As a personal trainer, your job is to help your clients achieve their unique fitness goals. But, it becomes a bit difficult when you work with limited mobility clients. Without the use of their entire body, you have to find creative ways to give satisfactory results. Also, your ways to motivate and encourage has to be very perfect because limited mobility clients often get discouraged due to their inability to perform.
We know working with limited mobility clients is very challenging, but a few tips and tricks can help you succeed and deliver as per your clients’ expectations.
In this post, we have mentioned the recommended tips and tricks that you should know before working with limited mobility clients.
- Know your clients’ fitness goal
You should start your training sessions after knowing your clients’ expectations from you and their fitness goals. You should understand and be very clear about the reasons for your appointment.
A few reasons for limited mobility clients to utilize personal training are to improve functional strength, manage weight, or prepare for sporting events like the Paralympics. Your training sessions should be focused on needs and should never follow a one-size-fits-all approach.
- Customized training programs
After knowing your clients’ fitness goals, you should plan the training session. But before that, you should understand the body limitations of your clients. The training programs should be extremely customized as per the comfort and capabilities. So, be a bit sensitive.
While planning the training sessions, don’t assume things. Some exercises can be very painful and others can adapt to your clients’ needs. The best way is to try before finalizing.
- Motivate and encourage your clients
As already said above, don’t ever assume that your clients cannot perform the exercises without interacting with them. Never make them feel inferior due to their limitations or adapted exercise style. The best way is to discuss the things that they can do instead of things that they cannot do.
You should make them understand the fitness regime will be different but not less than others. Keep motivating and encouraging them always. Your respect towards them will build trust and you will receive appreciation.
- Ensure safety during training sessions
Limited mobility clients are prone to injuries during exercise due to lack of balance. And keeping them safe is always critical for a personal trainer. You should always stay behind or by the side of your clients when they perform the exercise, even if they have become proficient.
To ensure more safety, you should utilize the right equipment for the right circumstances and understand your clients’ adaptability for the same.
- Keep learning and stay updated
We know you are educated and properly trained to become a personal trainer. But you should not limit yourself with whatever you have learned and continue implementing the same on all your clients. You should learn about different fitness methods and keep yourself updated.
In case of dealing with limited mobility clients, you should find out which specific health benefits they are seeking and research on the training methods which will directly impact on those body parts.
These are the 5 tips and tricks to work with limited mobility clients. So, we hope you will accept the challenge of working with them and succeed successfully. We guarantee it will give a boost to the personal trainer career.
