Getting Results for Your Clients by Utilizing a Baseline Assessment
There are confident trainers and fitness professionals who can, without a doubt, say that they get positive results with every single client. The only way to do this is by implementing an element that ensures evidence that success has actually occurred - by utilizing a base-line assessment. This is one of the most overlooked parts of personal training. A personal trainer who fails to assess his or her clients is setting the clients up for failure.
Most general clients want to lose fat, speed up their metabolism, and be healthier. However, personal trainers have to be professionals by helping clients document their present condi-tions and pointing them in the right direction to actually get results. The initial baseline as-sessment should include these factors:
- a mental assessment,
- physical body measurements,
- a health questionnaire,
- a fitness test that measures basic fitness parameters such as strength, endurance, flexibility, and related health/fitness items, and
photos of the client.
In the first part of a baseline assessment, a trainer should ask clients what the largest obstacles are. Trainers need to find out what, in their client’s opinion, has caused them to fail in the past. This is a great opportunity to detect misinformation that the client has in his or her head as well as get a briefing of past attempts to reach a fitness goal. Knowing these things will give the trainers the chance to prove that they have the answer to being fit and healthy. For example, if a client feels that his past attempts failed because he ate too much and didn’t do enough cardiovascular activity, the trainer now has the opportunity to teach him about proper eating, where cardiovascular activity falls into the whole picture and to introduce that person to resistance training.
Next, the trainer should ask clients their most pressing goals. If a client wants to lose fat and the trainer is talking about how great it feels to work out, the trainer is not pressing the right buttons to get that client motivated. If a woman wants to reduce the size of her hips and the trainer is speaking about gaining muscle, the trainer is not hitting the right trigger for this client and might scare her away. The trainer needs to hear the goals from the client’s mouth in order to provide correct motivation. The trainer should ask his or her clients what changes they’d like to see in the mirror. This is more for the benefit of the trainer than the client. The trainer should want to figure out each client’s motivational triggers and use them. The trainer can point out when clients are looking better and show them where changes are being made.
The parts that most trainers forget are the most basic, such as measuring clients in various places to show results. A trainer needs to get out the tape measure during the very first session and measure the waist, chest, arms, legs, calves, and any other place that is a concern of the client. Measuring body fat is great, but I promise it doesn’t motivate most people as much as proof that there is a reduction of inches. Personally, I take a pinch using calipers from the triceps for women and then I take their weight to estimate body fat. For men, I only use a formula based of waist measurement and body weight. I also measure their resting heart rate. It will go down in time as they become more conditioned.
It is a great thing to have a client’s measurements on hand when a client begins to get frustrated. A trainer can pull out the measuring tape to compare. Every single time I do this, my clients have reductions somewhere. This always rekindles the fire, because clients actually see that the program is working. If a client doesn’t see a reduction, then the trainer needs to re-evaluate what is being implemented to bring about success.
Many trainers utilize health questionnaires, but they should make sure they actually read them and use them when considering which exercises to give to clients. If a client has a knee injury, a personal trainer may need to give modified variations of certain exercises in order to strengthen the knees and prevent further injury. Also, a trainer needs to know about any health problems or things that may limit a client’s performance.
I now do fitness assessments, but I haven’t always. Every client I was dealing with wanted the common goal of losing fat and looking better. However, I decided to implement the assessments to prove that they are getting results. While this is the most fun to administer, it is likely the least important to the general client. The fitness assessment and reassessment are like icing on the cake for a client that has lost inches and body fat. Currently, I have my clients do a push-up test, a jumping jack test, and a crunch or sit-up test to assess fitness. I also see the importance of a flexibility test and a VO2 max test and body composition test.
The reason why I say that the fitness assessment is least important to the general client most of the time is that most trainers are not dealing with advanced athletes. Most trainers are dealing with the general population. If a trainer reassesses a client and then says that the client has improved in the strength test, yet the client only cares about getting rid of his or her gut, the trainer is not hitting the right motivational buttons.
Finally, a personal trainer should take a photo of the client as part of the regular assessment routine. The personal trainer should document that the clients are changing. When clients have gradual results, they have a hard time remembering what they looked like a few months ago. They need to be reminded of where they stand and how far they have come.
Trainers should make sure to reassess at certain points of the training program. I usually do a reassessment once every four to six weeks because I want to keep my clients encouraged by the fact that weight training, doing cardio, and eating right actually work. With this fail-proof assessment, a personal trainer has multiple ways by which to show clients that they are getting results.