If you’ve been a personal trainer for a while you’ll know that sometimes doing to the same workouts can get a little boring, both for you and the client! After all variety is the spice of life isn’t it?  

Don’t get me wrong the core fundamentals will always be in place and certain exercises will remain in your clients programmes throughout their time with you. That said it’s good to try new things and mix up your sessions every now and then. It keeps both you and the client engaged, and allows you to have some fun and set some new challenges.

Warning: You don’t have to mix it up every session – you need consistency and too much chopping and changing is detrimental to your clients results. But here’s an example of what I mean…

What I often do is follow a set plan of action designed specifically for the client, but then for the last 5-10 mins at the end of our PT session i’ll do something varied, a new exercise, or some sort of different challenge.

In this post I thought it would be cool to share… 

3 Ways To Spice Up Your Personal Training Sessions 

#1 Use Different Equipment 

Kind of obvious right? but it’s amazing how many coaches just stick to the same machines and exercises every personal training session. For example the coach will program a deadlift, squat and bench press into every clients program and end up doing them all day long! Don’t get me wrong these exercises are awesome but why not try some new equipment out every now and then?

You could use things such as a: jump rope, battle ropes, slam balls, resistance bands, landmine attachment, medicine balls, etc, etc – choose some equipment that you don’t always use and mix up you personal training sessions every now and then.

Both you and your clients will appreciate the variety. A good personal trainer will be able to improvise and design something fun, challenging but that’s still conducive towards the clients goals. 

#2 EMOM (Every Minute On The Minute) 

This is something I do with lots of my LEP Fitness personal training clients. EMOM (Every Minute On The Minute) is where you set a target to either complete a certain number of reps, calories or exercises within a minute.

For example, you set a 5 minute timer on your phone, one that bleeps every minute for 5 mins, within each minute you aim to compete 20 push ups – so over 5 mins the aim is to complete 100 push ups. This is just a basic example, there are lots of other ways to implement EMOM, for example… you could try and do 3 exercises in 1 minute i.e. 10 squats, 10 push ups, 10 sit ups, and repeat for 10 mins. The options are endless!

One of my favourite EMOM challenges is the ski challenge…

Ski Challenge

Using a ski machine the aim is to…

• part 1 – burn 10 cals every minute for 5 mins (50 cals)
• 2 minute rest
• part 2 – burn 12 cals every minute for 5 mins (60 cals)
• 2 minute rest 
• part 3 – burn 14 cals every minute for 5 mins (70 cals)
• 2 minute rest 
• part 4 – burn 16 cals every minute for 5 mins (80 cals)

and keep going until you pretty much collapse – if you can do 5 mins on 16 cals per minute you’re very fit! 

Try some different EMOM workouts in your personal training sessions. 

#3 Competitions

I do competitions 2-3 x per year, for example last year I did a 12 week mini Olympics with all of my one to one personal training clients. Basically I set 12 different challenges, one per week, and recorded the times/scores for each client, then the winner won 2 x free personal training sessions with me.

For example…

• Week 1 – plank challenge – each client had to hold the plank for as long as possible
• Week 2 – burpee challenge – complete as many burpees as possible in 3 mins 
• Week 3 – wall squat challenge – hold a squat position against a wall for as long as possible 

I did this type of thing for 12 weeks, each client could see what other scores people got and it spurred them on to train harder and want to win. It meant that most clients did extra personal training session with me, and also trained harder and more frequently outside of our sessions – which meant better results. Give this a shot with your PT clients.

Thanks for reading, did you find this post helpful? If so please leave your comment below…

Nick 🙂 

P.S. if you’re a personal trainer and want some more free help, for example business tips, marketing, sales strategies, how to scale your PT business, make money from blogging, etc, etc then why not check out my blogs for personal trainers – there are over 80 articles on my site and I keep adding more articles each month. I have the knowledge and experience and want to help other personal trainers out there.  

You could also check out my e-book The Ultimate Guide To Building Your Personal Training Business – which is an 85 page ebook that teaches you everything: from marketing your PT business, to picking up clients without spending money, to building a solid brand, and a business that generates more money (60k + per year), it’s basically everything i’ve learned since I started LEP Fitness 7 years ago!

About Nick 

Sheffield personal trainer Nick Screeton has completed over 10,000 one to one personal training sessions at his private personal training studio in Sheffield. Nick has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the fitness industry. As well as helping clients on a one to one basis Nick also helps other personal trainers grow their businesses, teaching fellow coaches how to get better results with their clients, increase business turnover, and scale their business. If you want to contact Nick please email him at nick@lepfitness.co.uk or click here