A common pitfall of overeager and under-experienced fitness instructors is to place all the responsibility to exercise on their bodies and the bodies of their clients, forgetting that fitness is as much about mental exercise as it is about physical exercise. You can be in the best shape of your life but have a terrible attitude, which will ultimately prevent you from reaching your full potential, even if you are in immaculate shape.
At PT Academy, we educate fitness enthusiasts and professionals to help them build successful careers in the fitness industry. We provide holistic education to give our students the tools they will need to help their clients grow personally and physically, but now, we want to focus specifically on mindset. We have added an entirely new program, designed to help our students learn how they can harness the power of their mindset and determination, and teaching them to pass on the same tools to their clients.
Assessing Your Mindset
Billions of people around the world want to get in shape, but few actually stick to a consistent routine, and even amongst fitness professionals, there is little consistency when it comes to the right ‘approach’ to fitness. Despite an incredible amount of information being made available to fitness professionals, there is still in-fighting and arguing related to the best way to implement these tools, and how to translate them into lasting results. We are focused on pushing forward, but without stopping to assess how our thinking is impacting our progress, we are unlikely to accomplish much.
If you have been struggling to reach a goal but haven’t made progress, it could be that your mind, not your body, is holding you back. The physical weight of an extra 20 pounds is nothing compared to the mental weight of self-doubt and preconceived notions, and yet, the fitness industry remains hyperfocused on pushing an outdated agenda that most consumers simply don’t relate to.
How Your Brain Influences Your Success
No matter how many times you as a personal trainer tell your client they can succeed, they won’t believe it until they decide that it is true. This fact is one that frustrates many PTs and coaches, particularly those that have never personally overcome a mental block preventing them from reaching a fitness goal. Today, a minuscule number of individuals is active regularly, with the rest simply unwilling to engage due to preconceived notions about their abilities.
As fitness professionals, we need to learn to understand how the brain influences success, and begin to work to be more understanding of the unique mindsets of each of our clients. Mindset is determined by previous experiences and preconceptions, which can be created independently in the mind, or through negative feedback from other people.
Individuals who, for example, were told they were too lazy to succeed will likely adopt a similar mindset and must work harder to overcome this block. A shocking number of your clients are probably telling themselves that they ‘can’t’, but once you learn to connect more deeply to them and talk about mindset, you will see immediate change.
Learning to Accelerate
Your mindset isn’t something you can just snap your fingers and change. Many of us form specific opinions based on longstanding biases, or longheld beliefs that originated early in life. These kinds of mental barriers are incredibly hard to overcome, especially when those around you push for you to overcome them without acknowledging the barriers themselves. You have the power to help your clients to overcome living with a negative mindset, but it all starts with you assessing your mindset and learning to accelerate.
Mindset Performance Credential
Taught by Dr. Brian Grasso, Dr. Mike T. Nelson, and Carrie Campbell L.C., the Mindset Performance Credential is a mindset coaching course that will help you to develop a positive, successful mindset, and teach you to holistically help clients become their best selves. You’ll learn everything you need to begin assessing client mindset and suggesting exercises to shift from handbrake to accelerator. Here’s what the Mindset Performance Credential program includes:
- Up to 10 CECs from PTAG, NASM, AFAA & ACSM
- 9 hours of online audio and PowerPoint material
- Downloadable PDF documents for each session
- Access to hundreds of pre-made mindset programs for all goals, styles, and levels of clients
- Unlimited permanent access to the online course
- Online access to the final exam
Learn more about a career in fitness and get certified to be a personal trainer with our Certificates III & IV in fitness courses when you visit PT Academy online today!
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