It is always wise to plan a training session with a client so that you can create a coherent and beneficial exercise experience. The goal of a personal trainer is to help his or her client meet their physical fitness goals. These goals could include losing weight, building muscle mass, toning or improving endurance and stamina. The best way to be successful is to customise exercises that will benefit them the most. There are a number of steps which are involved in developing a customised personal training session for a client.
A training session plan is an organised description of the activities and resources you’ll use to guide a personal training client towards a specific fitness or exercise objective. It details the exercises that you’ll teach, the methods of instruction for each exercise covered and the measures that you’ll use to guide the participants through the various exercises that you need them to complete.
Why use a training session plan
As you plan you visualise each step and timing of the exercise class. This helps you to ensure that you’ve thought about everything that you may need to do and that you present the exercises in a logical order. This will also allow you to prepare for points that people might find difficult to do and make a list of exercises that can be substituted for the beginner or more advanced participant.
After your session, you can utilise your plan in order to work out what went well and what didn’t so that you can adapt it for future lessons.
What must be taken into consideration when planning an exercise programme?
There are several aspects which you need to take into consideration when planning or designing an exercise programme as each participant will have different needs and it is the job of the personal trainer to meet their requirements by providing them with safe and effective exercise programmes and sessions.
What are the objectives of completing an exercise programme with a client?
- Define exactly what will be accomplished in a given time period, in other words, the overall outcomes of the plan. The usual time period that an exercise plan lasts is between four and six weeks.
- Define targets that must be achieved every week (process goals) which will ensure that it is possible to achieve the overall outcome. These might be as straightforward as ‘attend all defined sessions’ or ‘add five minutes to cardio exercises’.
- Schedule the sessions on days and times that suit the client.
- Define the FITTT of each workout, in other words, weights or cardio, 30 minutes or 45 minutes, high intensity or low intensity, etc.
- Define the most likely barriers to completing the exercise plan and what the client would like you to do if the plan is not working, for example, call them and discuss the problem or adapt the programme to suit.
- Define the tasks that the personal trainer will undertake in order to train, monitor and support the client.
- Agree to a start date.
Training sessions may seem second nature to the personal trainer but need to be insightful, meaningful and effective for the client as well. Start your planning by thinking about what your clients need to learn in order to be more successful at their fitness goals. That will ensure that your training session will be practical and applicable.
Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy
If you want to become a personal trainer, then the only way to do this is by studying our Personal Training Diploma. For more information, please follow this link.
