How Body Composition Can Benefit Your Personal Training Services

• Validating your personal training services means gaining support from clients who believe in your business.?
• Open communication with clients and prospects is the key to successfully validating your services.
• There are a number of body composition outputs you can examine, beyond just weight, in your personal training sessions with clients.
• Validating your services allows you to test assumptions about your programming, build brand credibility, and increase client loyalty.
• Just as body composition technology can enhance your business model, it also benefits clients and can help them move toward positive health and lifestyle changes.

Personal training isn’t a new phenomenon. In fact, the?history of these training sessions?dates back to ancient Egyptian, Roman, Greek, and Chinese civilizations.

It is no surprise that this type of customizable physical conditioning has stood the test of time since it is focused on helping individuals adhere to a program that will help them achieve their goals – whether it be conquering an opponent on the battlefield or improving their body fat percentage.

However, the proof of any personal training program is in the progress. So, for today’s fitness professionals, it’s important to consider how validating your services can show clients why your type of training, and your type of training alone, will put them on the path to losing those extra 10 pounds, building more muscle, or reclaiming their health.

What does it mean to validate your personal training services?

Validating your services is one of the most important things you can do to keep clients satisfied and coming back for more. Business validation stems from the support that is generated for the services you’re providing, which is dependent on your ability to help clients achieve results.

In other words, it is in your best interest to regularly check in with clients, see how they are progressing, and recommend program alterations to keep motivation high and momentum going.

What methods can you use to validate your personal training services??

To determine how your clients are feeling about your current programming and offerings, the best thing you can do is to embrace open communication. Some popular methods for getting in touch with members and prospects include sending surveys, requesting feedback through email, phone, social media, etc.; or performing different types of A/B tests with content promoting your programming to see which offerings your clients resonate with most.?

In addition, by choosing to add body composition technology to your personal training packages, you can get a detailed look at a person’s fat, muscle, protein, and water breakdown. By examining each of these values in more detail, you’ll learn how to design workout programs according to which body composition components clients would like to improve, detect imbalances across body segments, and build a healthier, stronger fitness community. Using the?InBody Result Sheet?specifically, there are four sections you can review to get an accurate idea of client performance and progress.

Body composition outputs for personal training

Assess client muscle and body fat

Using the Muscle-Fat Analysis, you can compare different values for a client’s weight, skeletal muscle mass, and body fat mass. This information is of the utmost importance because studies show that there is a correlation between overweight/obesity and an increased risk for various chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.

Many fitness goals in the new year are centered around the goal of weight loss. By adding body composition technology to your fitness program in 2022, you will see exactly how different types of exercises work to eliminate excess body fat and reduce health risks. When coaching clients, try to emphasize the importance of lowering body fat mass and increasing skeletal muscle mass to optimize overall health.

Determine which segments have the leanest mass

The Segmental Lean Analysis plays off the baseline for good health, which is summarized in the Muscle-Fat Analysis. This section delves deeper into the specific weight and body fat percentage values for each of the five segments of a person’s body, which include the right arm, the left arm, the trunk, the right leg, and the left leg. The unique measurements outlined in this section are advantageous for a few reasons.

First, you can determine whether your client falls within the normal healthy range for an individual of the same height and gender. While this metric plays an essential role in understanding functionality in individual body segments, the second metric we’re about to discuss is arguably even more valuable. By evaluating the top and bottom bars you will be able to identify where to increase lean mass so that your clients can better support their weight. While the top bar shows the discrepancy between the actual number and ideal amount, the bottom bar gives insight into the sufficiency percentage, which indicates whether or not that specific limb can support its weight. Ideally, this number should be at (or as close to) 100% as possible.

To help clients progress toward the 100% mark, use your specific programming and coaching strategies to move the needle (and the line) closer each day.?

Discover where excess fat lies

Similar to the Segmental Lean Analysis, the Segmental Fat Analysis section of the Results Sheet shows the concentration of fat—in pounds—for each segment of the body. The total amount of fat per segment is displayed as a percentage and your clients should set the goal to be at 100%. If they exceed 100%, that is okay as long as they still fall within the normal healthy range for their height and gender.?

By examining a client’s outputs on the Segmental Fat Analysis, you’ll be able to better determine where they are retaining excessive fat and what areas of the body to specifically target when creating a program designed to accelerate weight loss and increase lean muscle mass.

Gauge the visceral fat level

Monitoring levels of visceral fat sometimes referred to as “harmful” fat, is the last component of the Result Sheet that is essential to review with individuals participating in one of your weight loss challenges. High levels of visceral fat have been shown to increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer, so keeping this number in check is vital to creating a foundation for long-term health.

All in all, referencing these body composition metrics during the course of your fitness challenge this year will allow you to better monitor client progress, make alterations to their training and nutrition programs, and support them on their health and wellness journey.

Why it’s important to validate your personal training services

Validating your personal training services could significantly impact the success of your business. The more time you take to evaluate and fine-tune your programming, the greater your client retention and loyalty will be. Here are the top three reasons why you should validate your personal training services.

To test your assumptions about your program

To determine how effective your program is, you will need to assess each individual aspect, identify any gaps, and make necessary adjustments.?

When undergoing this self-evaluation process, start by identifying the problem that you’d like to help your clients or potential clients solve. From there, you can determine what types of solutions you could offer in order to help them overcome these hurdles and achieve their desired results.

Using this information, you can then test for proof of concept. This phase is often referred to as market validation, which involves determining whether there is a need for your product or service within the target market you’re hoping to serve. Market validation can consist of anything from conducting interviews with potential buyers and people within your target audience to asking individuals to try your programming and provide feedback on their likes and dislikes.

The third and final step focuses on sizing up your competition. You will not find ways to improve unless you invest time in evaluating and understanding other personal training services that are similar to yours. For instance, maybe you offer personal training and nutrition services and so does a gym up the street. However, this competing gym also uses body composition technology to monitor client success. You both have similar training prices and are located within 5 miles of each other. Knowing and consistently reviewing this information is essential so you are aware of all the options your customer base has, what you can do to stand out, and how you can promote these differences to persuade more people to train with you.

To build brand credibility

Validating your personal training services through your client’s body composition progress can strengthen your business’ reputation. The success rate that you have with your clients matters because it speaks to your ability to generate amazing results. Diversifying your offerings also allows you to show your clients your heart. Providing a variety of services that will benefit the community you serve, conveys how much you care about their wellbeing and how committed you are to see them succeed.

And what you give to your community will always come back to you. As you continue to effectively train those who walk through the doors of your facility, word of your accomplishments will spread and you will experience increased growth opportunities.

To increase client loyalty and satisfaction

Once you make a name for your business and show that you are capable of providing clients with the tangible results they are seeking, you’ll begin to build a foundation of trust that can result in increased client loyalty and retention.

When working with clients one-on-one, use the data from the Results Sheet to build a case for why your program, specifically, will equip them with the resources and tools they need to achieve their wildest health goals. By placing more value on the Body Composition History section, in particular, be sure to highlight specific areas your clients can focus on to boost overall health.?

Above all else, increasing client loyalty starts by focusing on your heart and intention. If you care about your clients and their success, show them. Listen and respond to their concerns, questions, and aspirations so you can take them further than they ever imagined.

How body composition analysis benefits your clients

Body composition technology can improve your business model, but the real reason you’re in business in the first place is to serve your clients!

A great trainer provides valuable resources and knowledge to the individuals who seek out their services. Personal trainers are able to better help clients hit their goals through the use of body composition technology because:

It highlights positive outcomes

Negativity bias—the phenomenon of giving more energy and attention to negative experiences or information—affects every single one of us. When someone is going through any kind of transformative process, these feelings can easily become heightened if the participant feels as though they are not progressing fast enough or have experienced some setbacks.

Even if a client is concerned that their weight hasn’t really shifted much on the scale, body composition can help you show them a different success story. Perhaps their body fat percentage has decreased or maybe they’ve increased their overall lean body mass. Whatever the case may be, body composition tells you a more detailed story about a client’s body and provides you with numerous positive pieces of information to share to show them they are moving in the right direction each time they come in for a training session.

It is highly personalized to the individual

If you’ve been in the personal training business long enough, it’s likely that clients have come to you saying “nothing ever works for me.” That’s probably because many systems and programs are designed to accommodate the general population. But, your clients are not generic. Everyone’s body composition is unique and therefore, programming must be tailored to the individual in order to maximize results.?

Using body composition, you can place an increased emphasis on the importance of using body fat percentage instead of BMI as a marker for good health. Although?BMI has been the industry standard for years, it does not account for the amount of lean mass that an individual has and therefore, if someone has more muscle, their BMI might skew higher.?

In addition, InBody devices calculate body composition measurements without relying on empirical assumptions based on age, sex, ethnicity, or body shape. This results in more accurate and precise measurements that give more insight into individual health.

It provides a history of outputs, which shows progressive changes over time

The Body Composition History section provides the perfect summary of a person’s progression throughout their time following your program. You have the ability to view up to 8 different sets of test results on a single Result Sheet.?

It helps individuals build and maintain motivation throughout the duration of the program

There is something to be said about being able to have a visual representation of growth. When you take the time to sit down with clients and show them the concrete data behind how their body is changing and evolving, that is powerful because it shifts their mindset. Even if the number on the scale hasn’t moved, having outputs available to reference as evidence of the changes they are making can spark motivation that will help them continue moving through your program.

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If you want to learn more about body composition technology and how you can use it to take your personal training programs to new heights,?contact us. Our team is always available to answer questions about which device may be right for your business.