Fitness Coaching

Fitness Coaching

Health and fitness is a huge priority in my life which is why I love to share my knowledge with others. I attended the Australian Institute of Fitness (AIF) in 2011 and am a qualified personal trainer. My approach is a little different though. Personal trainers are solely focused on the physical aspects of working out – building muscle, skills and fitness goals. As a dedicated fitness coach, I work on accountability, mindset and how to live a healthy lifestyle. I want to help show people how becoming fit and healthy can impact all areas of life including self-motivation, self-confidence, and positive, healthy living.

Areas of fitness coaching:

  • One-on-one coaching
  • Physio and movement
  • Weight loss and gain
  • Strength and conditioning
  • Bootcamps and group sessions
  • Wellness and motivation

What is Fitness Coaching?

Coaching clients to a higher level of fitness…
A fitness coach combines a systematic coaching process and personal training (or fitness instruction) to empower clients to develop a fit lifestyle as well as the ability and self- confidence to maintain a fit lifestyle.

A fit lifestyle includes a level of regular physical activity sufficient to:

  • Increase physical, mental, and emotional energy
  • Manage weight and stress
  • Prevent or treat health risks and medical conditions
  • Improve self-image and self-esteem

Coaching is an emerging profession that began about in the early ‘90s.

It has its roots in applied behavioral science, and the evolution of the field of corporate training to include one-on-one coaching. Behavioral scientists have shown that one-on-one coaching is among the most effective approaches to helping people make and sustain improvements in their lives. The relationship between a coach and client offers a profound level of support, guidance, and encouragement to making changes, without being judgmental. A coach enables change by focusing on a client’s stated agenda including needs, values, vision, and goals and helping to bring out his/her personal best.

Today, new coaching specialties have emerged that address a variety of areas including leadership, work/life balance, relationships, and most recently fitness, health, and wellness.

Through thoughtful assessment and inquiry, collaborative problem-solving and goal-setting, and safe, open, and honest dialogue, coaches help their clients become clearer on where they are, where they want to go, and how to get there. Clients feel accountable to themselves and their coaches. They make and honor their commitments to reaching their goals, accomplishing more than they believed possible when they began. Coaches provide instruction and mentoring to their clients, and help them set goals, define an action plan, and navigate the path until they reach their goals.

Coaches facilitate learning and help clients put the learning into action.
Coaches focus on helping clients find their own answers, rather than just providing the answers.

While psychologists and therapists help clients understand how the past is influencing the present, coaches focus on the present and help the client move towards the future. Coaches do not make diagnoses and may recommend that clients seek a psychologist or therapist for treatment, if appropriate. Clients think that having a coach can help them move to a new place in their lives, and help them make changes happen.

Having a coach is particularly powerful when a client has decided to fully commit to making significant changes in one or more areas of his/her life.
Wellcoaches is the world leader in fitness coaching and wellness coaching.

Wellcoaches starts with the power of coaching. Then by using the latest technologies to deliver high quality, standardized fitness coach training programs and tools, we help make the coach-client relationship the best experience possible.

In order for fitness coaching to be a success, coaches and clients need to honor the following principles:

Fitness Coach

  • Attentive inquiry and listening (the motto is to “listen until I don’t exist”)
  • Encourage realistic expectations and goals
  • Help clients decide whether and what they are ready to change
  • Through a coaching inquiry, encourage clients to identify their fitness visions, motivators,
    obstacles, and strategies to overcome obstacles
  • Be honest, direct, and firm with feedback when needed
  • Help identify creative solutions to get around roadblocks
  • Provide advice and instruction for engineering fitness activities in a client’s busy life
  • Is punctual and responsive
  • Recognize early whether the chemistry with a client is good or not optimal, and if not
    optimal, refer client to another fitness coach or another professional

Client

  • Ready to take responsibility to make and sustain changes in at least one area of fitness
  • Ready to invest at least three months to make changes
  • Ready to share personal information that is relevant to fitness
  • Ready to become more self-aware
  • Open to suggestions and trying new things
  • Understands that setbacks are normal on the path of change
  • Is punctual and responsive

The process of fitness coaching progresses through several stages:

1. Clients provide background information through a comprehensive questionnaire and during the first coaching session, so that their fitness coaches are well-informed on the key issues, including medical limitations.

2. During the first 30-45 minute fitness coaching session (face-to-face alongside a training session, or by telephone), clients and coaches commit orally to a three-month fitness coaching program. Clients confirm that they are ready to make changes in at least one area. A personal fitness vision, three month priorities and realistic goals are reviewed and agreed in detail. Clients also commit to 3-5 goals, or small steps toward the three-month goals, for the following week.

3. In each subsequent 15-30-minute coaching session, each week or as needed, coaches and clients review the progress towards the last week’s goals, learn something new or develop a solution to overcome an obstacle, and then agree on a set of goals for the following week.

4. After a few weeks of coaching sessions, clients begin to notice improvements in how they feel and look, and their motivation to continue efforts to change increases.

5. Often in the second and third months, clients hit one or more obstacles. Both coaches and clients work hard to find solutions to overcome each obstacle to reach the goal of establishing new fitness behaviors.

6. By the end of three months, clients typically reach more than 70% of their three-month goals and are energized and confident to commit to the next stage.