Have a question? Your client pays good money for your time and expertise; you need to make sure that your workouts flow smoothly so that they get the most bang for their buck.
If you are not that good at time management or your workouts with your clients do not have a good flow, there is always a possibility that they will want to change to a different personal trainer.
It is also tough to motivate your clients if you are very unorganized and all over the place with your time management. If this is a problem you have, then the points I illustrate in this article should help you.
Your sessions should flow from one exercise to the next seamlessly. Let’s jump right into the three main tips I have for time management!
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You should always have secondary exercises in mind!
If you typically train your clients during rush hour at your gym or the gym that you work at has a ton of members overall, you need to have secondary exercises that can be performed just in case the equipment you need is already taken.
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For example, let’s say that you are doing a back and biceps workout with your client. If your first choice for an exercise was to do last pulldowns followed by dumbbell curls, you need to have other options available to you in case those are not available.
You should not have to sit around thinking for a long time about what other exercises you can perform. You can also not just wait around for the machine to become available. Both of those waste valuable time that your client is paying for.
You do not want to look like you don’t have a plan, so make sure you have one! Some good alternatives for lat pulldowns are assisted pull-ups or machine pulldowns. Some good options for bicep dumbbell curls are barbell curls, preacher curls, or machine curls.
You should have a long list of backup exercises for each body part you plan on doing with your clients. This way, you’ll never be surprised, and the transition will be smooth and professional.
On average, you should know how long your workouts will take!
On average, you should know how long each session will take with each of your clients. This is tough to correct this when you are just starting out with personal training. It’s hard to tell how long a certain amount of exercise will take.
As you will find out, some clients merely take longer to do things than others. If you have a jampacked schedule with clients back to back, it is essential that you time your sessions correctly. You will be late for your next meeting if you go over time.
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If you are late to one session, that can snowball the rest of your day because you need to give every single one of your clients the amount of time they paid for. This, in turn, means you will be late for every other session afterward and have a lot of frustrated clients on your hands.
On the other hand, if you cut your session too short, your clients will feel like they are getting cheated out of the time that they paid for. If you are starting out with new clients, your sessions will take longer than usual because you will need to demonstrate exercises, correct their form, and get them situated with training.
The more you see new clients, the better they will get at the progression of the sessions. Just consider this with new clients and ensure everything goes according to schedule.
Prepare yourself for other requirements that will take time out of your session
My last tip for time management and workout flow is to calculate for time spent doing other required tasks, such as talking about nutrition, taking body measurements, checking clients in and out (if applicable), and writing down the workout.
All of these are very important, but none of them are as important as the workout itself. You should make sure you get the full workout in before you touch on any of these other subjects. Leave yourself five or 10 minutes at the end of the workout if you need to do any of these tasks with your client.
Once again, if you are starting personal training, these additional tasks might take longer than if you have been practicing them for years. Diet and nutritional information are critical to your client.
You could probably spend hours on end talking about this with them. I advise having printed information for them or an excellent online resource for them to learn about this information on their own.
Another way to save time is to have your whole workout printed out beforehand, so you do not need to write down the names of each exercise as you are working with your client.
Writing stuff by hand takes forever! Check out my article on my workout schedule template that I have been working on that will save you lots of time!
Conclusion on time management!
I hope the advice that I have given you on time management and workout flow will serve you well. Mainly pay attention if you are a trainer that is just starting out with your very first clients. These tips will make things easier for you.
Personal training is not cheap, and the time that you spend with your clients is precious to them! Over time all of this information will become very instinctual; you will not have to think about as much. Try to keep these three tips in mind when planning your sessions.
You will become a very successful as well as a great trainer by implementing these tips! I wish I had a guy like this to help me organize my time while starting out as a trainer. Make sure to build your exercise list always to have other exercises to work with.
If you have any other time management tips, leave me a comment down below to let me know! Also, check out my article on tips for beginners, getting creative with your workouts, and how to sell personal training!
Tyler Read
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