SURRENDER TO YOUR AI OVERLOADS
Just kidding! Admittedly, the rate of technological advancement can sometimes be daunting, but here’s your chance to grab it by the artificially intelligent horns and make it your business beast.
There are so many ways to harness technology in business – especially in the fitness industry. From streamlining daily tasks to making workouts more fun and accessible, we’ve explored just some of the ways your business can take advantage of this incredible age of tech evolution.
You can find more information on each of the following by downloading our ebook: The Tech-Driven Personal Trainer: How to Thrive in the Digital Age
BE ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE WITH VIRTUAL COACHING
You might argue that your coaching is most effective in person, but sometimes that’s just not possible or convenient for clients. The global virtual fitness market is enormous and ever-expanding due to the changes brought on by the pandemic. Virtual coaching allows you to extend your client base while offering flexible ways to complete a workout.
A personal trainer app can support virtual coaching by offering tools to manage remote clients and deliver flexible workout programs.
Fitness clients come in all shapes and sizes, with unique requirements. From the parent who needs to be with their kids; to the person with a disability who is best supported at home; to the worker in a remote location with no access to facilities; your potential client base is varied and abundant. All they need is an internet connection and a device.
Whether you offer a couple of online classes, create video workouts to assign, or go fully remote with your business, giving your clients virtual options that fit in with their busy lives will strengthen your business and your client relationships.
LET MOBILE APPS AND ONLINE PLATFORMS DO THE HEAVY LIFTING
If you’re not already providing a way for people to access your services using their phone… let’s just say you should look into it immediately. People do everything on their phones these days and you don’t want to miss out by not offering this simple option.
Consider how inefficient it can be to do your data tracking, emailing, calendar management, client wrangling and finances using separate programs. The right online platform can be a super time-saver for you by performing all of those functions in the one place. And anything that saves you time and resources can be healthy for your bottom line.
When selecting a personal training platform for your business, ensure that it is user-friendly for you and your clients, allows you to expand your offerings, and most importantly, simplifies your job. For example, TrueCoach is trusted by over 20,000 coaches for its comprehensive suite of features that can take your business to the next level.[AK2]
DEEP DIVE INTO DATA
Ah data, essential for running a successful business, yet so mind-bending for most mere mortals.
As an expert personal trainer, your time is best spent supporting your clients and building up your business. However, collecting and analyzing data over time is essential if you want to achieve progress and growth.
You don’t need to tie yourself in knots or get a degree in statistics, you just need to approach it with specific metrics (such as workout length or weight) and use the right data-management tools to both keep track of and graph the information you collect.
If you’re consistent with your data collection, you’ll begin to see patterns and trends emerging and you can act accordingly (such as adjusting a client’s workout or nutrition).
WEARABLES ARE WHERE IT’S AT
Fitness trackers, smartwatches, biometric sensors, oh my! There’s a wide range of wearables in the fitness industry and all of them can assist you and your clients with essential data collection and tracking.
These devices can’t replace you – far from it! Rather, they enhance your power and insight as a trainer, while also helping your clients to understand their own bodies and the impacts of training.
You could tell clients to use their wearable to track a particular metric (such as heart rate), so they can engage with their goal even when you’re not with them. This helps to make goals more attainable as your clients can track their metrics every single day and they may even make healthier choices to keep it on track.
CHANGE UP REALITY
Exercise absolutely boosts our mood and increases energy… the catch is that we have to find the motivation and energy to work out in the first place. The reality is, exercising can be tedious and repetitive, no matter how fabulous your trainer is.
So – why not make reality more interesting? VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) are fun ways to entice your clients to get moving, plus they demonstrate how cutting-edge your business is.
VR and AR can make working out feel like a game, and research shows that it can be just as effective as a regular workout, even if participants don’t feel like they’re exerting themselves as much. If you’re entering the virtual coaching world discussed earlier, AR and VR can complement this perfectly.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, MACHINE LEARNING, AND YOU
As we mentioned at the beginning of this blog, the rapidly evolving world of AI and machine learning can and should be used to streamline your business and improve the health and wellbeing of your clients. The key is testing and trialling to find the right fit for you.
By collecting and tracking all manner of data, AI can provide you with a holistic picture of your client so you can deliver a more personalized and effective workout.
It’s also ideal for streamlining your productivity and automating many processes that take up your valuable time. As detailed in our previous post, you could use ChatGPT to create marketing plans, social media campaigns, emails, blog posts and much more. There are even programs that can rapidly summarise information or analyze legal documents. It’s really quite incredible how much help you have at your fingertips.
If you want to create video content, podcasts or a website to help grow your business, there are clever programs out there that make the process simple and fast.
And of course, efficiency is crucial for the smooth running of any business. You could utilize time-tracking and productivity tools to see a complete picture of your day, or try a task-management tool that can take care of scheduling and assigning for you.
TIME TO GET STARTED
What an amazing time we live in, and the perfect opportunity for you to make the most of technology to build the ultimate fitness business for you and your clients.
There’s a lot of choice out there, but we recommend testing and trialling until you find the best combination for your needs.
For more detailed advice and practical tips on the technology discussed above, download our free eBook: The Tech-Driven Personal Trainer: How to Thrive in the Age
Note: We promise this post was NOT written by your AI overlords in an attempt to take control of the fitness industry, and then the world…
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Author: Bobby O'Connell FRSA CSM
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First published: August 21 2023
Written by: Bobby O'Connell