The critical question is “Why do people sign up for their yearly membership and within 2 weeks drift back to doing exactly what they used to do; which for most is nothing.

What personal trainers or ‘teachers’ in any field have to realize is that if we do not teach people a system that they can plug them self into they will never last for the long term.

In essence, we should be teaching ‘principles’ - a way of thinking that they can implement in all aspects of their lives.

That is exactly what Nolan is talking about, learn a system “30 days” to make or break any habit.

When I wanted to create a habit of reading I started the 30 day program. I read for 20 minutes everyday for 30 days until it became a part of me. Then if I did not read one day I felt like a part of me was not satisfied.

That being said, most of those days I did not want to read. I remember being so tired at times that I must have re-read the same page for 30 min. before bed and still could not tell you what I read. But it was the habit that I was more interested in creating in my life at that point in time.

My mentor, same as a ‘trainer’ was there to keep me inspired and accountable for what I wanted to achieve.

Fred Sarkari

A trainers job should be how to teach them to keep active over a long period of time. If they knew how to motivate themselves they wouldn’t need a trainer.

The bottom line is “the client”. Not what the trainer thinks is right or wrong.

Every client responds to stimulus and motivation differently. The exerienced trainer will recognize this and adapt.

To tell every client they need to train 7 days a week is ludicrous. You would never retain nor even get that client with that approach. Enough said.

Personal trainers are very good at figuring out a persons strengths and weaknesses and then creating a program for them to reach certain goals. What most trainers fail to understand is how to get a person to create a habit. In effect, they have no clue how to get someone to continue with a program after it has started. To back this comment up, 70% of all people who start a workout program fail to continue. Why is this? 70% of people who start a job don’t quit. Yet people rank health as a higher priority than money.

The simple fact is that if you set up a workout plan for someone who is a beginner and tell them they only need to do it once a week, there is a good chance that they will workout the first week, maybe the second week, and will never make it beyond this point. Human psychology is simply not programmed to continue anything that is not consistent.

The fact is that anyone can find a way to get active everyday of the week. Everyone can wake up in the morning and start the day with a 15 minute walk and build from there. They don’t have to be in a gym for an hour at a time for it to be considered exercise. Of course personal trainers don’t get paid if they tell the client this.

Furthermore, if you go to the gym and survey the extreme physically fit, most of them will say that despite the typical conventions, they worked out everyday of the week until they saw results when they first started working out.

Of course as I have said before, you need to consult a doctor to see how much physical activity your body can handle. I still stick to my belief that you need to be consistent for 30 days before a workout program becomes a habit. After that you can scale back to five or six days a week.

You have to look at where there starting point is and go from there. If they haven’t worked out for years, then one workout a week is better than they were doing.

Then build upon that success, until they feel confident they can do it long-term.