The scenario where Mary bursts through the doors a couple of minutes late is what we hope for but rarely happens. What takes place instead is that you check your phone at 6:01pm and find a text from Mary. \u201cHey, I\u2019m so sorry, but this week has just been crazy.\u201d You know what the following line reads: \u201cI have to cancel today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waste a session? Doesn\u2019t Mary know that this is when she needs a session most? This is the perfect opportunity for her to take the time to de-stress, recover and stay on track with all her goals.<\/p>\n
When a client cancels or reschedules, the likelihood that they’ll cancel or reschedule again drastically goes up. Experience shows that when clients don’t train, they cancel. Implementing and placing value on recovery sessions completely changes that narrative. Instead of your client cancelling, they come in and leave feeling recharged, energetic, less stressed and very thankful for their trainer. I’ve personally had many occasions when long-time clients say that the recovery session we applied when they were at a low point and wanted to cancel was the best session they\u2019ve ever had.<\/p>\n
How your client feels after a session matters more to your\u00a0retention<\/a>\u00a0than what you do in the session. People don\u2019t remember squats or lunges. They remember how it made them feel. Personal training is a highly emotional business. Emotion is not just part of the sales process \u2013 it\u2019s an intricate part of the training experience. If your clients leave feeling great after a session \u2013 whether that means feeling challenged, accomplished or energised \u2013 they\u2019ll stay with you forever.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s dive into what recovery sessions are and what they should accomplish. You\u2019ll see how you can implement them and, critically, how to get your clients to show up for them.<\/p>\n Whether it be mental or physical, the body doesn\u2019t differentiate stress \u2013 it only detects that there IS stress. The thing about stress is that it\u2019s compounding, but stress is normal. You\u2019re physically stressed, so you become mentally stressed. You\u2019re emotionally stressed, so you get physiologically stressed. Eventually, that culminates in burnout and situations like Mary cancelling her session.<\/p>\n Your job as a trainer is to identify the stressors in your clients\u2019 lives and help reduce them \u2013 ideally before they become overwhelming. The PTA Global Daily Readiness Observation (Dr. O) tool from the\u00a0Exercise and Stress Management<\/a>\u00a0course is a tool that makes stress easier to manage on a day-to-day basis. Consequently, this proves very beneficial for clients, resulting in overall stress reduction. Dr. O uses a set of questions and movement assessments to identify where your clients\u2019\u00a0buckets of stress<\/a>\u00a0are full and strategies to empty those respective buckets.<\/p>\n It\u2019s imperative to attack stress from a physiological and psychological perspective. Physiologically, we need to shut down the sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system and activate the parasympathetic nervous system. As a result, it relaxes the client and allows the body to recover. We also want to engage in very low-intensity movement to further stimulate recovery, release endorphins and get the client moving to tackle whatever the day has in store for them. From a psychological perspective, they need to focus on the present moment and being successful, which comes down to your coaching and \u2018exercise\u2019 selection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Dr. O tool makes determining what to do in sessions very easy and straightforward. I primarily use Dr. O to manipulate the sessions, but I do have some favourite techniques I\u2019ve found highly effective based on research and empirical evidence. A recovery session typically will be lower intensity and uses the five techniques below:<\/p>\n The exercise we consistently do throughout the day is breathing. How you breathe directly impacts on the nervous system. Your highly stressed client is coming to you with a sympathetic nervous system in full pandemonium. Their body has been pumping adrenaline and dumping cortisol for hours, maybe even days. If you pay attention to their breathing, you\u2019ll notice it\u2019s different \u2013 shallow and fast.<\/p>\n They need to get into a parasympathetic nervous system state for anything you do to matter. For example, someone wanting to get the benefits of a massage while contracting their entire body is not going to receive the desired results. The massage isn\u2019t going to do anything for them until they can relax. Breathing will shift their entire state.<\/p>\n The breath should go from shallow and frantic to deep and controlled. Deep belly breathing by contracting the diaphragm initiates the shift. The diaphragm, which is connected to the vagus nerve, sends an impulse to the brain initiating a shift towards the parasympathetic system.<\/p>\n Have your clients lie on their back with their feet flat, the same position as a hip bridge, with the low back barely touching the ground. As they inhale, the belly rises first, with only the last third of the breath rising the chest. The exhale reverses through the chest to the belly. The inhale and exhale should each take 3-5 seconds. Two minutes of this breathing will typically be enough for them to relax. Once you see the breath become smooth without any twitches, you\u2019re good to move on.<\/p>\n Self-myofascial release (SMR) relaxes overactive tissues and helps restore posture. This allows your client to function at a higher level, breathe better and relax. Since this is a recovery session, the foam rolling needs to be slow and intentional, combined with deep breathing.<\/p>\n Sadistic, painful foam rolling has been glorified at times, but that\u2019s the opposite of what you want. Foam rolling needs to be as relaxing as possible. There should be no sensation of pain because that will trigger the sympathetic nervous system. It\u2019s not the time to break out your medieval soft tissue kit. Instead, go grab that soft foam roller you graduated from years ago.<\/p>\n Passes should be slow, moving no more than 1-2 inches per second. Ideally, roll distal to proximal, or towards your heart. That will help push blood back into circulation, so fresh oxygenated blood flows throughout the body to speed up recovery. Deep diaphragmatic breathing is critical to keep your client relaxed during this time. Since you\u2019ll be doing less resistance training or intense exercise, you\u2019ll have more time for SMR. Typically, a full-body roll is ideal here, but at least focusing on typical problem areas (calves, quads, t-spine, lats, chest) for clients will do as well.<\/p>\n After relaxation, the next step is to get your client up and moving. If the client is physically worn out, start with static stretching to ease them into it. If they\u2019re ready to turn the engine on, then break into mobilisers that get the whole body moving. If you\u2019re using the Dr. O, then you\u2019ll have already assessed areas that need focus and have specific mobilisers to address these issues.<\/p>\n Mobilisers are dynamic stretches that go through a pattern of movement rather than holding one position. Ideally, your mobilisers engage the whole body and move through multiple planes of motion.<\/p>\n Up to this point, the goal has been to keep the client relaxed and moving with intention. The movements in all the previous techniques require focus, so your client should be present in the moment, and not thinking about everything else going on in life. The next technique pushes that envelope while adding in movement. Low-intensity movement won\u2019t add stress to your client, but rather help with recovery. Sticking them on a piece of cardio equipment or under a heavy barbell is not what we\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\nWhat recovery sessions are and need to do<\/h2>\n
Minimising client stress<\/h3>\n
Psychologically and physiologically stressed<\/h3>\n
The four recovery session techniques<\/h2>\n
1) Diaphragmatic breathing<\/h3>\n
Changing breathing patterns<\/strong><\/h4>\n
2) Foam rolling<\/h3>\n
Foam rolling techniques<\/strong><\/h4>\n
3) Mobility<\/h3>\n
4) Engaging low-intensity cardio<\/h3>\n
Keeping movement stress-free<\/strong><\/h4>\n