TRAINING STRATEGIES
5 Strategies to Help Your Clients Deal With Stress
By Claudiu Popa, PTS, OAS
eing a personal trainer sometimes requires a high degree of trustwor- thiness, but also comes with the valuable rewards of being credited with impacting the lives of individuals at many different levels. According to Har- vard Health, 25% of the population report experiencing high levels of stress and another 50% point to moderate levels due to dozens, potentially hundreds of causes from the weather to the economy to per- sonal situations. Clients don’t engage with personal trainers because working out is a trivial undertaking, but because they need to supplement their own drive towards goals
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with the expertise of a professional. The flex- ibility of a personal trainer to handle a vast diversity of situations, from chronic anxiety to difficult recovery is often the key element of value offered by the relationship with the personal trainer. Whether clients experience difficulty
sticking to their workout programs due to weather patterns or personal issues, per- sonal trainers have a mandate to help them power through stressful times and make the most of their allocated time every week, ev- ery session. The idea of rest and relaxation is counterintuitive to what the personal trainer brings in such situations. Physical stress, in practically all its forms should not be a posi- tive addition to everyday life, yet we know
it serves to alleviate mental stress and can also be relaxing. Unfortunately, only 14% of people make use of regular exercise to cope with stress. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, people cope by talking to friends or family (18%), sleeping (17%), watching movies or TV (14%), as well as eating (14%) and listening to music (13%). As the poet Alexander Pope said: “strength of mind is exercise, not rest”. Let’s examine five strategies to bring about that strength, through regular conditioning.
Exercise Early The metabolic benefits of exercise add up to a mental boost and aerobic performance that have a neurochemical basis. As exer-
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