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  Truth,
  Justice
  and the
  American Weigh

How Next Generation Trainers Boost Reputation and Income Through Education Based Weight Management Courses

By Art Rothafel - Published Nov/Dec 2006 - Personal Fitness Professional Magazine

Overview

It’s this simple.  There are two approaches to weight-management -- the right way and the wrong way.  Tune in to any media outlet and you’ll learn all about the wrong way, including restricted calorie dieting, stimulants, pills, herbs, patches and hypnosis.  The wrong way also employs a faulty measurement protocol to gauge success -- pounds-on-the-scale.  This is not only myopic and misleading, but in fact, dangerous.

 Conversely, almost all fitness professionals are familiar with the right way.  It mandates proper nutrition inseparably combined with physical activity using body composition as the primary tracking mechanism. 

Where’s the Beef?

Experts estimate more than $12 billion is wasted each year on faulty, misleading commercial weight-loss programs and methodologies ($36 billion including diet foods).  It’s easy to blame big budget advertising, mass marketing and America’s erroneous quest for instant weight-loss.  But, then again, what has the fitness industry done to offset the constant barrage of misinformation?  More importantly, what have you done in your own market area to educate the public about sensible weight-management? 

Next Generation Trainers and Weight-Management

For marketing-savvy Next Generation Trainers, the chaotic world of misinformation presents enormous opportunities.  For example, they already know that fitness professionals are the only group to provide viable protocol toward weight-management.  They are the only ones who can actually stand up, tell the truth – and back it up with human physiology.  They are the truth-sayers and defacto experts.  Stated another way, Next Generation Trainers are a “beacon of truth” amidst the “sea of deception.” 

From a marketing standpoint, it’s an important distinction.  When contrasted against commercial weight-loss centers the Next Generation Trainer’s “expert positioning” pits the fitness protocol against all others in an “us versus them” scenario.  Unfortunately, the fitness industry has not learned to expose and leverage this important difference. 

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Today, most health clubs structure weight-management through their personal training departments as exercise programs bundled with nutrition plans.  They typically imitate the look and feel of commercial weight-loss programs with point A to point B programs.  They use trendy program names and a slew of look-alike marketing strategies.  This is a huge mistake. 

In the consumer’s eye, the look-alike programs and marketing strategies lump fitness-based weight-management into the same category as all other commercial weight-loss programs with no distinguishable difference.  On the surface and in presentation there is no differentiation.  As a result, enrollees enter the programs with the same unrealistic expectations and ultimate disappointments they found before.

Next Generation Trainers See Things Differently

Next Generation Trainers take a completely different approach.  They change the entire playing field by offering the one thing commercial weight-loss centers fear the most – knowledge.

Next Generation Trainers understand they are teachers.  Instead of a “program” they offer a “course.”  They don’t use trendy names and programs.  Instead, they incorporate a more serious academic name, look and feel such as “Weight-Management 101” or “Principles of Weight-Management” or even “Weight-Management Institute.” 

They use terms such as instructor, class, students, and curriculum.  Next Generation Trainers educate people about real weight-management issues and science involving basic physiology, metabolism and digestion as well as productive exercise, stress and foods.  They guarantee all students, upon graduation, will have the knowledge, tools and strategies to manage their weight and body-composition for the rest of their lives.  And, at the graduation ceremony they present “certificates of completion” to each student.  Some even negotiate with local colleges to offer continuing education credits (CECs) for their courses. 

The Weight-Management Road Show

Mobility is another important advantage of teaching a weight-management class.  Next Generation Trainers can hold Weight-Management 101 classes at corporate sites, churches, schools, community club houses, recreation centers, hospitals, health clinics, fire departments, police departments, military bases, – the possibilities are endless.  Just by making such a class available Next Generation Trainers create good will and project their leadership throughout the communities they serve.  Further, a traveling class not only earns revenue, but is one of the best marketing vehicles available to create positive word-of-mouth and promote all other personal training services. 

Nuts and Bolts

While creating a course may seem daunting at first, you’ll soon discover similarities to your existing business.  Just as you customize a training routine for each client, you’ll create a course that fits your individual teaching style based on your own knowledge and communication skills.  With repetition, you’ll quickly hone those skills into a first rate curriculum and presentation.  

Other considerations include:

Class Location:  Classes can be held in your studio or small club if you have enough room to seat all students without distraction from the rest of the facility.  For example, you might hold evening classes once a week – Wednesday nights from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. – and allow your clients to attend in street clothes if desired.  If you don’t have the space, remember your class can be set up almost anywhere including corporate conference rooms, school class rooms, church facility rooms, recreation centers, etc.

Class Size:  Groups should be big enough to make the course worthwhile, but, not so big it becomes unmanageable.  You can enroll between six (6) and twelve (12) students per group.  Larger corporations may enroll more than 35 people per class.  In such cases, a teacher’s helper will be required.

Course Curriculum:  Course curriculum will vary based on your level of expertise in specific areas.  The overall goal is to provide a holistic approach with particular emphasis on two components:  physical activity inseparably combined with proper nutrition.  Your course also should dispel all popular weight-loss myths such as restricted calorie dieting, magic pills and trend diets.  It should convey the absolute truth about how the human body actually functions through a discussion of basic human physiology.  Whatever you decide, keep it simple and not too technical.   

Teaching Tools:  Good communicators may do well with just a white board.  However, a computer/LCD projector combination will allow you to create very professional Powerpoint presentations.  Other teaching tools include handouts, anatomical charts, tracking logs, and nutrition software.

How Much to Charge:  An eight-week course requires eight (8) hours of your time not including preparation and graduation ceremonies.  In addition you will have costs associated with your material handouts.  The typical retail cost will range from $199 to $299 per student with full payment received in advance.  In some cases you may consider a flat fee for large groups.  Pricing is dependent on your market area.

Leading the Way

Teaching a weight-management course isn’t for everyone.  It requires time, effort and the ability to communicate effectively.  However, as the personal training business continues to grow and mature, the entrepreneurial trainers who expand their roles into teacher, mentor and motivator will become the pioneers and successful leaders of the Next Generation.