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Personal Training: 5 Easy Steps to Sanity on the Road

by: Aaron M. Potts, ISSA CFT

If you have been a personal trainer for any length of time - or any fitness professional, for that matter - then you know what it's like to spend a lot of time on the road. For trainers who work with their clients in homes or a geographic mix of local fitness facilities, you especially have some serious time behind the wheel on a regular basis.

Regardless of where you train your clients, most trainers spend a good deal of time driving to and from training sessions, seminars, and other work-related activities. For most people, that time ends up being "dead time", during which you really can't be very productive. Listed below are some great ideas for making the most of that time, and making it time that you even look forward to!

Audio Learning

Audio learning is listed first in our list of great ideas because it is VERY powerful on many levels, and there are numerous resources available for this productive practice. The basic idea here is that you listen to any number of audio learning resources while you are driving. You don't have anything else to do, and you can't effectively or safely do anything with your hands, but your EARS are just fine, so put them to work!

Here are some of the educational and motivational items that you might consider listening to, and many of them have resources geared specifically for fitness professionals: Self-help programs, Audio interviews, Recorded conference calls, Recorded radio programs, Career enhancement tools, and Motivational recordings.

As you can see, there are enough ideas for things to listen to while driving to fill up endless hours of time, and if you know where to look, there are literally more things to listen to than you will even have time for.

We won't get into too many details, since it would take a large amount of text, but here are some great resources to get you started. Self-help, motivational audio, and recorded conference calls are items very specific to your individual tastes and situation. As for the rest, here are some fitness industry specific resources:

Audio Interviews:
http://www.personaltraineru.com

Recorded Radio Programs:
http://philkaplan.com/thefitnesstruth/RadioShowMENU.htm

Career Enhancement Tools:
http://www.fitnessdestinations.com/fitnessinfoproducts.html
http://www.fitnessdestinations.com/sixfiguretrainer.html
http://www.fitnessdestinations.com/personaltrainersecrets.html

Planning Workouts

Driving time is a perfect time to work on the training protocols for your clients. If you are doing the same workouts week after week and month after month, both you and your clients are going to get bored doing the same thing all the time. A great way to keep your own motivation up while also keeping your clients from hitting plateaus in their training programs is to change up the training routines on a regular basis.
Think about all of the muscular and cardiovascular training principles that you are familiar with, and come up with new and inventive ways to put those resources together in effective training routines. Also, for specific clients, you can spend that driving time thinking about their individual workouts, and ways that you can make them more intense, or fill them with more variety. This is a valuable practice, especially if you have long-term clients who need things to be changed up on a regular basis.

Working on Products

Another trait shared by many successful trainers is that their actual training wages make up only part of their income. They also have many products that they sell to their clients, through their websites, and via their newsletter distribution lists. However, just as with training, the same products can only be utilized so many times, and driving time is a perfect time to think up new product ideas.

Whether you are talking about "information" products, such as books, e-books, CD's, DVD's, manuals, etc., or if you construct actual training equipment, use that dead time when you are driving to think of cutting edge product ideas that will not only help your target audience towards their goals, but will also make you a nice residual income in the process.

A great example of this is the Ultimate Complete Personal Training Business Kit. This kit was constructed simply by taking the experiences and knowledge of one trainer, putting it all together in a downloadable package, and making the kit available to others in the fitness industry. Learn more here: http://www.completepersonaltrainingbusiness.com.

Making Phone Calls

As most trainers have realized, phone work is an integral part of keeping a steady flow of clients. Contacting and following up with prospective clients is a sure-fire way to keep your training schedule packed from week to week.

In addition, you can call your present clients to check on them. See how they feel after yesterday's brutal leg workout, or find out if their sore shoulder is feeling any better, or maybe check in with them to ask how their job interview went, or their anniversary dinner. TALK to your clients! When they know that you care, they will keep training with you!

Nothing!

One of the most effective things that you can do as a busy personal trainer when you are driving is NOTHING! Just let your mind be blank. Pay attention to the road, obviously, but otherwise, just enjoy some mental down time!

You spend hour after hour every single day training, motivating, and educating countless people. Sometimes to the point that if you tell one more person the proper way to do a push up, you just might have to SCREAM!

Let those mental energies have a well deserved break! Listen to some relaxing music and (safely) let your mind wander. Crank out some hard rock and sing your frustrations into the wind. Plan your next bout of Karaoke - whatever! The point is that you are doing anything BUT putting your brain on overdrive.

Conclusion

Your time traveling from place to place is YOUR time. Use it well and you will find both your success and your sanity under control, and keep both headed in the right direction!

About the author:
Aaron Potts is the author and creator of The Ultimate Complete Personal Training Business Kit, a quick-start kit and business guide for new as well as seasoned fitness professionals. Aaron's experience as a Fitness Professional has included management positions with local and nationally known fitness facilities, as well as in-home and outdoor training with clients from all walks of life. Find out more about Aaron's programs at or his personal training site at

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