Exercise Instruction: The make or break of new exercisers

I sometimes wonder how many non-exercisers have been put off exercise by an over-confident, well intentioned, but misguided exercise instructor.

Exercise instruction should be considered one of the most important and fundamental skills a trainer brings to the client-trainer relationship.

The trainer’s ability to expertly guide a new exerciser through their programme, helps build a client’s confidence to safely complete gym based exercises on their own, efficiently.

Careful exercise instruction is just one of many essential skills trainers need to use to establish a robust exercise habit with their clients.

Let’s look at the most effective way to instruct exercise for beginners.

Exercise instruction and the novice exerciser

The initial gym experience for first timers is often stressful, daunting and emotional. Therefore, exercise instructors need to consider working with beginners as an opportunity to do more than just set up a programme and run through the motions.

The level of professionalism that an exercise instructor brings to these initial client interactions will have a massive impact on whether they see that person again next week, or never.

Do you remember what it was like joining a gym for the first time?

I struggle to think back to when I first entered a gym. It was many, many years ago. However, I do remember feeling a bit out of place and unsure what to expect.

Like many of those who had gone before, and after me, I imagine we shared similar feelings of unease heading into that most sacred of fitness arenas – the local gym.

Perhaps you know what I’m talking about.

• Feeling unsure of our ability to be successful with gym-based training.
• Being anxious about whether we’d ‘fit in’ or ‘look silly’ exercising.
• Fighting nerves about what happens next.
• Worried others may watch and judge us if we do an exercise wrong.
• Feeling (and looking) confused about all the different machines and what they do

The list goes on.

Not to mention, all the added time and energy most mere mortals will already have spent; prioratising time to attend, acquiring appropriate exercise attire, arranging any childcare, and setting aside  life’s other obstacles.

It’s enough to prevent the general populace from even contemplating a step into the gym most of the time.

You see, it’s a big deal, and potentially a life changing event for a lot of us.

If you’re a Personal Trainer or fitness instructor, let’s not make this any harder than it needs to be.

The components of good exercise instruction

The exercise instruction process outlined below, is taught as part of NZIHF’s Personal Training programme.  It focuses on helping new clients get up to speed with their programmes in a way that builds confidence and takes into consideration the psychological state of a new exerciser who may be entering the gym environment for the first time.

A new exerciser will likely arrive with an already cluttered mind and be contending with the sensory overload that comes with being in a new and challenging environment for the first time.

This is why we recommend these four simple processes that can be used to streamline the way you instruct exercise effectively.

They are abbreviated as:

1. Feature, benefit, feel
2. Show, tell, do
3. Commend, recommend, commend
4. Question, remind, summarise, and make notes

1. Feature, benefit, feel (FBF)

The aim of FBF is to link what the new exerciser is doing to the benefit (or reward) they get from doing the exercise.

This is a motivational technique.

When starting out in the gym environment many of us will find exercise tough and could be wondering “what am I doing here?”

Providing a short introduction to the exercise will help alleviate those self-doubts.

Here’s how the FBF process works:

Feature:

Provide a simple statement about the exercise.

For example, “Righto Sam, this is the barbell bench press, and it works the chest muscles”.

Benefit:

This is where you peak further interest by letting them know how the exercise will help them personally.

For example, “This is a great exercise for you Sam, as it will help to build muscle around your chest, to keep you feeling strong and burning calories”.

Feel:

This provides another motivational link that gets them into a positive headspace helping them to invest effort.

For example, “you’ll feel great once you develop that chest and see some muscle definition coming through”.

2. Show, tell, do

As self-explanatory as you may think this part is, it is where a lot of new instructors come a cropper and overdo it.

The key here is to really keep it simple. Give a good demonstration, provide a few key tips, then let the person jump in to have a go.

Show:

Give the person a good demonstration. A picture paints 1000 words. You don’t need to explain all the nuances of what you are doing, or not doing.

Just do it. Do it well.

Let your great technique do all the talking for you.

I promise you, less is more here. You’ll confuse people by having them observe you doing an exercise correctly, whilst also dropping knowledge bombs about what not to do.

Just do it. Do it well.

This taps into clients mimicry centres in their brains where they can see and copy a movement more effectively than process a list of detailed instructions and watch at the same time.  Don’t say a word, just show the technique.

Tell:

OK, now you can talk. Just keep it brief.

Again, some trainers will try to overdo this part by rattling off as many technique cues as they can.

Remember, you just gave the best example of what to do, when you gave them a demonstration.

You will not be able to use words to explain the exercise any better than what that person just witnessed visually. I don’t care how much of a wordsmith you purport to be. 😜

They already have a good idea of what to do from your demonstration – so just pinpoint a couple of key points that reinforces what they saw.

Here’s an example;

“OK Sam, so you would have noticed all I really did there was keep the bar sitting in line with my chest, and I brought it down towards my nipple line.”

“Let’s give you a go now”.

Do:

Now it’s their turn.

Guide them to the equipment.

You may be surprised how well a newcomer will do here.

You may need to tweak the odd set up position or adjust the alignment of something here and there.

But most of the time, even a new exerciser will set themselves up nearly perfect – if you’ve done a good job with the previous steps.

People are pretty good mimics.

Have them perform some reps. The more practice they get here the better. So do take the time to give the client the full compliment of sets and reps in their programme.

You do a disservice by only allowing one set before moving on to the next exercise.

Our clients brain and muscles need to learn how to work together on these exercises. If you stop them after a few reps, you are slowing that person’s progress.

The more opportunity to practice under the guidance of an instructor’s keen eye, the faster they’ll develop confidence and be willing and wanting to workout on their own.

If the programme asks for 3 sets, give them 3 sets to practice. Let them learn and refine the technique – now, not later.

This is what they’ll want and need if they are to go on to form a new exercise habit.

Forget too much loading, you are all about technique and feeling the movements and muscles at this stage.

3. Commend, recommend, commend

This is about providing feedback in a positive manner.

Between sets is a good opportunity to reinforce the good and provide feedback on how to tweak anything that wasn’t quite right.

Commend:

Identify and tell the person one thing you saw them do well with the exercise.

Recommend:

If there was something you noticed that was not quite right – provide a quick reminder.

It could be something to focus on for the next set like slowing down their tempo or keeping elbows soft.

Commend:

Tell the person something they are doing particularly well, preferably to do with improvements they have made in their technique. Boost their ego. You know they did a good job. Tell them!

If there are ever more than a few recommendations to be made – you can almost guarantee the instructor has either rushed through, or completely missed out some of the key earlier steps.

If you are an instructor using our method – this part in the process (CRC) will provide you with insight to how well you’re exercise instruction method is tracking.

4. Question, remind, summarise, make notes

Finally, we want to check that the person has retained the key aspects from our exercise instruction.

By providing the following quick checks we help reinforce the most important aspects of the exercise. This will allow our new exerciser to go away and confidently practice the exercise independently in the future.

Question

After each exercise, ask the person about it to help reinforce their learning.

I like to ask them about the key benefits, what some of those key points were, and if there’s anything in particular to watch out for.

This also shows them that we will debrief each exercise. They realise pretty quick that it’s better to be paying attention and listening when there’s a few questions coming their way each time!

An example of the types of questions you could ask here are:

“Can you tell me how far down you bring the bar for this exercise?”

“Where should our head be?”

“What would happen if we kept raising our head off the bench?”

A person who isn’t held accountable for their training may train poorly when working out alone. This has the potential to put themselves at risk of injury or of not getting the results they originally sought.

Remind

A gentle reminder of the odd key point from time to time is to be expected. If needed, cue them on any points they’ve missed that are vital to them. No need to re-instruct. Just make sure the couple of points you know will be important for their success are there and reinforced.

Summarise

Providing a quick recap of the exercise and asking how they feel about it is important. You want to understand if they are now feeling confident or anxious about the exercise. You want them confident enough to execute the movement well, understand the value of the exercise for them, and therefore persevere. Positivity and encouragement are the order of the day when instructing exercise to new gym goers.

Here’s an example;

“Nice work Sam. So that was the bench press. You did a great job at keeping the bar in line with your chest and bringing it down in a straight line. Just remember to keep your head on the bench and save that neck of yours. How are you feeling about this exercise now?”

Make notes

You can expect that people will forget the odd pointer here and there. Even when you nail the exercise instruction process. So, a good habit to get into is jotting down any key tips on the persons programme card for their future reference.

Keep your notes short and concise. Use simple, direct phrases such as ‘steady pace, pause each time’ or ‘bar to chest’.

If you find you are writing a short story all over the new comers programme card – stop and schedule another programme induction session. Your small essay indicates you are not confident that they actually get it yet. No dramas, some people do take longer to get the hang of exercise. But they’ll get the hang of it faster with your help rather than a bunch of scribble on a card.

Exercise Instruction – Video example

Take a look at this exercise instruction process in action. Watch the video below.

Buyer beware: Does your trainer really want to help you?

The initial gym experience for first timers needs to be more than an opportunity to set up a programme and rush through the exercises. Sport and Exercise Psychologists Weinberg & Gould agree that it is important to provide new exercisers with a sense of success and competence in their first programmes. [1]

I’m reminded of a story I heard a while back about a “fitness professional” whose approach to exercise instruction was to do the opposite. In fact, his approach was to make first time exercisers look and feel incompetent, then recommend Personal Training services to remedy this.

Imagine being a new gym-goer on the receiving end of such an approach.

Here’s what you might expect:

• Exercises that are physically too demanding for you as a new exerciser.
• A lack of explanation around the exercise benefits, or how they meet your health and fitness needs or goals.
• A rushed demonstration of the exercises – if one is done at all.
• Limited time to practice – because he’d have to stop you before you hurt yourself.
• No opportunity to build success into your first session.

Thankfully, I know most trainers are not out to grow their business this way.

However, the anecdote raises the following questions…

• If you were on the receiving end, which exercise instruction approach would you prefer?
• Then, which exercise instructor would you rather work with regularly for your other health and fitness goals?
• Which trainer do you think has your best interests at heart?
• Who will ultimately become the more successful trainer, with clients who stick around for the long run?

The cool down

Learning new movements is complicated.

Try to remember this when instructing people. Keep your instructions clear and simple. Avoid overloading people’s senses with too much information or commands. Use familiar exercise patterns they may have used already and can recall and provide clear feedback that encourages correct technique and helps remedy poor technique.

Most of all be patient and be helpful.

References:

[1]  Weinberg, R. S., & Gould, D. (2003). Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology (3rd ed.). Human Kinetics.