Help Your Fitness Clients Remotely Over The Holidays

As a fitness instructor or trainer, one difficult challenge you can face this time of year is less time with your clients. A lot of people are actually particularly determined to maintain fitness efforts over the holiday season – but often, it’s just not realistic. Sometimes they’re traveling, sometimes they’re hosting family and friends, and sometimes things just get a little too busy. Throw in the fact that most of us indulge at least a little bit more in treats and decadent meals this time of year, and there’s a real chance you’ll reunite with clients come January and have a lot of work to do!

This isn’t a problem you can get around entirely – at least not in every case – but it’s something you can attempt to address by establishing email contact with your clients and staying connected with holiday tips. Those tips will of course vary depending on your clients and what kind of fitness instructor you are. But these are a few ideas that might get the wheels turning.

Send Out Universal Morning Workouts

This shouldn’t take too much time, and it’s a great way to stay connected with your entire email address book of clients. A lot of people who are committed to fitness efforts will try to squeeze in quick morning workouts during the holidays anyway. Sometimes it’s a jog before family and friends are up and active for the day, sometimes it’s a quick pushup and sit-up routine. Increasingly, people are even turning to quick-fix fitness apps for this sort of thing; case in point, the 7-Minute Workout app now claims to be the #1 fitness app in 127 countries! You can effectively design something similar – a quick burst of workouts that don’t require assistance or equipment – and target different muscle groups on different mornings. It’s a nice way to go above and beyond for your clients, and those who adhere to the program will at least be getting in a little bit of heart-pumping work over the holidays.

Offer An Incentivized Challenge

When we think about workout incentives, it’s often in terms of vague ideas (“lose weight” or “build muscle”) or specific goals (“drop 10 pounds” or “run a 6-minute mile”). But there’s some evidence to suggest a true reward is a better incentive than a goal. For instance, you might offer a challenge to clients that if they record a given number of workouts on an app through December, or if they show up in January without having gained weight, they’ll get a couple of free training sessions. It’s not necessarily the most entrepreneurial move, but in the long term, it’s good for your clients and could enhance your reputation as a devoted trainer.

Create A Social Network

In recent years, there’s been interesting research suggesting that social networks are more effective in motivating people to exercise than actual advertisements. One study, in particular, showed that workout “buddies” were “much more effective at motivating people to exercise” than promotional materials. This is something you can put to use with something as simple as a group email chain, so long as your clients want to participate. It’s not a true “social network,” but if you set up a chain with participating clients (or even a Facebook group) and agree to share exercise activity on a daily basis, the individuals in the group will probably be more likely to fit in their workouts over the holidays. This also allows you to set a direct example, relating your own daily exercise to push the group along.

While it all sounds like a lot of work, none of these efforts should actually be too time-consuming. And they may make a huge difference. Staying in touch over the holidays can help your clients, increase the likelihood that they stick with you come the New Year, and, as mentioned, help to grow your reputation as a trainer.