The Importance of Planning for Client Results
If you want to provide the best results for your clients, a plan of attack is vital. To be the best, you have to plan accordingly. Programming session by session just isn’t going to cut it. Look at what you want to accomplish, and then start to develop the plan around that. Maybe you want to deadlift 500 pounds. Maybe you want to do a chin up for the first time. Maybe you want to have a ripped, shredded six pack. There are countless goals your clients, or yourself, may want to achieve. It’s our job as fitness professionals to make those dreams a reality, and the first step in the process is developing a plan of attack to achieve those goals.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that there’s a magic formula, or simple process to make planning any easier. What I am going to say is that planning your day, week, month, and year is extremely important. If we look at the course of a year, it’s easy to see that there are going to be periods of downtime and periods of time that you’re going to be devoted. It’s impossible to maintain 100% strict focus all year long. I’m pretty dedicated, but if I don’t plan some specific time for rest and recovery, I can guarantee you that I’m going to burn out.
One of the best tips I heard when it came to planning came from Dan John. His thought process is pretty simple, but that’s the beauty of it. Basically, you need to look at the calendar and just start marking days/weeks that will be more difficult to stay on track. Grab yourself a big bold marker and start making your marks. For example, next month I know I have two wedding I’ll be attending and a weekend on the road for business. Those dates are going to be circled, and now the planning is going to be based around that. I let my life dictate my training schedule, not the other way around. I’m willing to put in the hard work necessary to achieve the results I want. However, I’m not willing to sacrifice my family, friends, and relationships in the process. I need a plan in order to do this.
First, I start by pulling out the calendar and marking off the big things. Vacations, weddings, holidays, and other important events are the first things to get circled. Next, I want to find different phases that I plan to get after it. I’m not only planning out the likely obstacles. I’m also planning out different phases that I want to increase my intensity and make a hard push. I know this isn’t sustainable all year long, so blocking out a few times a year to dial it in and focus has really helped me. Now the calendar is starting to be filled with scheduled periods of downtime and focus.
I do the exact same thing with my large group programming as well. I know most of the clients coming in for our large group training sessions are there to lose fat, look good, and feel awesome. So I pull out the calendar and start marking. It’s impossible for me to mark off vacations, trips, and typical roadblocks many people encounter. However, I can block out the times to increase intensity and focus. This is generally around New Year’s, spring break, before summer, and back to school. These are pretty typical times that many people are fired up and ready to get results. This is where I typically plan a fitness challenge or competition to help improve accountability and results. Immediately after this hard push is where we throw in our recovery phases. This annual planning has allowed us to focus on period of high intensity and periods of recovery.
The biggest takeaway here is that planning in advance really helps you manage your training load and improves adherence to your program. A good plan of attack will help improve your clients’ results, so take the time to develop the plan in advance. Fail to plan…Plan to fail.
Take the time to plan. Your results are going to be enhanced. Guaranteed!
However, a great program takes time to develop. If you don’t want to spend the time on creating an annual training phase, Smart Group Training 365 is your solution. This is the exact program we use in our facilities currently, and we have killer results time and time again. Smart Group Training 365 will save you countless hours of programming. We decided to hold nothing back on this one. We went all out to make your life easier. Check it out by clicking :SGT 365
