What are you selling? A hard workout, or a relationship with a coach who can provide real results?

Anyone who gets into coaching is usually excited about changing lives through health and fitness.

So we begin working as personal trainers, or boot camp or spin class instructors or CrossFit coaches all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Two years later, we realize we’re making little to no real difference in our clients’ lives. For one, we keep losing clients because they lose interest or can no longer afford $1,200 a month for personal training, but even the ones that are still around haven’t changed all that much.

Our interest starts to wane. 

We start feeling like weight changers or babysitters during personal training sessions and clock starters and cheerleaders during group classes. Sure, people are sweating and maybe having some fun and gaining some fitness, but they still aren’t addressing their nutrition, sleep or stress, nor are they really doing workouts that are aligned with their needs and goals.

Alas, we realize selling a hard workout, which is what we have been doing for two years, just isn’t changing lives the way we thought it would. 

(Coach’s Resource: Get the education you need to begin changing lives the way you’ve always dreamt of here.)

“I felt like a clock starter. You know, ‘3, 2, 1 Go.’ I wasn’t really making a difference in people’s lives,” was how OPEX Coach Brandon Burchfield felt. 

“I was so over babysitting adults,” is how OPEX Coach Kayla Smith describes life as a group class coach.

Why don’t these systems work for the client or the coach?

Because people need more than a hard workout to change their lives. They need two things:

1. A relationship with a coach who understands their unique needs and goals

2. Results!

It really is that simple. If your clients are seeing results and value what you are providing them—i.e. they know they wouldn’t get those results without you—they will stick around. Period.

Have you ever had a client lose 50 lbs. and quit the next day?

Here’s how OPEX coaches are building relationships and providing clients with long-term results they haven’t had in the past. 

The OPEX Coach Certificate Program (CCP)

The backbone of the OPEX coach education is CCP. Through the CCP, coaches learn about how to properly assess clients—physically, mentally and emotionally—which then helps them know how to build effective individual training programs for their clients, as opposed to simply administering a random group class workout designed to make an eclectic group of people sweat. 

They also learn how to educate their clients about proper nourishment, and more importantly how to actually get their clients making nutritional, and other lifestyle changes. 

Much of this happens during their monthly consults with their clients, where they sit down and meet their clients away from the gym floor. Sure, you can chat about some issues on the floor between sets of squats, but it’s way more effective to devote specific time to digging into lifestyle issues and coming up with a coherent plan of attack depending on the client’s unique needs. 

These consults also provide an opportunity for a real relationship to flourish between the coach and the client, as opposed to the superficial small talk that goes on during group classes.

Because of the world-class education OPEX coaches receive through CCP and being part of the OPEX community, and the individualized approach to fitness, clients finally get what they need to be successful: A coach who understands them and has the ability to help them get the results they have always wanted.

Take if from 56-year-old Cindy Keisler, a client at OPEX Midlands in Lexington, South Carolina:

“If I were still doing CrossFit group classes…I wouldn’t be where I am. I probably would have gotten so frustrated that I would have quit. …I’m way healthier than I would be. I just feel good. Whenever I go to the doctor, it’s almost a game to me. They always rave about how my blood pressure is so low, and I know if I hadn’t been going to OPEX this probably wouldn’t be the case. …And when I donate blood, they always comment on my (perfect) blood pressure. They’re just floored by it, and it’s because of OPEX,” Keisler said. 

Or from Janice Hardwick, who started with OPEX after giving birth and suffering from all sorts of postpartum complications. Hardwick said:

“This really is what provides the best long-term health results, and not just in the gym, but also your lifestyle, sleep, nutrition. It helps you tackle little things one by one and implement new habits for a more fulfilling life. So it’s really not just about the workout. It’s about the rest of your life.”

Get the education you need to start building long-term relationships and results for your clients today when you download, the free Coach’s Toolkit.

CrossFit® is a registered trademark of CrossFit, Inc. OPEX Fitness’s uses of the CrossFit® mark are not endorsed by nor approved by CrossFit, Inc., and OPEX Fitness is in no way affiliated with nor endorsed by CrossFit, Inc.