Thinking about hiring a trainer/coach to help you reach your goals? Whether you’re in the market for a personal trainer to help with exercise or a coach to help with nutrition and lifestyle habits, first make sure you are coachable. ⁠ ⁠

Being coachable means: ⁠ ⁠

• You’re able to take feedback and suggestions without becoming defensive. If you get a cue during an exercise, it’s because your coach either saw something needing improvement or has a tip that will help you. If we said it, it’s because we saw it. ⁠If your coach shares an insight, even it’s difficult to hear about yourself, remember that that’s why you hired us.

• You’re open to experiment and learn. No matter how much experience your coach has or how many clients they’ve worked with, you are unique. You and your coach will be working together as a team to learn which methods and strategies work best for you at this time in your life. The best coaching has a framework AND is personalized. Be an active participant and know that not every strategy will be a good fit and might require course correction. That doesn’t mean it’s not working. ⁠

• You’re ready and prepared for your appointments. You’ve invested time, money, and energy (your most valuable resources) into this relationship, you definitely want to get the most out of every session. As best as you can, arrive or log on for your training sessions properly fed, rested, and hydrated. As a trainer, there’s not much I can do for a client who starts our session by telling me they haven’t ate in hours or they haven’t drank any water today. For coaching calls, find a quiet spot (with good reception/connection) where you can sit down with your notebook undisturbed. This is not the type of call you can take while driving or multitasking.

• Keeping your coach informed. Your coach/trainer needs to know if something is affecting your physical or emotional well-being. Your health issue is not TMI. You can keep the details private while giving your trainer enough information to support you or avoid anything contraindicated. Your health history helps your coach put together a plan for you. It also helps your coach to know if what you need is beyond their scope and you can be better helped by another professional.

• You’re driven. Listen, take notes, ask questions, and most importantly, take action. There’s one thing trainers/coaches can’t do for you: implement. You will need to do the work outside of your sessions. Because the magic doesn’t happen in the 30 or 60 minutes you spend with your trainer/coach. It happens the other 23 hours of the day when you’re not with them. Did you follow through on your commitments? Did you recover properly? Did you take their suggestions or advice that you asked for? The growth you experience throughout the process is what allows you to make the transformations you hired your coach to help you with. ⁠ ⁠

You are coachable when you live up to your roles and responsibility in this relationship. Remember, you and your coach are on the same team and you’re both working toward the same goal: your success! ⁠