Last updated April 4, 2024 (originally published July 29, 2020)
Does this sound familiar? You land a new one The client or new participant shows up in your class and is eager and excited to work with you. They enjoy the training experience and they are excited to cooperate with you to determine some next steps they can take at home to support their progress. You feel good about the session, hope you’ll be able to advocate for change with this client, only to find out the next week they haven’t done a single thing. they started to I am doing. Every week, you work together to come up with unique and important positive steps to take, but to no avail. these is not doing any of these. You (and your client) may feel like you’re running into a brick wall and you they begin to wonder, “Why won’t they do what they say they’re going to do?”
You are not alone. This is a common frustration for people in the health and fitness industry. It can lead to judgments about the client’s willpower, discipline, or commitment to health and fitness. Understanding human behavior and Why one does or It does not suit doing something can help both you and your customers move forward in a productive way.
The information-action fallacy
In his book Microscopic Habits, Dr. BJ Fogg talks about “Iinformation-onemistake of action.“ Most people believe that if you give people the right information, their behavior will change. This is not real. Information alone does not reliably change behavior. If it did, everyone would eat a diet consisting of only nutrient-dense whole foods and always get adequate amounts of daily exercise.
when make assumptions about a customer’s lack of engagement, you miss an opportunity to ask better questions. What you really want to know is, “What is stopping you from doing this behavior?”
Fogg offers a reliable formula that will helps you determine if a new behavior is about to emerge. Fogg claims that no change in behavior occurs when one or more of the elements from the formula B = MAP are missing:
Behavior = Motivation + Ability + Prompt
ONE Behavior only occurs when motivation, ability, and prompting converge in the right way.
You can start by asking the ‘discovery question’. For example, “What makes this behavior difficult?” You want to deconstruct any barriers to their successlarge integration of behavior. For example, maybe yours The client wants to walk four times a week for 30 minutes. It seems easy enough, but they is not do. Instead of giving up and moving on to new behavior, first figure out what’s holding you back. Really dig in here – is it time? Ability? Weather? Routine? Wish? Once you understand what’s holding you back, you can work together to remove those obstacles.
Creating Supportive Environments
But you have identified the barrier, it’s time to create the environment that supports the behavior the customer wants accomplish. Does the environment need to change to better support the behavior? Or maybe the behavior needs to be adjusted to a better one suitable the environment?
Using the example of walking four times a week, changing the environment can include things like mapping out the specific route so the client knows where they head or walk home if walking outside is inconvenient. Other possibilities include waking up 30 minutes earlier to fit in a walk or laying out workout clothes the night before as a reminder. The key here is to understand what prevents you from walking consistently and adjust the environment to match the behavior.
If the client can’t customize the environment, can they customize the behavior? For example, the walking goal could be accomplished by breaking the walk into three 10-minute walks to facilitate the behavior, or by taking two 10-minute walks six days a week. four 30-minute walks per week. Again, understanding the barriers is the most important factor.
If you are a group fitness instructoror a personal trainer or health coach conducting group sessions with clients, tACE RRAMP™ approach can help you develop a caring and working environment. In a climate that includes tasks, individual effort and improvement, as well as camaraderie among peers, are emphasized. This focus reduces feelings of competition and intimidation, helps create intrinsic motivation, and is the foundation of the ACE RRAMP approach.
Meanwhile, caring climates exist when individuals treat each other with mutual respect and kindness and when they feel they belong and are an important part of the group experience.
The ACE RRAMP approach is built the following items:
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Respect: Mutual kindness and respect are cultivated and valued.
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Rrecognition: Effort and improvement are recognized.
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ONElignment: Alignment and cooperation between participants is priority.
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Mistakes: Mistakes are recognized as part of learning.
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Piparticipant: Each participant plays important rolem.
Read more here: Introducing the ACE RRAMP Approach: A Practical Resource for Group Fitness Instructors.
Final thoughts
The next time you feel frustrated with your customer obvious lack of discipline or willpower, try to ask better questions and listen to understand their answers. By learning more about what may be preventing the behavior from being completed, the client can adjust either the behavior or the environment to better suit their needs.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to create an environment that empowers everyone to succeed, check out this ACE continuing education course: ACE RRAMP Approach™: Cfostering behavior change through group fitness (worth 0.1 ACE CEC). In this course, you’ll learn how to incorporate each element of the approach into your slogans, behaviors, and programming.
