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While PTs may be focused on training the human body, they should equally be able to coach the human being to achieve measurable success


evaluations and step aerobics are second and third respectively. These statistics should offer great


promise for our PTs: a significant percentage of revenue, as well as the most commonly offered programming at health clubs globally. So what’s the problem? Many clubs globally have a PT attrition rate of up to 79 per cent. Of this, 57 per cent of PTs have left within the first six months, with the remaining 22 per cent leaving by the end of year one. Meanwhile, 63 per cent of PTs conduct less than 20 hours of PT a week and spend only 10 per cent of their work time prospecting, as they usually do not get paid for this. A new trainer can take three to four months to start generating US$4,500 gross monthly revenue. So in short, you are highly likely to leave this job or lose it, will struggle financially for the first three or four months, and if you do survive the dreaded six-month mark, you will still be only a part-time PT.


september 2012 © cybertrek 2012


To get new business, prospecting is the most crucial skill, closely followed by referrals – yet you will dedicate only 10 per cent of your time to this. And let’s not forget that only 12.5 per cent of all members and 2 per cent of people will be interested in your services (in contrast, 44 per cent of members use group exercise). So in fact you need to prospect an awful lot to make your numbers.


REDEFINING PT These facts could lead to a very negative view of personal training. Alternatively it could encourage us to change our lens, re-creating the role of the PT and redefining his/her value to the industry. The reasons for low usage of personal training are very complex, and I do not wish to do injustice to the problem by dumbing it down and over-simplifying. I will, however, look at the necessity to move beyond personal training and into world-class coaching; to create


not just training results but rather transformational experiences that bring true and lasting value to our PTs’ offering. The PTs of the past have been concerned greatly with training the human body: movement, function and programming. We’ve seen a 300 per cent increase in professional fitness education over the past decade. We’ve moved into the deep exploration of science of the human body and training. We know more about human form and function today than we ever have. Yet along the way, we have forgotten the most important fact that should inform our very purpose: that inside that human body resides a human being. And that changes everything. People do not buy training. Period. If a pill existed to create their desired outcomes, they would take it. In fact, no-one buys weight loss, lean body mass, sports conditioning, nor any other result. We know that people are only after the ‘what’ (goal) as a means to achieve their


Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 55


CANDYBOX IMAGES / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM


YURI ARCURS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM


LUCKY BUSINESS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM MARCIN CIESIELSKI / SYLWIA CISEK / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM


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