Summary: There’s more than nutrition and fitness coaching you can offer clients. The new evolution of fitness is a one-stop shop for wellness improvements and studio owners are in a unique position to offer these two new emerging coaching services.
It’s standard in the fitness industry to provide nutrition coaching to clients. This is behavior-based coaching that doesn’t require a nutrition degree. Some fitness business owners will charge extra for this, while others will include it as part of their total programming option. However, there are alternative coaching options you can provide members and clients. For some, you can do with the knowledge base you currently have. Others, you’ll have to earn an advanced fitness specialization or hire a fitness staff team member who can carry out the service for you. Regardless, the future of fitness studios is a one-stop shop for offering services that improve an individual’s health and fitness levels. Therefore, explore these alternative coaching services you can bundle into a fitness program option, or offer as an additional service on top of your current plans.
Each of these coaching services is made successful with routine follow-up. Therefore, Naamly’s coaching software is the ideal place to store not only baseline information about a client, but also the coaching notes obtained from each session spent together. It also provides the best way to reach clients on an ongoing basis to provide education, motivation, and accountability to their overall fitness goals. Collectively, these things allow your business to be a complete solution, which is the key to fitness client retention and one of the many pro tips for running a fitness business.
Health Coaching
Health and wellness are also impacted by sleep, specific food choices, hydration, and recovery. Therefore, a client looking to achieve total health and wellness should also be keeping a close eye on other factors. Sleep, nutrition, and water are part of the healthy habits tracked by Naamly’s software, making it an easy addition to a fitness business owner’s program offerings.
A certified health coach can also work with the client’s medical professional or healthcare team to create a holistic experience and goal. For example, most clients who arrive with goals of losing body fat also have markers other than numbers on the scale that need to change. This includes blood sugar, lipid profiles, and blood pressure readings to name a few. Therefore, if you or your fitness staff members work closely with the client’s physician, you’re able to accomplish even more than just fitness program design.
The best way to integrate this into your current offering is to provide it as a premium package. Most clients won’t be coming to you just for health coaching services. So, an additional 10 – 20% beyond your traditional program not only increases your revenue, but it also offers more value to the client. It also creates a form of commitment on behalf of the client. They’re getting everything they need from your business to carry out a healthier lifestyle. Therefore, it’s more likely they’ll continue to renew with you as part of their ongoing journey to health.
As part of a health coaching service, you’ll be working to combat chronic conditions and be part of the Exercise Is Medicine movement. Therefore, this emerging service will become more in demand, and a fitness business owner can be at the forefront.
DNA-Based Fitness Coaching
The world of genetic testing has made its way into the fitness industry. This is because there are over 30 genetic profiles that impact a client’s ability to accomplish their fitness goals and feel better each day. Just a few of the genetic profiles available can inform an individual on the following factors:
- Endurance versus power. This includes whether a client’s genetic makeup makes them more able to excel at power or endurance activities, or a combination of both.
- Protein utilization. This indicates how well the body is able to absorb and use protein intake coming from food.
- Carbohydrate utilization. This indicates how well the body is able to absorb and use carbohydrate sources from food intake.
- Fat loss response to cardio. Everyone has the ability to lose body fat as a response to being in a calorie deficit. However, some individuals have a genetic makeup to go after stored body fat more readily than others.
- Impulse control to eating. As one ages, their ability to combat food temptations has the ability to change. This genetic marker will indicate whether a client is predisposed to having changes that could impact their ability to stick with a meal plan.
These are just a few of the factors that DNA can influence. There are more, including responses to caffeine, recovery, cholesterol responses to cardio, and even motivation to exercise.
Genetic testing companies that offer these types of reports will typically charge a health and fitness professional anywhere from $10 – $50 for the kit (a swab, instructions, and container) and $100 – $300 for the analysis and report. However, the analysis of the DNA doesn’t make much sense to a client or member who doesn’t understand how the body responds to fitness and nutrition. Therefore, a personal trainer or fitness studio owner can include a slight upcharge for the kit and analysis (the testing companies do), a cost for an interpretative session, and another cost for a total program design that accounts for the genetic results, fitness goals, and lifestyle preferences. Collectively, this can be an additional $500-$1,000 service offering a business owner can provide. Not to mention, this is a huge competitive advantage given it’s relatively new to the fitness industry and most business owners aren’t aware of how it works or how to integrate it into their programs.
The upside to the client is that they receive the most personalized program available. Additionally, it’s a one-time charge. An individual’s DNA doesn’t change over time. Therefore, once they receive the results, interpretive analysis, and program design they don’t need to pay for this again.