Dr. Erin Nitschke

If you’re a personal trainer or group fitness instructor, you may have wondered how you can incorporate elements of health coaching into your existing services. This article examines the "how to” elements of combining coaching, personal training and group fitness instruction, and answers a range of questions you may have about health coaching.

Social isolation and loneliness are complex issues that require a multidimensional approach. As health coaches and exercise professionals, you can play a vital role in supporting clients who are struggling with these challenges. By understanding the underlying causes, recognizing the signs, and implementing effective strategies, you can help your clients build meaningful connections, improve their emotional well-being and enhance their overall quality of life.

Movement snacks effectively counter the negative effects of sedentary behavior and prolonged sitting. Learn about the benefits of movement snacks and download a movement snacks worksheet.

These back to school fitness tips can help ease the transition from a carefree summer and empower your clients to develop a family fitness routine and other healthy habits for kids, from menu planning to stress management.

Healthy habits and daily routines can reduce stress and help you make better decisions throughout the day. Learn how to build a morning routine and develop evening habits for better sleep.

Nutrition and physical activity are two major components of health and wellness but they are often treated as separate factors. In this follow-up to a recent live webinar, Dr. Erin Nitschke discusses a range of related issues, including how to talk to clients about topics that haven’t yet been thoroughly researched, and provides a “Research Credibility” checklist that you can use to distinguish between valid research studies and those that are less rigorous or biased.

An industry veteran shares lessons learned over a 20+ year career in the fitness industry. From rapport and networking to setting boundaries and trusting your own brilliance, these strategies will help your business thrive.

In the field of health coaching, appreciative coaching and appreciative inquiry have gained recognition for their effectiveness in fostering sustainable improvements in health and well-being. In this article, you’ll learn practical applications and strategies for effectively applying the principles of appreciative coaching to support your clients in achieving sustainable behavior changes.

How should a personal trainer look? And, how is their appearance tied to their credibility and success? This blog explores what it means when your appearance may be viewed by some as a reflection of your knowledge and abilities.

Becoming more physically active can be challenging, as countless factors influence your ability to move more. These behavior-change principles can help you make long-lasting changes to your lifestyle that will set you up for success.

Health coaches can play an important role in supporting clients’ health and wellness efforts, but it’s imperative that they recognize and respect their defined scope of practice and avoid encroaching into the territory of traditional therapy or counseling. This article examines the boundaries between health coaching and therapy, and presents ethical considerations that certified health coaches should prioritize.

It’s not uncommon for personal trainers to work with specific populations or for group fitness instructors to specialize in teaching certain classes, but what about health coaches? Is specialization something worth considering? Here, we delve into the ways in which specialization can enhance the impact of your coaching interventions, cater to unique client needs and contribute to the overall evolution of the health coaching profession.

It can be a challenge to provide clients with both personal training and health coaching services. While there is no single, magic formula for incorporating both into your sessions, there are models and perspectives that can be adapted to suit your personal needs and approach. Read on to explore a few approaches worth considering if you find it challenging to integrate coaching and training.

With so much information and advice available about how to be healthy, it almost seems absurd that so many choose not to follow it. Of course, knowledge does not translate into behavior change. We asked two top industry professionals to offer insight into why some health behaviors (those we know we “should do”) fall off the list first.

Online coaching and training offer exciting opportunities to reach, motivate and guide clients from all corners of the globe, yet it also presents a unique set of challenges. From building trust and rapport to customizing workouts and tracking progress, this article presents a comprehensive guide to fostering a deep connection with your clients that transcends the digital divide.

Read about opportunities and challenges associated with using AI in your coaching or fitness business and to improve outcomes for your clients—while retaining the vital personal connection.

While health coaching is a legitimate and evidence-based approach for helping clients modify their lifestyle habits, not every coaching approach is equally effective. This article examines the qualities of effective coaching and presents seven steps for developing a practice that is both sustainable and effective for both you and your clients.

When working with clients, you know that radical changes are never the focus, as they are neither sustainable nor effective. The same holds true when working on your skills and business. Learn why making small improvements each day will incrementally lead to the big changes you want—not just in how you coach, but in how your clients experience your services.

Given the global events of the past three years, it’s not surprising that many professionals and clients may be experiencing a palpable sensation of fear about the future following the COVID-19 pandemic. To help you and your clients move forward, this article presents suggestions and strategies for addressing and managing those fears.

In the upcoming full-day ACE Health and Fitness Summit: Coaching and Training Women, attendees will get the pleasure of learning from Keli Roberts on smart strategies for training the upper and lower body while keeping the specific needs of women in mind.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing you to each of the amazing experts speaking at the upcoming ACE Health and Fitness Summit: Coaching and Training Women, happening virtually on May 19th! Today, you get a chance to learn more about ACE pro and educator, Farel Hruska.

When working with clients, you know that radical changes are never the focus, as they are neither sustainable nor effective. The same holds true when working on your skills and business. Learn why making small improvements each day will incrementally lead to the big changes you want—not just in how you coach, but in how your clients experience your services.

With so much information and advice available about how to be healthy, it almost seems absurd that so many choose not to follow it. Of course, knowledge does not translate into behavior change. We asked two top industry professionals to offer insight into why some health behaviors (those we know we “should do”) fall off the list first.

Have you ever experienced anxiety at the thought of going to the gym? You’re not alone. Read on to learn more about "Gymtimdation" and how to overcome it.

It can be a challenge to provide clients with both personal training and health coaching services. While there is no single, magic formula for incorporating both into your sessions, there are models and perspectives that can be adapted to suit your personal needs and approach. Read on to explore a few approaches worth considering if you find it challenging to integrate coaching and training.

When it comes to health and wellness, one of the loudest and most pervasive sources of misinformation is “diet culture”—the insidious belief that things like appearance and having an “ideal” body shape is more important than anything else. This article examines the steps you can take to help your clients identify diet culture and avoid falling into the trap of prioritizing often unattainable ideals at the cost of one’s health and well-being.

While the fall and winter seasons bring colorful changes, they can also be a source of struggle for many. Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD (aptly named), is defined as a type of depression that results from the change in seasons. It's common to experience seasonal blues, but you do not have to suffer in silence. The first step to combatting seasonal depression is to recognize the signs and symptoms associated with SAD.

DST causes a cascade of reactions in the body and in our daily routines – much like a row of dominoes carefully organized, one small movement affects the entire system. Think about the human body as that row of dominoes and let’s take a deep dive into how that system is disrupted twice a year (depending on your geographic location as some states and areas do not observe DST).

Pervasive diet culture lies are a source of constant external pressure that carries the message that we are not good enough. Instead, what we need understand that it is ok to want to make healthy changes to our bodies while accepting that there is nothing “wrong” with how we are currently. This is called body harmony.

When it comes to health and wellness, one of the loudest and most pervasive sources of misinformation is “diet culture”—the insidious belief that things like appearance and having an “ideal” body shape is more important than anything else. This article examines the steps you can take to help your clients identify diet culture and avoid falling into the trap of prioritizing often unattainable ideals at the cost of one’s health and well-being.

It can be tough to differentiate between quality, science-based information and the often-questionable advice of online fitness influencers. In this article, we examine the consequences of social media influence, outline specific program design rules you can use to create quality programs, and offer action steps you and your clients can take to identify and avoid garbage science.

While health coaching is a legitimate and evidence-based approach for helping clients modify their lifestyle habits, not every coaching approach is equally effective. This article examines the qualities of effective coaching and presents seven steps for developing a practice that is both sustainable and effective for both you and your clients.

As a coach, you are a partner on your client’s journey, not the director, but what do you do when a client’s goals seem misdirected or unrealistic? While it’s important to avoid steering a client toward the goals you think they should pursue, you can apply the theories and principles of goal setting to thoughtfully help clients better define their goals and create a roadmap for achieving them.

As a health coach, discovering your unique approach to client sessions can be both a fun and challenging aspect of professional development and growth. With guidance from the experts, learn the keys to creating flow during sessions that builds trust, enhances collaboration and sets the stage for creating and pursuing goals that are meaningful to your clients.

All helping professions, to varying degrees, experienced some sense of loss and even fear because of the ongoing pandemic. As such, there is a growing need for health coaches to unite and offer support and guidance to each other in more meaningful and formal ways. Read on to learn why health coaches need coaches to help them continually perform at their best.

As a health and exercise professional, it’s not surprising that your clients may come to view you as a trusted confidant, but do you know how to manage information that is considered sensitive, dangerous or inappropriate? Planning for the unexpected topics and situations will allow you to elevate your service to clients, keep them (and yourself) safe and remain within your scope of practice. 

Given the global events of the past two years, it’s not surprising that many professionals and clients may be experiencing a palpable sensation of fear about the future following the COVID-19 pandemic. To help you and your clients move forward, this article presents suggestions and strategies for addressing and managing those fears.

The COVID-19 global pandemic forced many of us to make immediate and difficult changes to the ways in which we live, learn and work, and triggered significant mental health and well-being concerns. Three veteran health coaches offer their strategies for adapting, overcoming and thriving in the face of these challenges, both personally and professionally.

Wellness can be described in many ways. It is a concept that means something different to everyone. How we imagine wellness on an individual level varies from how our family and friends see their respective pictures of wellness. Identify the dimensions of your personal wellness, prioritize, and begin to understand more deeply what wellness means to you.

Why is it so hard to change a behavior? This article examines the wide-ranging factors influencing behavior change and discusses how you can help your clients take a wider view of the unique factors of their lives and environments that have and continue to shape their choices and behaviors.