What Should You Expect from an Online Fitness Coach and What Are Your Responsibilities?

When working with an online personal trainer, typically, you can expect to receive guidance through a training app on fitness and nutrition.  Your success depends on participation, willingness to communicate openly, and honesty with your coach.  

What makes an excellent online personal fitness and nutrition coach? 

Is it that they give you the best weight loss diet advice? 

Is it that they give you a good workout to lose weight? 

Well, yes. 

Having an online personal trainer is not just being told how to exercise and what to eat. 

A great online coach should also teach you how to create a lifestyle of success by integrating healthy habits into the lifestyle you already live.

These are the qualities you look for when searching for the best online personal trainer for you and your goals.  

However, I believe what makes a great online personal coach is not just nutrition and exercise knowledge. 

It also comes down to their ability to help you build a lifestyle of success. 

Here’s an analogy from my lifeguarding days that I like to use. If someone is in the middle of a lake and begins to drown, what do you do?

Do you jump in and save them?

Technically, no.

Instead, you throw them a life preserver that they can grab. You help them help themselves.  

What would happen if you just swam out to a drowning person with no life preserver? Experience has shown that they would likely take you down with them among the struggle and panic.

Being with a great online personal coach is similar.  

They are not going to tell you what to do without any consideration of you and your lifestyle. Where would be the learning in that?  

An online coach will give you the tools to help yourself and help you build a life of consistency and success.

Getting the Most Out of an Online Personal Trainer with Personal Accountability

Working with an online trainer is a team effort, and the foundation of success begins with excellent communication.  

Therefore, if you want to succeed with a coach, being open and honest with yourself and your trainer is essential.

We are all guilty of hiding away anything we “fail” at and do not want the world to see.  But being open and honest with ourselves is the key to moving forward.

A great online fitness coach will help you face those failures so that you do not feel the need to hide them away.  They will help you realize the power in having personal accountability for your failures and your successes.  

No matter your personal fitness goals, personal accountability is one of the most significant factors in achieving success in a healthy lifestyle journey.

This does not mean that a coach is going to instruct you to erase the life you already live and make you start over from ground zero.  A certified personal trainer or coach will help you gain accountability in the life you already lead.  

They will look at your lifestyle and help you integrate what is needed to help obtain your goals. Be it exercise, a diet plan for losing weight, gaining muscle, or the likes thereof, they will help you.  

Remember that the journey you embark on with your trainer can only go as far as you are willing to take it.

That begins with getting comfortable with holding yourself personally accountable. 

What an Online Personal Trainer Should Do For You

When you begin working with an online trainer, go into it with your goals in mind.  

Also, go into it, knowing that those goals might get changed by your trainer. However, you should understand that they will only change the goals with your best interest in mind. 

It is not uncommon for a trainer to hear, “I want to lose 100 lbs in two months!” or “I want to lose 20 pounds by next month!”  

While we admire that ambition, the truth is that those kinds of goals, if obtained, would not be done in a healthy, sustainable way. Remember, the goal here is to establish a lifestyle of healthy habits and success, not a quick fix.

A coach will guide you regarding fitness coaching and nutrition guidelines, but they are going to keep those guidelines within healthy, obtainable boundaries.  

But there is more to it than just eating right and exercising regularly!  

Shocker, I know.

Any program designed by an online trainer should be realistic, designed around your life and schedule. It should be as much fun as possible for you!

Doing this will help lead you down the path to maintaining a healthy lifestyle in the long run.

How Does An Online Coach Help You Create a Diet Plan?

Diet plans created by an online coach typically consider the following:

• Any medical conditions you currently deal with.
• Current lifestyle and day to day schedule.
• Current eating habits.
• Any food allergies/sensitivities you may have.

One of the most common reasons women seek out an online training program is because they want guidance with their nutrition. 

A great online trainer is not going to come in and tell you to stop eating everything you love.  If they do, run.

An optimal diet plan should not interfere with your life to the extent that it feels like a complete overhaul.

However, that does not mean you can continue to eat everything that you want.  

A surplus of calories will, no matter where they come from, will always end up in fat storage. Moderation is key.

Sure, we all want to lose weight fast, but your diet should be a lifestyle, not temporary.  

It should help maintain energy levels in conjunction with losing weight and being healthy.  

It should also be enjoyable! 

Who wants to live a life where they can’t eat things they enjoy? No one. 

The absence of food satisfaction is why most diets fail.  If you do not enjoy what you eat, then inevitably you’ll become frustrated and return to the food you do enjoy, no matter how unhealthy it may be. 

Coaches understand the importance of enjoying your food.  That is why they will ask you to track what you are eating, and then from that information, they will adjust slightly so you can make healthier choices.

Tweaks made by your coaching help you reach a more balanced diet using food you’re already enjoying.

But as I said before, personal accountability is essential.  

When you begin tracking your food, you have to be honest with yourself and your coach.  

If you have three sodas a day, don’t hide that.  

Be willing to be vulnerable with your coach. Only then can they help you in the way that you need.

How Do Online Personal Trainers Design Workout Programs?

An online personal trainer will work with you to create a workout regimen that fits your lifestyle, takes into consideration any medical conditions that currently exist, and your current level of fitness and experience.  

For many women, exercise is one of the most daunting aspects of working with a certified personal trainer. There is something intimidating about the impending fitness routine that will inevitably follow once you sign up for coaching.

Sure, you want to lose weight.  

You knew that if you want that lean muscle mass, you would have to exercise.  

But, still, it’s so daunting; so many fears rise at the idea!

“What if I can’t do one of the exercises?”

“Can I become overheated and get sick while exercising?”

“What if I’m too old?”

“Am I too overweight to exercise?”

“What if I lay down on the floor and just don’t want to get back up?”

Facing the inevitability of exercise is where that vulnerability comes back in.  

I encourage you to share with your trainer everything you are feeling.  

You are both there to help shape your life and shape your body.  

Those fears? We’ve all felt them.  

Never be afraid to talk about them. Because you just might find that your trainer has experienced similar fears at one point or another.

Plus, just like with the diet plan, a great trainer is going to be empathetic. They will work to design a workout regimen that fits into your schedule and lifestyle.   

They will also work to make it as fun as possible because if it isn’t fun. Again, who is going to stick with it if it isn’t fun? 

Keep You Motivated to Stay Motivated

I’m going to be very frank here: Motivation is crap.  

Oh yeah, I said it.

Now, that is not to say you will never feel motivated or that you don’t need to discover ways to stay motivated.  

I mean, you will most likely feel, more often than not, a lack of motivation, especially in the beginning.  

Instead, what I want you to focus on is creating a habit.  

Your trainer will teach ways to stay motivated. But any great trainer will also tell you that there will be days that you just do not feel like working out.  

That is why it must become a habit.

Let’s be real here. There are days we lack the motivation to even get out of bed. 

Let alone make the kids’ breakfast, shower, and remotely function as a human being in this world! 

So why do we still press forward on those days and always do those things? Well, it is because they have become a habit.  

You are used to doing them, and you know them to be necessary! Therefore, even when you don’t feel like doing anything, you will do it.

That is how exercise will become over time. Once you continue to do it consistently, you find it becomes a habit in your everyday life.

Even when you don’t feel like doing it, you still do because it feels necessary.

It Is Essential To Maintain Your Personal Accountability

You are probably beginning to figure out that personal accountability is crucial.  

In fact, a lack of personal accountability will prevent you from achieving any goal you’ve set for yourself, from fitness to career goals. 

Learning how to become personally accountable carries over into the rest of your life.  It can lead to work success, healthier relationships, and contribute significantly to your overall inherent happiness.  

Personal accountability is especially critical when it comes to your success with an online personal trainer.  

You must try to remain open, transparent, and willing to communicate with your trainer. Doing so will reap positive benefits resulting from your choices made by you and your trainer.

Don’t Be Afraid to Communicate Regularly with Your Online Personal Trainer.

When you begin working with an online trainer, you’ll go over the preferred way to communicate regularly.  

Your coach will discuss boundaries for the two of you, so you both know when is the best time to communicate. Your coach will also explain what method works best for you both to stay in touch.

Staying in communication with them helps your trainer keep abreast of your progress.  

It also helps them become aware of situations where they may need to tweak your day to day routine.  

For example, say you try an exercise they recommend, but you find that it hurts your back.  

Staying in communication helps your coach adjust for you so that you can keep going without having unnecessary setbacks.

And just because you are doing great with your diet and workouts does not equate to communicating less with your trainer. 

When I have seen a client begin to slide back into old habits, it is because they stopped communicating with their trainer.  

So it is best to avoid extended periods of no communication.

Be Honest About Your Failures, Not Only Your Successes

To be completely honest, I’m a big advocate for failure.  

I believe that failure is the key to personal growth. When we fail, it is an opportunity for us to learn.  

Failure brings us back to why personal accountability and honesty are so important.  

Again, it is imperative to be transparent and honest with your trainer. But before that can happen, you have to reach a new level of truthfulness with yourself.

From Oprah to Queen Elizabeth II, everyone has failed!

The key is accepting that “failure” to yourself and then asking the big question, “What can I learn from this?”

Be honest with your trainer about when you feel you have “failed.” 

Maybe you ate the whole pint of ice cream.

Haven’t done your workouts in a few days?

Maybe you had two baskets of chips and salsa before the food even arrived. 

It happens! We are all human!

Sharing these moments with your trainer helps connect you both on that human level.  

When you share your “failures,” your trainer will most likely share times they feel they have failed.

We are human. We all “fail.”  And that is ok.

Give Your Online Personal Trainer More than They Ask For

When it comes to working with a fitness and nutrition coach, less is not more.  

The best an online personal trainer can hope for is a client who shares more information than we ask for about their goals, successes, struggles.

We understand what struggles you face, what challenges you may overcome, so never be afraid to share.  

Are you struggling with an exercise during a workout to lose weight we designed? Do you feel you are on a weight loss diet that is too restrictive or not at all maintainable?  

Personal coaches want to hear it all. We want to know what is and what is not working for you.

You and your coach are in this together, learning together, and adapting together.  The more you tell them, the more they can help you on your journey.

So with a personal online coach, more is more, and they want more.

Succeeding With An Online Personal Trainer 

An excellent fitness and nutrition coach will meet you where you are and start from there. Before they introduce you to a workout to lose weight or a weight loss diet, they will find out who you are.

They will want to know what drives you and what is holding you back.

From there, your online coach will move you forward in small increments.  It is essential that what they have to offer works with you, not against you and your life.

A great online personal coach not only helps you with diet and exercise. They will provide you with the tools that inevitably end up helping you succeed in other areas of your life.

It is crucial that a great trainer not only celebrates your results but also celebrates your efforts.  It is in that effort where life happens.

This is your story, your journey, and an online personal trainer is not here to tell you how to live it.  They are here to empower you to figure out how to live life to your greatest potential.

An online trainer helps you realize that everything you needed to live your best life, you had within you all along.