Coronavirus, Lockdown, Gyms Closed & PTs.

With Coronavirus (a.k.a Covid-19) taking over the world, gyms were forced to close and Personal Trainers were made to take their services online.

I totally understood the initial panic in the fitness industry, especially PT’s that weren’t sure what to do with their business, their income and most importantly their clients, as well as all the uncertainty of when gyms will actually re-open.

Instead of focusing on what you can’t do, lets have a look at what you can do. There’s still loads you can and ultimately should be doing to look after your clients and your business.

The first and most obvious thing to do is to actually move your clients on to online coaching and set them up as online clients, provide them with all the ongoing support that you do already and give them some home workouts that they can do in the comfort of their own home.

You can deliver sessions over Facetime, Skype or Zoom. Alternatively, you can even live stream, through Facebook/Instagram, a home workout that you do in the comfort of your own home and that your clients can do in the comfort of theirs.

These are just some initial thoughts of what you can do to protect yourself, your business and your clients.

Whilst there is still a lot of uncertainty as to when the lockdown will end, it shouldn’t have to put an absolute halt to your business. You can still help your clients achieve their health and fitness goal.

What I suggest you do right now is write down all your client's names on a sheet of paper. Next to their names write down their goal and leave 5-10 lines free underneath each client's name. In that blank space, I want you to write down every single thing that client needs to do to achieve their goals. Write down topic areas.

For example...

Sarah - lose 10kg and drop 2 dress sizes to regain confidence in herself and the clothes she wears

Training

Nutrition

Mindset

Daily Activity

Daily Habits/Routines

Now ask yourself given the situation right now with gyms being closed, what are you doing to ensure each of those topic areas has a full action plan?

Whilst everyone is stressing that gyms are closed, and all you see on Instagram is home workout after home workout (that's not a bad thing BTW), don’t forget as a PT there's still so many areas that you can coach your clients on to help them achieve their goal.

So why don't you focus on that?

Instead of a FaceTime/Skype workout, what about a nutrition session to make sure they know exactly what they need to be doing? Perhaps a mindset call would be extremely beneficial right about now with everything going on? You could even discuss the importance of daily activity and daily routines?

Please don't think that just because the gym is closed that you can't help your clients with their goals. There are still loads of areas that you can coach your clients on. So use this time effectively to ensure they are set up for success in every area of their lives, not just their training.

After all, personal training should always go deeper than just a client’s training session.

I know and you know that a client’s result is largely determined by what they do outside of the gym rather than just what they do inside a gym. Use this opportunity, that you’ve been given by lockdown, to ensure you’re still delivering a world class SERVICE to your clients, not just a session.

Now is your opportunity to highlight your worth to your clients. Highlight how important you are for them, their results and their quality of life moving forwards.

At the end of the day, a client doesn’t come to you to spend time with you in the gym. They come to you because they want a result. There is still absolutely loads you can do as their coach to ensure they achieve that result.

For that to happen though, you must take responsibility.

To me, responsibility can be broken down into my RESPONSE to the situation that I’m in and my ABILITY to get out of it. That’s my response-ability.

Now lets look at what you can do right now to continue GROWING your business.

Here’s some ideas for you….

Lead Magnet

Could you create a lead magnet (downloadable report, mini-book, video series etc) that solves a specific problem for your target audience? Could you use the time that you have available right now to create something of immense value that will help your target audience get closer to achieving their goal?

Seminar

You could even use the time you have to prepare a seminar for when the gyms do open again. This will give you the opportunity to demonstrate to your target audience how you’re the expert on that topic area.

Webinar

If you don’t want to wait to do a seminar, why don’t you deliver a webinar right now? Deliver a webinar on whatever is crucial for your target audience in pursuit of their goals.

Social Media

You’ve got so much time on your hands at the moment, you could post every single day on social media providing quality content that actually helps your target audience to move closer to their goals.

Daily Emails

You could provide even more value through daily emails. Actually emailing your target audience with specific things that they can be doing now or in the future to get closer to where they want to be.

Enhance Your Skills

Study more. Think about the biggest struggles of your target audience. What can you study right now, what books can you read, what online courses can you go on to enhance your skills as a PT? This will mean you’re fully prepared when gyms open again.

Free Facebook Group

You could set up a free Facebook group and get as many people into that group as possible that fit into your target audience and provide daily tips and advice on what they can do right now and moving forwards to hit their goals.

Competitions

You could run some competitions for people to get involved in your online coaching. Generate interest in the online service that you already provided or, after all this has settled down, will continue to provide when the gyms do open again.

Just a final note…

With everything going on in the world right now, we can either use this to grow, adapt and build resilience or we can choose to be victims and pass blame onto other things. What is happening is difficult to deal with. There’s no denying it. However, how you choose to respond to it is up to you.

Who else agrees that your attitude is a choice you make for yourself?

At any point in time, we can change our attitude. And more importantly, we can change our behaviour. We can learn to be grateful for what we have. If you look for something to complain about, you will find something. If you look for the silver lining, you'll realise it is always there.

When you, as a PT, focus on what you CAN still do you’ll realise there’s absolutely plenty you can do. The decision that you’ve got to make is; are you going to do it? After all, how you choose to respond to this situation you’re in complete control of.

Oliver.