We know that people come to the gym, and exercise in general, for a variety of different reasons. Ranging from wanting to compete at a sport, to just being able to run around more with children or grandchildren. The one thing that everyone looks for from their exercise programme is results. To see results there has to be something that can be measured. This can be in a number of different forms. One study completed looks at what form of data people find the easiest to see results with, and which they find is their preferred method of recording data.
The different methods looked at were; BMI, weight, body fat, and before and after pictures. The results were interesting as the largest group of people who completed the study said that they preferred to look at before and after photo’s.
This brings me on to a question we get asked quite a lot within the gym; Why don’t we post lots of before and after photo’s of our clients? There are two main reason as to why we don’t do this. The first is that someone’s fitness journey is a personal story, and one which they are hopefully doing for their own reasons. We feel that unless they specifically tell us they want us to publish their results as a way of encouraging and motivating others, then we leave it up to the clients themselves to share their results with whoever they wish too.
The second reason is that we feel that someones transformation over 12 weeks is not really a true reflection of their fitness journey. Faced with a new client that I can train for 4-5 hours a week and take full control of their nutritional needs and plan, any trainer would be able to get a change in their clients physique, but that is only over a very short period of time. We are much more interested in how the clients are, say, 12 months down the line. Our coaching programme, along with our points system, helps our clients to learn new habits that they can deal with on a day by day basis month after month. Not something that they do for 12 weeks, then find that that intense amount of exercise prescription and dietary change is not sustainable for them.
It is known that to see results, adherence to any plan is key. In every plan there will be times when it does not work. But without adherence to the plan, wether it works or not will not be known. By making changes gradually over time the chances of adherence to any plan is greatly increased. This does not mean that 12 week transformations have no place in the industry. Some people like to have specified deadlines to work too, and work best when wholesale changes are made to their lives, and is a service that we can offer.
The problem is when you see all of these 12 week transformations and look at the great results that people are getting, there are very rarely (if ever) pictures of the same people 12 months later. You have to ask yourself why is that?
With our coaching plans we look at ways we can work with our clients to devise a training, nutrition and lifestyle plan that our clients can work with in the longterm. We look at their support structure and how their daily activities and routines can impact on their success of their journeys and help to find workable solutions to these issues in partnership with our clients. That way we can help to ensure that our clients can achieve long term success rather than short term gains.