Horsham-based female personal trainer, Becky, trains clients via an independent gym, or at their home. Here, she shares insight on why you’ll hear her use certain words with reference to her services, but not others…
I’ve never been one to believe in the “sticks and stones…” mentality – words are powerful, and really matter, especially when we speak to ourselves. They’re also important when used towards those who mean something to us and, as I’ve continued to develop a fitness and coaching vocabulary, I’ve honed my language to accurately convey who I am and what I do, as well as speaking directly to those I’m likely to get on best with.
I was chatting to a friend who picked up on some specific words I used in relation to my business, and it was interesting to hear her thoughts and reflect further on my choices. I thought I’d share the reasons that I use some words and not others…
On the Don’t Use list: weight loss, fat loss, nutrition and transformation…
I’ll add here that these are just a small selection of words I choose not to use (and ones that I do choose to use below). The list is also constantly evolving!
Weight loss and fat loss are things that I will help a client with if they are truly important to them, but they’re never my sole focus when training. I think that these things can be a valid aim in certain contexts, and I also don’t want them to be anyone’s only goal. Because what happens when you reach your destination? Are you then happy? I want my clients to think more broadly than a single goal, and I don’t find it a particularly healthy idea to focus only on the size of our bodies.
These also aren’t my specialities, or what truly interest me – I’ll come back to that later – so there’s also a positive focus for not using those words; I instead use terms that focus on what I would like to help someone achieve.
Along a similar theme, I leave nutrition out of it simply because I have no qualifications to coach or advise on nutrition. This tends to shock people, they believe that personal trainers should also be able to tell people what to eat. Which is funny, because the clue is in the job title – I’m here to help you train your body, rather than decide what to put in it. The two are linked, but nutrition is a huge and separate topic.
And I can’t believe it’s 2024 and I have to justify not using transformation as a selling point, yet here we are. I’m not here to fundamentally change your body in that way. I believe that the fitness industry as a whole ought to be way past the stage of using “before” and “after” photos to sell their services. Two images tell a very limited story. I don’t care how you’ve helped someone change their look unless you’re a hairdresser. If you’re a coach, I want to know how you’ve supported someone’s feelings and knowledge. Do they like working with you? Have you taught them something? Can they sustain the results you’ve helped them achieve?
We work with people, not lumps of clay.
On the Do Use list: strength training, confidence, my gender, personal
Purely and simply, strength training is my bread and butter. It’s what I aim for with the majority of clients – help them to get stronger. I’m regularly heard saying that the day I can’t get on a horse is when it’s game over for me, and that I also want to be able to put my own suitcase in an overhead locker at the age of 80 if I want to. And my clients vibe in a similar way. If you want to learn to deadlift your bodyweight or more, great, I’ll help you. If you’re more about the first step being carrying your shopping from the car to the house, that’s also what I’m here for. Stronger doesn’t have to mean throwing a barbell above your head.
Confidence has been added to my lexicon thanks to feedback from numerous clients. It’s always something that I hoped to nurture, and it’s popped up in so many reviews that I felt able (you might even say “confident enough”) to put it out there as something I consistently achieve.
Referring to my gender can be a risky one. More than once, I’ve been asked whether I “train men as well?”. However, I’ve had several female clients tell me that they were looking specifically for a female personal trainer. Sometimes they share their specific reasons, sometimes they don’t, and that’s ok. If that fundamental characteristic is a positive, who am I to shy away from it?
Personal is 50% of my job title. I’d be half of what I am without it, and it says a lot. It can convey luxury, or high-end in terms of service (and some people read those things as being out of reach), but I’m more keen to highlight that it means that what I deliver is tailored to your wants and needs. I’m not out here using copied and pasted templates. In three years, I’ve never delivered the same session twice. And I’m nosy. I love getting to know my clients in terms of their gym preferences and their personal lives. We chat away about what they’re doing at the weekend as well as debating whether or not they really have to do walking lunges (if you hate them that much, I will find something else… you might not like that either, but at least we’ve tried).
Next steps?
I don’t know which of these I’ll still be using in a year, and what else I might add. Hopefully it gives you a taste of how I speak and think – if you’d like to know more, please get in touch.