No Time? No Problem!

Getting in shape with a packed schedule, and how I can make it easy.

I’ve had quite a few new subscribers in June, so I just want to quickly reintroduce myself. I’m a 37 year old Personal Trainer, originally from London (I used to work in the wine industry), I now live in Buenos Aires with my wife and our young daughter (another on the way). I used to have my own gym here, where myself and other international instructors would teach fitness classes to our international, English speaking members.

Last year I closed my gym to focus on my online fitness coaching service. This way of working has allowed me to work with more people, based all over the world, on a one on one basis, providing personalized plans as well as daily accountability and guidance. I believe this to be the most effective way to help people achieve their goals. An added benefit for me is that I can now work from anywhere, allowing us to visit England for longer to see my family and friends there.

When coming up with ideas for these newsletters, I simply think of all the conversations I’ve had with my coaching members over the past week, and write about a problem that one of them will have brought up, and my suggestions to solve it. This week there’s been a common theme:

“I’m too busy”

I once thought about working with niche groups of people, in order to stand out more as an online coach, and I remember thinking I could target busy people over the age of 30, then I remembered that everyone is busy over the age of 30 and that it wouldn’t be a very good niche.

One of the main disadvantages to working with face to face clients, when I had my gym, was that I would see them once or twice a week, but often I would find that they did very little exercise in between our sessions because they were too busy. One of the main advantages of working with my online coaching members is that we communicate on a daily basis, and their training plans are flexible, meaning we can make adjustments in order to stay consistent during busy periods.

This is a really important thing to remember when trying to get into and stick to a fitness routine, weekly exercise is a non negotiable, but the frequency, duration and intensity is. My members have the weekly workout plans that I create for them, but I am always on call to create a shorter version of the day’s task in order to get something done, and remember, something is always better than nothing. If my member foresees a busy week ahead of time, I can always reduce the schedule to the most important workouts and exercises ahead of time, to avoid them skipping the plan altogether.

You might have your own workout routine that works well for you, but perhaps you’re forced to skip it at times due to busy periods. I suggest that instead of going for a longer run or bike ride, perhaps shorten the length and increase the intensity, in order to get a good workout. If you had a plan to go to the gym and lift weights, why not stay at home and do a body weight workout. I find YouTube to be very useful for this option, here’s one of my own from my channel (Subscribe if you haven’t done so already!). And do remember that a walk is always a good alternative when everything else is just too much.

The four Fs

Being an adult seems to be a never ending task of looking after your friends and family, and taking care of your finances and your fitness. I can’t help you with the others, but I’m very confident I can help you with the fitness one.

After 10 years working in the fitness industry I’ve learnt that what people most need is a plan, that’s personalized and flexible, and they need accountability. This is what I offer to my Online Coaching members. So if you struggle with consistency, you’re busy and you’re not sure what to do even when you can make it to the gym, then I’d love to work together to set you on the right path to success.

There’s another good reason to join in June, I’m currently offering 50% off your first month, and on top of this I will most likely be increasing my rates in July, but I do not increase the rates for existing members once they’ve signed up, so starting asap is a good way to lock in the current rate before it goes up. Here’s a video blog from one of my current members.

As usual please reply to this email or comment below, if you have any questions, or you’d like more information about working together.

Thanks for reading.

Freddie.