As a personal trainer or group fitness instructor, your clients seek out your help for a variety of reasons. However, many of the goals your clients are looking to achieve may lack structure or are focused on an outcome (weight loss, increased strength, healthier diet, etc.). To successfully accomplish these types of goals, a client needs to do more than focus on the “what” (the outcome) and instead emphasize the “how” (the process). Your clients need a multidimensional coach approach focused on the process of behavior change and the establishment of SMART goals that lead to the desired outcome.

“People are fully integrated beings in need of fully integrated solutions. We are body, mind and spirit,” notes Lee Jordan, an ACE Certified Health Coach and Personal Trainer, wellness consultant, educator and national presenter. “While our clients may land in our class or hire us as personal trainers propelled by a body goal, they are most assuredly seeking an outcome beyond that which can be weighed, taped or timed.” In other words, for a solution to be effective, it needs to be comprehensive.

As the fitness industry has grown, health coaching has become a more recognized, respected and legitimized professional field, and you may be wondering how you can incorporate elements of coaching into your existing services. Read on to explore the "how to” elements of combining coaching, personal training and group fitness instruction, and learn the answers to the practical concerns you may have about health coaching, including:

• How implementing coaching services into personal training and group fitness instruction can elevate your fitness clients’ experiences
• How to integrate coaching services into your existing menu of services, and whether there is an ideal or reasonable business model within which you should strive to work
• How to educate your current and future clients about the services you offer
• The considerations about which you need to be aware if you are called to integrate health coaching into your practice

To address these issues, this article explores the perspectives of well-practiced and established health coaches and exercise professionals in personal training, group fitness instruction and health coaching.

A Primer on Foundational Coaching Skills

Before we dive into how to incorporate health coaching techniques into your work with clients, let’s look at some of the foundational coaching skills that you should consider developing to enhance your work with clients.

In health coaching, open questioning is a foundational skill that allows clients to explore their thoughts, feelings and motivations without limitations or judgment. Open-ended questions encourage deeper, more reflective responses, leading clients to uncover their values, goals and potential barriers to change. For instance, asking, “What do you envision when you think about achieving this goal?” gives clients space to express their hopes and challenges in their own words. Open questioning builds a more client-centered conversation, making the client feel heard and fostering their commitment to their health journey.

Appreciative inquiry is another essential skill that shifts the coaching conversation from problem-focused to strength-focused. By emphasizing the client’s past successes, strengths and resources, appreciative inquiry helps clients recognize their capabilities and resilience. For example, asking, “What strengths have helped you succeed in the past?” enables clients to draw on positive experiences and leverage these in their current goals. This approach instills confidence and a positive outlook, encouraging clients to see change as achievable and within their control.

Listening with empathy is at the heart of any effective coaching relationship. This skill involves fully focusing on the client’s words, emotions and underlying messages without judgment. An empathetic listener validates the client's experiences, creating a safe space where clients feel comfortable sharing openly. By listening with empathy, coaches can better understand their client’s perspective, which fosters trust and rapport and makes clients more receptive to guidance and support.

Finally, reflections help to clarify, validate and deepen the client’s insights during the coaching conversation. Reflecting back what the client has said, whether by paraphrasing or mirroring their emotions, shows the client that they have been understood. This technique also allows clients to hear their thoughts from an outside perspective, often helping them recognize patterns or gain new insights. For example, if a client says they are “frustrated by setbacks,” you might reflect, “It sounds like you’ve been feeling challenged, but you’re still committed to finding solutions.” Reflections keep the client engaged and encourage them to explore their thoughts further, making them an invaluable tool in guiding clients toward meaningful, self-directed change.

To help develop these foundational skills, check out the sample questions and statements you can use to enhance your client interactions. Together, these foundational skills—open questioning, appreciative inquiry, listening with empathy, and reflections—create a supportive, empowering coaching environment. They facilitate deeper understanding, encourage self-reflection and ultimately guide clients toward sustainable, positive changes in their health and well-being.

Benefits of the Coach Approach

By taking a coach approach, your client becomes part of the overall process (instead of a passive recipient of advice and suggestions), and you assume the role of a facilitator of behavior change. You and your client then work collaboratively to achieve common goals.

When you choose to coach a client toward change, the client’s overall experience is enriched. To coach a client, you need to develop an understanding of the deeper question, “Why is this client hiring me?” In exploring an answer to that question, you can strategically and effectively address the client’s needs and desires.

“Often, the client may not be initially aware of what they are truly seeking,” explains Jordan. “However, the health and exercise pro who is prepared with behavior-change skills can activate self-discovery within the client and facilitate the client’s ability to fully formulate and envision their best future self.”  When fitness pros take a coach approach, it helps clients uncover their strengths. It also takes the client out of the “just tell me what to do” mentality, thus encouraging a focus on changing the behaviors that will lead to the positive and desired outcomes.

Trey Blaubach, an ACE Certified Personal Trainer and co-owner of Park East Fitness in Long Beach, Calif., highlights the career development benefits. “We live in a time where public awareness of the health benefits that fitness provides has never been higher,” Blaubach says. “Implementing health coaching into existing fitness services sets you apart from the competition.” Health coaching also offers the opportunity to approach clients from a wellness standpoint, explains Blaubach. “Instead of simply counting out sets and reps on an exercise, the exercise professional can impact a client’s life and wellness actualization on a more profound level.”

Integrating Coaching Services

Health coaching focuses on four key areas with clients: facilitating behavior change, increasing physical activity, developing healthy nutrition habits, and lifestyle modification. In contrast to traditional personal training and group fitness instruction, health coaches empower their clients and guide them toward change; they do not direct or make a plan for the client. However, personal trainers and group fitness instructors can successfully incorporate coaching principles into their current practices using a variety of different approaches.

If you have not yet pursued education as a health coach, it is worth considering taking the time to gain additional training in behavior change science and interpersonal communication. Traditionally, personal training and group fitness instruction have featured a directive approach to working with clients. This style typically involves more telling and suggesting methodologies rather than coaching and facilitating behavior change and supporting lifestyle modification. In a directive style, the exercise professional is the one who takes charge and assumes the role of advice-giver.

At a minimum, personal trainers and group fitness instructors should strive to develop an understanding of behavioral science and motivational interviewing (MI). Change does not happen because of the coach/trainer; it occurs because the change conversation brings awareness to the power of change that is within the client.

In addition to obtaining foundational skills in motivational interviewing and the science of behavior change, Angel Chelik, founder and owner of Workbetter Wellness in San Diego, Calif., and an ACE Certified Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor and Health Coach, suggests some direct methods of combining coaching with fitness services. For example, group fitness instructors can capitalize on the collective audience they have in their individual classes, noting that participants in that type of setting naturally enjoy the social support and engagement aspects group fitness has to offer. “Ask members to be part of a pilot program focusing on changing habits and behaviors,” encourages Chelik. “You can meet before or after your class, once a week or every other week. Create an online group so members can ask questions and build relationships outside of the gym setting.” Obviously, discussion topics will emerge based on the unique needs and profiles of each particular group. The GFI’s role, explains Chelik, is to create a supportive scaffolding upon which members can interact, set goals and support each other in those endeavors.

For personal trainers, coaching principles can be knitted into each training session and as an adjunct to the session (either before, after or as a bonus “check-in” meeting outside of the scheduled workout time). Chelik says it’s possible to use the first 10 minutes before the workout to discuss client health behaviors. During this time, ask clients open-ended questions, track individual patterns of behavior, review those patterns and then help clients identify “next steps.” To do this mindfully, sit face to face with the client rather than discussing throughout the workout when the focus should be on just that—the exercise session.

“When you take time to separate the health coaching from the training, the clients will view these as two separate services and will find more value in both,” Chelik says. Also, remember that, with the client’s permission, every interaction can be turned into a coaching session. It is worth noting that as a trainer you may need to ask clients if they need to bend an ear (venting), or if they need coaching (guidance uncovering solutions to an issue they are bringing up).

Of course, when it comes to offering specific services, it can be a challenge to know how—or if—you should separate your training and coaching services. Lee offers this advice: “Rather than offering a delineated menu of services, which may often lead to confusion on the part of the client, and a tendency to devalue offerings that don’t equal sweat and muscle fatigue, offer a holistic/integrated service. We know whole people need whole solutions (body, mind and spirit) to achieve, in a sustainable way, their best selves; therefore, offer one solution that involves all your skills.”

As you begin to develop and hone your coaching skills and weave them into your current practices, one thing will undoubtedly become clear: Coaching is not about directing; it’s about facilitating lifelong change.

Educating Clients

While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all method to integrating coaching principles into existing services, there are some valuable and reliable techniques you can use to educate your clients about your coaching approach.

First, market yourself as both an exercise professional and a health coach. Explain that the way you deliver your services is grounded in a coach approach and that it may feel different to clients who have had previous trainers. Communicate to clients exactly what they can expect when working with you (facilitating vs. telling/directing).

Blaubach also suggests reinforcing the concept of non-scale victories. “Let clients know that goals don’t need to be measured in pounds and inches but can include lifestyle goals that can be discussed and quantified,” and that you will coach them through the process. Doing so keeps the focus on meaningful process goals related to lifestyle change (e.g., coaching a client through the process of behavior change versus directing a client toward a weight- or size-centered outcome).

Finally, mindfully and intentionally cultivate your mission and message around the idea of “coaching” change instead of “training” clients. While you can successfully and effectively accomplish both together, existing and future clients need to be able to connect with the holistic message.

Considerations for Practice

As evidenced by the professional insights shared in this article, coaching is a valuable tool all health and exercise professionals can apply in their everyday work. If you want to hone your coaching skills, be sure to keep these considerations at the forefront of your attention.

As with any aspect of the fitness industry, Blaubach urges professionals to work within their identified scope of practice. Be sure to refer your clients to other professionals to address specific concerns (nutritional programming, counseling, injury treatment, medical advice, etc.) that fall outside your scope. 

Additionally, it is important to develop the skill of intentional listening, which is not about listening and waiting for one’s turn to speak; rather, it’s about actively and intentionally listening. Equally as important is the power of nonverbal communication. Learning to identify and interpret a client’s nonverbal communication offers additional opportunities to check-in with clients to gain a better understanding of their needs. As a health and exercise professional, practicing these skills during all client interactions is a great way to hone your skills.

Lastly, remember to highlight and celebrate all the wins, and to identify and emphasize the successes your clients may not see. Remind clients that this is a journey, not a destination, and that we live and learn from every experience. It is reminding clients that one bad experience does not have to define the entire journey.

Coaching is both an art and a science. It takes patience, skill and practical intention. It’s not a practice that roots and grows from single or isolated efforts and interactions with clients. Much like behavior change itself, coaching is a process that unfolds as a result of conscious and continuous nurturing. To successfully coach a client toward change, immerse yourself in the art and science of coaching and fully engage with that process so that you can become a partner, rather than a director, in your clients’ journey of change.  

Expand Your Knowledge

Looking for more information on health-coaching techniques or how to incorporate this approach into your work as a personal trainer or group fitness instructor? Here are some great resources that also offer opportunities to earn the continuing education credits (CECs) you need to renew your certification.

Increasing Retention Through Health Coaching

Lifestyle change coaching can have a measurable impact on adherence to healthy habits like exercise, stress reduction and healthy eating. Through health coaching, fitness centers and exercise professionals are uniquely positioned to effect positive behavior change in people struggling with lifestyle-related diseases. In this video training, you will gain an understanding of behavior change strategies—including motivational interviewing and SMART goal setting—and their application. In addition, you will learn how to begin a health-coaching program within your business so you can produce better personal results and retention among your members. This course is a must for any gym owner or exercise professional who wants to improve member accountability and connection with their facility.

Grow Your Business: Integrating Your Brand Into Healthcare

Unlock the secrets to effective networking within the healthcare sector and learn how to connect with healthcare professionals to streamline the referral process. This course focuses on creating a brand that meets the needs of individuals with chronic health conditions and guides you through essential steps to make referrals from healthcare providers simple and ongoing, enhancing your reach and impact. Explore the economic implications of inactivity and poor health and discover how fitness professionals can play a crucial role in value-based care. In addition to developing a comprehensive brand, including your mission statement, website, social media presence, you'll learn how you can utilize the WIX platform to establish a strong online presence by incorporating the right images and content.

Building Healthy Habits Through Group Health Coaching

Have you dealt with clients who miss sessions and seem to sabotage their own success because they lack motivation? The future of the health and wellness profession combines the skills of fitness training and health coaching to help clients maintain motivation by uncovering their own strengths and skills. Health coaching in a group setting can help your clients navigate their own health and wellness by connecting with others on a similar journey. In this video training, you will learn how to run group coaching sessions and develop the skills you need to empower client motivation while building healthy habits within a community experience. Adding this unique skill set of group coaching to your current practice will help your clients navigate change and add a new dimension of growth to your business.