User Comments

1. 

   4/09/09

   timethief

   Those of us women who have never been celebrity worshipers don't suffer from the problem you refer to. We have a realistic view of our own bodies. We eat whole foods in small and properly balanced servings, instead of fast foods and "food products". We know that diet pills are dangerous and do not fall for get thin quick diet schemes. We set achievable fitness goals and we achieve them. Perhaps you ought to focus on attracting a different kind of client.

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   1. 

      4/10/09

      fitnessinsights

      You guys are actually throwing out some great words of wisdom here! Thanks so much!
      
      I have to say that it is a bit embarrasing to still have this problem given I have been training for about 15 years now... one of the holy grails, I suppose
      
      I may be painting too negative a picture of my clientele - not all of them want to look like celebrities, it just gets under my bonnet when the few of them that do want to look like someone else decide that they are not going to be satisfied until they are (which as you know is usually impossible)
      
      I will try Anoks approach and try to shift the focus away - have them take the picture of Marisa Miller off their fridge and put their numbers for the week up there instead.
      
      Thanks all for your feedback! Great stuff!
   2. 

      4/10/09

      Anok

      No problem - Glad we could help.
      
      Just remember - help your clients focus on the positive, their achievements, and the changes they see in their body and in their health, and just try to avoid the negative stuff, like not having Pam Anderson boobs or whatever
2. 

   4/09/09

   ThriftShopRomantic

   I think it's to your credit you wish to communicate better to these clients. I'd suggest they may hear what you're saying but not understand the full effect of it because they can't see it.
   
   Perhaps it might be helpful to have on hand a really good air-brushed photo and then a non-touched-up photo of a known celeb or two, to actually SHOW them as an example. Compare and contrast so they can see the reality and better set their goals.
   
   Sort of a "you want to look like her, but SHE doesn't even look like that. So let's discuss realistic goals."
   
   Of course, sometimes there's only so much you can say.

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   1. 

      4/09/09

      crpitt

      @thriftyThat is great advice, something along the lines of what I was going to say
      
      @fitnessbloke In this series of posts, there are some great examples of the way the media distorts things and would be good reading material I think.
      
      psychcentral.com/blog/archives/category/minding-the-media/
      
      Some are relevant to you, some are not, but its worth sifting through and having a look.
3. 

   4/09/09

   FatX

   That's weird, most of my clients are female and I'v never had one ask that.

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4. 

   4/09/09

   aningeniousname

   I'm personally understanding and need help training women.

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5. 

   4/09/09

   Anok

   I don't know that you will get them to understand it right away. Along with what TSR said, I would encourage the women you're training to take their fitness goals in very small bites.
   
   When I was training at a woman's gym, one thing I noticed is that most of my clients wanted immediate results. That may be part of what you're experiencing when your clients tell you they want to look like Celebrity so-and-so. Weight loss, and fitness training, as you know, takes time.
   
   So what I would do, is break down their goals into manageable pieces - meaning, don't even worry about what celeb they want to look like. Focus on immediate goals and needs. Do they need to lose weight? Yes? How much? Break that down into weekly goals. Do they need to lower their fat percentage? Yes? Break it down into weekly goals.
   
   As they experience real progress, their self image will change. As the women start to see - hey, I lost 2 pounds, or one inch (or whatever) in just one week! They will start to feel that they are accomplishing something, and by the time you've got them down towards their over all goal (they lost the 20 pounds, they can run longer than 5 minutes, etc) - they're not actually going to care abut celebrity A as much as they did before.
   
   But they have to see the change in their own body before they can accept that.

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   1. 

      4/10/09

      busylizzy

      yah...what Anok said!
   2. 

      4/10/09

      Anok

      Thanks Lizzy!
      
      
      Just another tip too - don't let your female clients obsess over the number on the scale - in fact, tell them to ditch their home scale, and don't let them get on the scale at the gym more than once a month.
      
      They will destroy their fitness habits by obsessing over it - I'm serious!
      
      Make sure you inform them about how the body actually works (burning fat, creating muscle, muscle raises metabolic rates, which burns more fat, muscles weigh more than fat, etc and so on). Even then, they won't believe you.
      
      So make them ditch their scale, and force them to focus on measurements (no more than once a week, twice a month is best), body fat percentage (they really shouldn't get below 17% though - it's not healthy for the average woman) - and fitness achievements.
      
      Everyday they can count numbers and obsess over how many curls they were able to increase by, how many pound weights they were able to up, how long they were able to run or use the elliptical etc and so forth.