5 Things To Know Before Working With an Online Fitness Coach

5 Things You Should Know When Working With an Online Fitness Coach

You are thinking of working with an online fitness coach to achieve your physique goals. Great! Let’s quickly look at what you need to know before working with an online coach and what you need to know about your coach before hiring them. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Don’t just hire your coach based on the transformation pictures they share on Instagram. Of course, you want a coach who has a good track record. However, also consider the following things:

1. Do they have experience coaching people with the goals you wish to achieve.
2. Communication is key so test the waters and see how they handle communication and if this is what you need.
3. Some people are naturally great at talking and everything that comes out of their mouth sounds like a fact. Being great at talking or marketing doesn’t immediately mean that they are good at coaching you towards your physique goals.
4. What kind of mindset do they have? Does the online fitness coach still challenge him or herself within the field? Do they expand themselves and are open for growth?
5. Do they want you to actually learn and grow as a client? Do they prepare you for ‘the world’ so you can one day manage your health on your own? Or do they just tell you what to do without explaining why this is important?
6. Honesty is important, not just from you as a client but also from your coach. Do they sugarcoat everything? Or are they being honest (while that can sometimes be hard to hear)?
7. The alarm bells should be ringing when you hear lines like: “Summer body in 6 weeks”. Whether or not you achieve your goals depends on too many factors to be able to guarantee something like this.

Communication with your future online fitness coach

Online coaching requires a lot of strong and clear communication between you and your coach. You will need to be comfortable with sharing the highs and lows. Are you comfortable with the communication medium your coach uses? Is it clear what your coach does for you and what he or she expects from you? Regular check-ins through Loom, tracking your progress in Google Sheets or an app, filming your technique, voice memo’s etc. They are all different ways of letting your coach know how you are doing. The more you share with your coach, the better they can coach you.

Your online fitness coach is not your mom

To work with an online coach, you need to have a certain level of self-awareness. It is also very important to understand that in the end, you will need to put in the work. Your coach can not eat your meals for you. Accountability is a major factor in achieving your fitness goals. With an online fitness coach, this accountability is often self-driven. You need to be able to follow up on the things that your coach and you decide on doing. Make sure you are ready for this kind of responsibility. A good coach will have systems in place to track your progress. However, your coach is not your mom and will not text you every day to see if you had your meals. Take initiative and you will receive so much more. Of course, there is a learning curve and your coach should not expect you to be a perfect human being who does not make mistakes. However, the goal is to learn from those lessons.

Are you ready to learn?

Mindset matters. If you already think you know it all, coaching in general is not going to be easy. Be open to learn, discover and be challenged. Adapt a growth mindset. A fixed mindset didn't get anyone closer to reaching their full potential. You have to believe that you can change and grow as a person. This mindset will also be very important to be able to hold on to your results. You have so much inside you, let's get it out!

Your coach can not smell what is going on

This has to do with taking initiative. Have questions or concerns? Ask it. That is why you hired your coach, to learn from. Since it is online coaching, you coach can not smell what it going on. Of course, they will have a good idea of what is going on based on possible trackers in place. However, when unexpected things happen, inform them. They want to see you succeed, and so they want to provide you with the information and tools you need to reach your goals.

Follow your gut feeling

In the end, you need to have a good connection with your coach. You need to feel like he or she is to be trusted and capable of teaching you the things you need to know. In the end, you want to not only achieve your physique goals but also hang on to those results! Know what you need from your coach. See if they can deliver what you expect and if what you expect is realistic. Feels good, go all in!

Online fitness coaching can help you build an amazing physique along with a great lifestyle. However, it is not everybody's cup of tea. In the end, it is up to you to decide if you want to go for it! Curious if online coaching is something for you? Plan your intake and let’s build a crazy natural physique!