Motivating people is hard. Knowing how to motivate people to exercise is even harder. On this episode of Pilates Elephants, you’ll learn how to fearlessly motivate your clients with evidence-based techniques with our guest, Nathan Rees. Where does our motivation to workout come from? Is it intrinsic or extrinsic? Nate and Raph explore these questions that are vital to your abilities as an instructor and help your clients to see results regardless of their fitness level.
What You Will Learn:
- How to motivate clients of all fitness and experience levels and fill your classes
- What should instructors pay attention to during instruction?
- How to provide individual attention in a large class
- How much of your instruction should be technical, educational and motivational?
- How to push clients to their limit and recognize when it happens
Principles of Workout Motivation for New and Experienced Instructors
Nate and Raph discuss the differences between new and experienced instructors in terms of what they focus on during class. We all want to motivate our clients, but new instructors face feelings of insecurity and aren’t as present in the moment as seasoned instructors. They often worry about the functionality of the task so much that they’re out of tune with the clients in front of them. Over time, it’s natural for these feelings to subside as your teaching skills improve. Eventually, you’ll have more bandwidth to focus on the clients in front of you: how hard they’re working, what they need to hear, and how to improve your cueing.
How Can You Tell if You’re Effectively Motivating Your Clients?
Nate offers some practical and easily applicable advice for instructors who want to spend less time explaining and more time motivating. He suggests a healthy ratio of technical instruction to educational and motivational. Once clients are able to grasp the movements, then you can focus on why those movements are beneficial to their wellness and all other areas of their lives. How can you tell if your motivational efforts are working? When clients start to reach muscle failure, you’ll notice physical signs like facial expressions or noises. Nate and Raph discuss why pushing your limits is so important in terms of progress, and how to help advanced level clients continue to see results.
The Power of Social Connection
A huge part of motivation to workout is social interaction. Nate says it’s a key factor in getting clients to show up for class. With a sense of community, people look forward to working out in a whole new way. For this reason, it’s highly important for instructors to know how to welcome new clients into their classes. Nate explains how to make newbies feel welcome by introducing them, making them feel like a part of the crew, and pairing them up with a workout buddy who they may already have something in common with. Social connection is a basic human need, and a healthy community atmosphere in your studio is a powerful way to keep clients coming back.
About Raphael Bender:
Raph believes everyone deserves the opportunity to transform into a better version of themselves. His main strength as a teacher and movement professional is the ability to distill complex research findings into a simple, science-based approach to help people move fearlessly, thoughtlessly, and painlessly. He LOVES running, weights, cycling, and Contrology.
Raph holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Exercise Physiology (Rehabilitation), a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise and Sports Science, Diploma of Pilates Movement Therapy, and STOTT PILATES full certification.
How to Connect with Raphael:
- Find Breathe Education on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, and Twitter
- Find Raphael Bender on Instagram here: @the_raphaelbender
Purchase Raph’s new book:
- Strengthen The Person Not Just The Body Part here
About Nathan Ross Rees:
Nathan Ross Rees is a highly motivated and passionate Pilates instructor based in Tasmania who enjoys traveling around Australia to run guest classes and hold workshops.
He has taught in 50 different studios across 7 Australian states and territories. A big believer in relationship building, Nathan values progress, vitality, results, connection, presence, abundance, and understanding. He’s always seeking to develop relationships with other instructors and expand his network of mentors. He also believes in the collective genius of the Australian Pilates Community, whose members have exponentially developed his understanding of Dynamic Reformer Pilates.
How to Connect with Nathan:
- Find Nathan Ross Rees on Instagram here
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