There are a few common and biggest mistakes that coaches make while training their female clients. Female fitness is different from that of men’s and therefore coaches should be careful so that they do not implement anything that is meant for a man on a woman while training.
Ideally, effectively training and coaching of women involve much more than understanding the physiological and anatomical differences between them and a man. It is also about understanding the emotional differences. Typically, women are habituated to say and believe differently than men about their bodies. This knowledge will help a coach to relate a specific training program to their worthiness.
According to research, it is found that the experiences women have working with a trainer or a coach varies. It is also found that these experiences impact them:
- Personally
- Professionally and even
- In their relationships.
As far as the negative experiences of women with their coach or trainer are concerned it was found that:
- 97% eventually ended up firing their trainer
- 16% left the gym altogether so that they do not see their trainer again
- 3.5% shared the reason for their negative experience.
This means that the fitness and health professional should be the primary person to build a conversation with their female clients about their bodies.
- This will have a more intense impact on the clients and how they feel about the trainer.
- This will, in turn, affect their fitness journey as well as their potential.
- In addition to that, it will also provide the trainer with an opportunity to be a useful force for good.
Therefore, coaches should first focus on working on a creative welcoming. Though one cannot make someone else feel just the way intended this approach will help the coaches to understand how they feel, respond, and react to others. Creating a safe and positive environment will encourage female clients to grow a more positive body image.
This will ensure that the most suitable training program is designed for each individual client as per their requirement just as a largest bra size is required for a lady with heavy breasts and a smaller one is required by a young lady or one having small breasts.
Making comments
One of the most significant mistakes that coaches make while training their female clients is that they do not carefully comment so that they do not leave their clients embarrassed or ashamed. A specific comment for a man can be highly derogatory for a woman at times. A few examples of embarrassing comments often made by trainers that should certainly be avoided are:
- Admiring the abs of a woman who has pulled up her T-shirt to wipe the sweat off
- Telling a particular woman is too weak when she struggles with a specific exercise instead of helping her out
- Calling a client ‘skinny fat,’ as she has competed in endurance sports and others.
As per research, it is found that the impact of such derogatory comments is that:
- More than 71% of clients felt they were unworthy and discouraged not to be at the gym and
- 68% of them felt ashamed and that left them feeling vulnerable.
In most of the cases, it is found that such clients considered the gym to be not a safe place for them.
Not relating to the situation
This is another common mistake the trainers make with their female clients during fitness training. The trainers often force a woman on the scale even after repeated refusal as she wanted to have some nutrition advice. Sometimes they even tell that a particular client will never reach her fitness goals or gain any muscle if she did not give up vegetarian food.
In such situations, women often felt:
- Demotivated
- Upset
- Angry
- Ignored
- Devalued and
- Ashamed of not being able to keep up to the expectations of the trainer.
Underestimating or overestimating a female client is also another common mistake made by the trainers, especially depending on their physical appearances. They may:
- Actshocked when one cannot do a specific exercise though she appeared to be in shape for it and feel sorry for overestimating
- Underestimating and saying a client that he or she never expected her to do that specific exercise
- Humiliating a client with an intense HIIT workout because the trainer overestimated her to be fit for it or
- Underestimating and assuming that an overweight woman is a beginner or should not exercise at all
When underestimated, a woman may feel insulted, frustrated, angry or upset. On the other hand, when overestimated, a woman might feel unsafe and apprehensive. In fact, 86% of women who were either over or underestimated simply due their appearance felt that they had it in it but could not reach to their fullest potential just because of the behavior of their trainers, research showed.
Ignoring requests
In most of the time, the requests of the clients are ignored by the trainers. For example, a woman seeking muscle gain and hypotrophy exercise may be consistently told by a well-built male trainer she will never be able to gain muscles like him, no matter how hard she tried. Ignoring nutrition requests and suggesting weighing or refusing to alter exercises for a woman suffering from knee injuries and offering exercises that are less effective from the perspective of the client are few other examples.
In such situations, clients feel devastated and lost. A few also exacerbated injuries instead of achieving their fitness goals.
All or nothing approach
Most of the times, the trainers also follow an ‘all or nothing’ approach, which is another big mistake that they should essentially avoid. Instead, the trainer should provide alternative exercises, especially when a female client reports discomfort after doing a particular exercise.
To conclude, a good trainer should listen to their client, ask questions, know their background, and make the client comfortable. They should not refuse, interrupt, hurt or disrespect their clients. Most importantly, they should not assume anything but assess the ability of their female client while designing a fitness program.
