I’m a Professional Fitness Coach, But I Don’t Give (Free) Advice
Last modified 2 weeks ago.
I’m an avid fitness enthusiast. I really enjoy sharing my passion for health and fitness with others, too.
However, with some exceptions, I do not give people personal fitness advice anymore (unless they are a paying client).
I used to… a lot!
Heck, I’m embarrassed to say, that I often gave a lot of unsolicited advice, too. (Many years ago, mainly).
But not anymore (for the most part).
If someone asks me a general question, I’m happy to recommend great resources, though. My website is just a tiny sliver of the fitness-information universe. They can look up both quick sound bites of information, as well as entire fitness books (see: Internet Archive). But I am not here to become one more sound bite. If they are serious, then they’ll jump to it and check out what I recommend. If they’re not, then I just saved both of us the time and energy.
There is another reason that really discourages me from giving complimentary fitness advice . . .
If someone is really out of shape, totally engulfed in their bad habits, they may ask a question like, ‘Bro, How do I lose weight?’ Being the friendly enthusiastic chap that I am, I would give them a quality answer–the same one I would give to a well-paying client (or myself).
And, you know what?
Before I knew it, they’d be arguing against what I said, coming up with every (childish) excuse in the book. And worse, they would take no… action… at… all.
Nothing changed.
They were just using the conversation to reinforce their belief and ugly habit that it was not worth changing their actions. (No matter how delicately or helpfully I tried to broach the subject). I’m not alone in this as a coach. It’s also one of the drawbacks of working the fitness floor at a big-box gym. You have to be overly polite, kiss plenty of behind, and get a big metaphorical smack in the face for your efforts.
No, thank you!
But I’m not a cynical person or misanthrope.
Although giving free advice is kind of useless, I’m not cynical about it.
I don’t give a crude response like, ‘I don’t coach people for free.’ (As a young fellow, I had a sports coach who seemed to have made that a professional mantra). Nor do I call them out. I just try to redirect the conversation, best I can, towards a productive direction.
I respond to these advice solicitations by encouraging them to take action–however incremental that may be.
I might say something like, ‘Well, what have you been doing so far?’ Or, ‘I’ll tell you what, it sounds like you’re interested in losing weight. Would you be able to keep a food journal for two weeks and show it to me?’ Or, ‘I recommend these resources. Will you take a look? If you get stuck, let me know, and I’ll clarify it for you.’ Or, I’ll give them a small fitness challenge or task to do and report back in a week or two.
99% of the time, though, I will not give complimentary fitness advice anymore . . .