As a personal trainer here in Singapore, I have to admit that sometimes I make mistakes. This is particularly true when I first started out in this profession, but at least now these things rarely happen.

Here are some things I did which you can also follow if you want to avoid common personal training pitfalls:

1. I don’t give discounts to anyone. When I was still new to personal training, giving discounts was a must. It was, for me, the only way to get new clients or to keep existing ones. But now I don’t give discounts anymore since I have a good practice here in Singapore. But sometimes there are still people who approach me, mostly my close friends, asking for a discount on my rates.

The problem is that this arrangement never really works out well. When I cut my rates, I bend the rules. And that’s a slippery slope because over time bending the rules for my friends becomes a bad habit. And because it seems like an informal arrangement, I sometimes fail to treat our sessions seriously. In addition, my friends don’t fully commit to the process because they didn’t invest as much as they should have.

So now I make sure that everyone gets the same rates. That lets my clients know that I’m serious about the process, and that also makes them more serious and committed as well.

1. I always look at their medical history. This is actually a very common oversight among personal trainers. But I’ve found that it’s quite necessary to be aware of the overall health as well as history of injury of my clients. That way, if my client has breathing difficulties or a heart problem, I can watch out for them and monitor closely for any signs of distress. And if I know that they have or had a knee injury, then I can tailor their workout program to avoid stress on the injury.
2. I ask my clients about how committed they are. It’s not enough that they pay me good money. To avoid failure, I need to make sure that the client is truly determined to achieve his or her fitness goals.

So I always do a heart to heart discussion with all my potential clients, and then make sure they understand what will be required of them. For example, they’ll be required to workout a specific number of hours each week. They need to change their diet and follow my food recommendations and they should keep a food journal if I believe it’s necessary.  

Some of my clients seem to think that working out to gain muscle or lose weight is easy, and that I’m supposed to just hand-deliver to them the results. But I make sure that they realize that I’m a guide, and they will have to work hard for those results.

1. We talk about the results they can expect. After clariying with them what their fitness goal is – is it to just stay healthy, lose weight, gain muscle, or to be better at a particular sport – I then tailor the workouts needed to achieve their goal.

Then we come up with a schedule and set proper expectations. What’s important here is to not set the expectations too high. Weight loss, for example, can be slow at the beginning when you want permanent results. I give them a general idea of what to expect after a certain time if they follow my instructions.

1. I keep a record of my clients’ workout results. I always take note of their general health and performance for each workout, keeping track of the exercises they do and the number of sets and reps. This record-keeping makes sure that they’re making gains on schedule while staying healthy. If the results aren’t what I expected, then I will perhaps make some adjustments to the workout while also ensuring they are eating healthy.

Some of these tips may not always be easy to implement but I get much better results from the clients who sign on, and these clients recommend my services much more enthusiastically to others. It’s win-win for everyone.