why I don’t write out my clients workouts

The fitness manager at my gym asked me why I don’t write down the exercises for my clients ahead of their personal training sessions. I write out my own workouts, and follow it for about a month, but my clients are not me, they don’t have over an hour to train if the piece (or pieces) of equipment is/are being tied up.

If I have someone’s protocol set it stone, it makes it more difficult for me to be spontaneous on the spot. Thinking on the fly is a specific mindset, so it’s easier for me to start every workout with my clients with the knowledge that I need to think fast on my feet and change course at any given moment. Also, my client may want a difficult focus that session, or may still be sore from a previous session so certain exercises will need to be cut out for that day. A lot of my clients come in with a neck pain or soreness from an outside activity, or from sitting too long at work, so the workout is going to deviate from a set plan. I stopped writing my clients workouts ahead of time, because nine times out of ten, that plan ends of being completely different.

While it’s good to have some sort of plan when you go to the gym, being flexible, and listening to what your body tells you, is going to be the most beneficial. What matters most, is not the workout, but the results.

Photo: me (on the left) with a fellow trainer, having fun taking photos