacy and competence for the clients through the implementation and success of programs.
Nutrition coaches are focused on designing goals that reach positive results.
Written Communication
This occurs in communication taking place through text messages or email. It may even be there if the coach has written media throughout the gym. The message should be endured to have clarity for people reading it. The tone and intentions of the message should be considered highly.
Individual Differences
The coaches are likely to have a very diverse set of clients that all differ in their age, gender, ethnicity, experience in exercise, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. These all need to be considered in everything we do, like discussing word choice and other factors learned from initial sessions.
Active Listening
This is the act of just being mindful in the way you hear things and trying to comprehend the meaning of the words you are hearing. Simply becoming a better listener is one of the best ways to improve your communication drastically. Active listening can be hard to employ when a coach is too excited or motivated. For this, we should always keep this in mind if we wish to be successful communicators.
Stages of Listening
Listening is complex and has five stages.
- Receiving is the first stage. In this, we focus on hearing what the client shares with you. So, the coach should filter through information. The environment is key to note here, as it can be the greatest distractor.
- Understanding is the second stage of listening. Here the coach should try to identify the meaning of what is being said and heard. The coach should focus on not assigning bias or assumptions with the songs.
- Remembering is the third stage. This is a natural flow that happens. To remember the most, you should try not to get distracted.
- Evaluation is the fourth stage. This is when the coach works to be free of bias and keep a positive attitude.
- Responding is the final stage of listening. This is when you provide some feedback to the client and progress the conversation further.
Reflection
This is the paraphrasing of words and emotions done when you actively listen.
Learning and practicing the reflective listening skills is worthwhile, and practicing more often has been shown to give more emotion and to retain info better.
Questioning
This is a powerful tool for communication, and it shows engagement while also allowing gaining a deeper understanding. If you desire a yes or no question, you ask a close-ended. But you should ask an open-ended question when you want a long answer with actual details.
Probing questions are questions in which more detail or information is desired.
Divergent questioning uses broad questions that do not have a right or a wrong answer.
Building Rapport
The initial goal of all coach and client communication is to build trust and develop understanding.
Rapport is a relationship that is based upon mutual understanding and trust.
Client centered processes are approaches in which clients are understood and the development of programs is based on the needs and preferences of the clients.
Adherence
Rapport is a large determinant of adherence. Adherence is built by the credibility and trust that a client sees in their coach.
Empathy
This is identifying with someone elseโs feelings, thoughts, or attitudes.
Tyler Read
PTPioneer Editorial Integrity
All content published on PTPioneer is checked and reviewed extensively by our staff of experienced personal trainers, nutrition coaches, and other Fitness Experts. This is to make sure that the content you are reading is fact-checked for accuracy, contains up-to-date information, and is relevant. We only add trustworthy citations that you can find at the bottom of each article. You can read more about our editorial integrity here.