Continuing on our series on common fitness personalities that we started last week, this week we profile – The Happy Type. This type of person may have had an injury in the past or is currently nursing an injury and because of that she is happy to be back in the zone of fitness. This person could even be the older client whose primary goal is maintain her ability to function normally in day to day life. These kind of clients really don’t care much about progression or lifting heavy weights. A majority of them prefer low-key workouts that include lots of stretching.
The Primary Characteristics of The Happy Type Person:
- Recovering from an injury or has had injuries in the past
- Scared of or not ready to get out of her comfort zone.
- Middle Aged or Older and More Focussed on Maintaining Function and Mobility.
Personal Trainer vs. Happy Client
A certain client Archana (name changed) came to us with a whole lot of injuries. She had copies of an MRI that revealed a herniated disk and also had a doctor’s note that stated that she was suffering from patella femoral pain. On top of that, the client also had an OCD Problem (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and requested our trainer to avoid using numbers when dealing with her! She refused an initial assessment of her condition because she said that then she would become obsessed about it and it harm her peace of mind. So as you can see, setting specific fitness goals for Archana was out of the question. But we agreed to train Archana provided she got a full medical clearance from her doctor. Through assessment of her movement patterns, we were able to identify Archana’s body imbalances over time as her personal training sessions were fixed at twice a week frequency. For our trainer, Archana was different from any other client he had trained in the past. She did not really need to be motivated as her innate sense of motivation was based on maintaining pain-free form and function. Archana was always in a great mood and happy to be actively working out. She just loved the movements of exercising and couldn’t be bothered about increasing reps or the weight. Over a period of time, our trainer was able to challenge her body helping her become stronger and leaner.
Our work with Archana helped her retain her form and stay pain-free in the process. More importantly for her, she was able to meet her main goal – that of being physically active in her day to day life. She was able to move about freely – go to the mall, pick up groceries, go for evening walks, trek which she wasn’t able to do before she started personal training. These goals may seem minor to a fitness buff who lives to work out, but then every person has different fitness goals and being able to attain these goals made Archana happy. And that’s what really counts.
Personal Training Challenges w. the Happy Type
Happy Types often battle lots of injuries. Keeping them healthy is the biggest challenge for a personal trainer. Also most trainers are used to pushing their clients beyond their limits of endurance. But these type of people do not really feed on challenges. They love feeling their body move but at the same time do not want to strain too hard.
Personal Training Solutions For The Happy Type
These type of clients need direction. They come to us because we have the knowledge to help them. A Personal Trainer’s job with a client like this becomes two-fold. One – to organize her workouts in a safe and effective way and second – to push the client in a subtle manner and make the workouts more enjoyable. The key to help such clients enjoy their wokouts is to ensure that regular scientific notions of training are not made applicable here. One has to accept that one cannot get this client the kind of results that one can get from others because of the fact that this type of client cannot be bothered to push too hard. But then again, a personal trainer has to remember why people exercise and what their goals are and then work within those parameters. Everything falls into place after that.
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