Personal Training or Lifestyle Fitness Coaching?

How do you know which approach is best for you? Do you have have difficulty exercising on your own or does your behavior patterns continually interfere with the successful attainment of your goals—in the gym and elsewhere? Have you expressed an interest in using physical activity for personal development or to achieve life balance? For these and others, personal fitness training may not be enough. A fitness subspecialty—lifestyle fitness coaching—needs to be considered. 
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Lifestyle fitness coaches (LFCs) encourage clients to use training and sports to build behavioral skills for use at work, at home or in their social lives. This specialty is particularly relevant to fitness professionals because it is founded on expertise in sports and exercise science. People trained as LFCs develop communication competencies parallel to those of professionals trained as more generic life coaches, but LFCs choose to specialize in issues that arise from, or can be related to, the world of sports, fitness and health. 

The fitness industry workscape—once dominated by part-time employees and occasional instructors—is increasingly staffed by long-term, full-time, dedicated professionals whose credentials likely include degrees in the sport and health sciences. In the late 20th century, personal fitness trainers (PFTs) frequently relied on a one-dimensional approach to fitness, believing that biomechanical knowledge and technical expertise were sufficient for helping clients adopt more active lifestyles. But over time, as PFTs regularly encountered diverse client agendas, they realized that clients often required far more than instruction and technical support for maintaining exercise commitments. Investigating exercise issues led to exploring emotional needs and/or nutrition concerns and sometimes revealed unsupportive lifestyle patterns, addictive behaviors, and family and personal challenges that needed to be addressed before clients could experience success. Yet before the development of life coaching models, PFTs may have lacked the necessary communication skills and models for intervening in these domains.

The advent of life coaching provided PFTs with access to methods for working with clients on these other agendas. Then the question became: Which works better for which clients—personal training, life coaching or a blend of the two? Making the right decision requires an understanding of how each model works and what each can do for clients. 

Distinguishing Coaching and Training ModelsClients who hire LFCs rather than PFTs are likely to encounter different work methods and communication techniques. For one thing, LFCs tend to identify relationship building and communication as their principal domains of expertise. They may attempt to elicit client stories, strategize, and provide motivational and supportive messaging. Though some coaching schools recommend giving advice (Coach U 2005), LFCs generally prefer to encourage clients to come up with their own answers by using powerful questions that challenge and confront client self- perceptions and self-limiting beliefs (Strachan 2001; Whitworth, Kimsey-House & Sandahl 1998). Texts on life coaching typically indicate that it is based on the following elements (Cantwell & Rothenberg 2000; Coach U 2005; Martin 2001; Neenan & Dryden 2002; Whitworth, Kimsey-House & Sandahl 1998): 

• a process of inquiry and personal discovery to help clients develop awareness and a sense of responsibility
• identification of realistic goals
• a strong focus on action
• strategies, structures, feedback and support to “forward the action”
  
  

Personal training may have some similar elements, but the scope of work is likely to be narrower (Roberts 1996). PFTs typically rely on instructions and technical information and have a more hands-on approach, guiding clients through exercises and training processes. They are also more likely to provide directives, information and advice (Gavin 2005). Though communication methods that build rapport and trust are important, trainers are more likely to define their roles in relation to expertise in biomechanical knowledge and physical training techniques.

For a more complete view of the two different models, reach out to us for a FREE Lifestyle Fitness Assessment. 

Resources, Websites:

International Coach Federation, www .coachfederation.org/abouticf/index.asp
Lifestyle Coaching Institute, 
​www.lifestyle coaching.ca/home.html

Books
Gavin, J. 2005. Lifestyle Fitness Coaching. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Whitworth, L., Kimsey-House, H., & Sandahl, P. 1998. Co-active Coaching. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.

TopicsCareer IssuesPersonal TrainingPersonal Training: Ethics/Scope of Practice
ReferencesBandura, A. 1997. Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. 
Bohm, D., & Nichol, L. 1996. On Dialogue. New York: Routledge.
Cantwell, S., & Rothenberg, B. 2000. The benefits of lifestyle coaching. IDEA Personal Trainer, 11 (7), 24–35. 
Coach U. 2005. Coach U’s Essential Coaching Tools. Hoboken, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Gavin, J. 2005. Lifestyle Fitness Coaching. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Gavin, J., & Mcbrearty, M. 2003. Lifestyle Fitness Coaching Training Guide. Montreal: private printing.
Martin, C. 2001. The Life Coaching Handbook. Carmarthen, Wales: Crown House.
Neenan, M., & Dryden, W. 2002. Life Coaching: A Cognitive-Behavioural Approach. East Sussex, England: Brunner-Routledge.
Roberts, S.O. (Ed.) 1996. The Business of Personal Training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics. 
Strachan, D. 2001. Questions That Work. Ottawa: ST Press.
Whitworth, L., Kimsey-House, H., & Sandahl, P. 1998. Co-active Coaching. Palo Alto, CA: Davies-Black.
Yankelovich, D. 1999. The Magic of Dialogue: Transforming Conflict Into Cooperation. New York: Simon & Schuster.
IDEA Fitness Journal, Volume 2, Issue 9