If you’re a personal trainer, you’re more than likely also a highly motivated and motivational person. We are often of the impression that if we can bust through the pain barriers, our personal training clients can too. Unfortunately, not all clients are made equal. They have varying motivational levels, varying pain thresholds, and varying self-limiting beliefs.
There are obvious signs of over-exertion that a personal trainer should look out for. These are, for example, like prolonged rapid breathing, extreme redness in the face, glazed eyes as well as many other signs and symptoms. The hallmark of a good personal trainer is the ability to identify when a client can be pushed harder – and when they shouldn’t be pushed at all. Here’s how to tell when your personal training client has reached their exercise limits.
Signs your Personal Training client has reached their exercise limits
They Need Longer Resting Periods
This applies both when exercising and during post-exercise recovery. If a client is taking longer to recover between sets, or their recovery time is not improving, chances are they’ve hit their fitness threshold. Likewise, if a client is taking days upon days to recover from a workout, without their having been any new or overly-strenuous exercises performed, it might be time for a hiatus.
They Are Getting Overuse Injuries
Exercise is characterised by repetitive movements of various muscle groups. Often – and especially – runners, tennis players and other similar athletes, will suffer from overuse injuries commonly affecting the elbows, shoulders, and knees. As the name suggests, an overuse injury means that a personal training client has been taking their fitness a bit too seriously and should consider taking a period of time for recovery.
They Are Getting Sick More Often
Is your client getting a niggling cold every month? Do they seem to take forever to get rid of even the smallest sinus infection? Over-exercise is known to lower the body’s immunity, resulting in the client getting sick more often than usual. What’s worse, the common cold will wipe them out as if they had flu, forcing them to take a break from exercise for prolonged periods of time.
To try and boost their immunity, why not try advising your personal training clients to eat some – or all – of the following foods:
- Citrus fruits
- Red bell peppers
- Broccoli
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Spinach
- Yoghurt
- Almonds
- Turmeric
- Green tea
- Papaya
- Kiwi
- Poultry
- Sunflower seeds
- Shellfish
They Start to Stagnate
The most common symptom of a client reaching their limits is exercise stagnation. Nobody likes to hear it, but without performance enhancers – there’s just so far a client can go in terms of their fitness. We can’t all be Usain Bolt or Ronnie Coleman, and that is something every exercise enthusiast has to accept. If you see your client is not progressing over a period of time, chances are they’ve hit their fitness limit.
Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy
As you can gather from the article above, being a great personal trainer isn’t all just about exercise. It’s about balancing exercise, nutrition and the right amount of rest so that your personal training clients are able to reach their ultimate fitness goals. Trifocus Fitness Academy’s Personal Training Diploma will teach you everything that you need to know about fitness and how to help others reach their fitness goals. For more information about this and our other online fitness courses please feel free to visit our website.
