The PT Roadmap

A weekly newsletter for personal trainers to guide you to become a better coach and build a better business.

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In today’s issue:

✅ One business tip

❌ One coaching tip

✅ One exercise recommendation

✅ One coaching cue

❌ One social post worth your time

Let's get into it!

Better Business

What should personal trainers post on social media?

Since starting 1-1 mentoring out on my own, one of the biggest challenges I keep hearing about is knowing what to post on social media.

Knowing what to post can be overwhelming, so my goal in this section is to help you understand what things you should aim to post as a PT.

Let’s start with some content types. H/T to Justin Welsh for his blog on this subject, which I’ve expanded on to suit personal trainers.

You don’t need to cover all those, but it gives you a basic first step, knowing what you can cover.

Let’s take each one of those and give some examples.

Educate Me

Ben Carpenter is an excellent example of someone who produces high-quality educational content.

Ben’s videos are a perfect mix of education (typically covering nutrition & fat loss) and entertainment. They also encourage us to think and challenge commonly held beliefs.

Another creator who does a great job with education is Adam Meakins.

Adam differs from Ben because he usually uses writing instead of video and is more forward in calling misinformation out.

But his content always aims to teach.

Just ensure if you go for this style, you get tactical. Think: how to’s. People want to know how to apply stuff, so give them the necessary information.

Entertain Me

If you solely educate, you risk coming off as boring.

So, throwing in some entertainment (or a mix of the two - ‘edutainment’ - which both Ben & Adam do a great job of) can be helpful for keeping your audience bought into your message.

A creator I love for entertainment is Danielle LaBelle

You may have seen his videos on how to do different tasks when sprinting. The video above is spot on, showing how different professions walk.

Empathise With Me

Here’s a nice example of a piece of content that empathises with its audience from Simon Booth.

Any PT worth their salt knows this profession is way harder than people think. Simon’s video and caption empathise with PTs about how hard it is to make this career work.

This content style draws your reader in and says, “Hey, I see you, and I get what you’re going through.”

If you read something and think, “I thought it was just me!” you’re likely reading a piece of content heavy on empathy.

Motivate or Inspire Me

I love it when I read a piece of content that encourages me to do something positive.

Go try a new exercise out.

Be a better parent or partner.

Run my business in a better way.

Here’s a nice example of this from Elizabeth at This Woman Lifts.

Make me Think or Challenge me

This style of content doesn’t teach.

And nor does it entertain.

But it does make you stop and think “wow, I’ve never thought about it like that before!”

The author Michael Easter regularly does this to me with his content on health and getting outdoors.

Shows me You’re Good at What You do

It’s great if you’re sharing lots of educational content, but a missing link can be bridging this to the service you’re selling.

This is where content that proves to people you’re good at what you do comes in.

Also called social proof.

Testimonials, spotlights, client quotes, screenshots of quotes, client PBs, session milestones, case studies - all of these show your audience you are someone who can be trusted.

I really like how Paul Standell approaches this.

His style is anything but boring, and he mixes in some education, too, so it’s not just “look how great I am.”

Sean Armstrong Fitness, a gym based in Newcastle, is another example of excellent use of social proof. Most of Sean’s posts are about his gym members and their achievements.

How to Decide What to Post

For most PTs, you’ll want to lean on what you’re good at (education is often the simplest one to start with, as you spend a chunk of your day doing that with your clients anyway.)

And if you’re entertaining or think you’ve got an angle or observation others will resonate with, put it out there.

If you want clients, you’ll also need to throw in some social proof.

The key, especially if you’re new to content, is to experiment.

The more reps you get in, the better.

Does Content Format Matter?

Video is all the rage on Instagram just now, but do you need to do video?

Nope.

I don’t do videos. I hate doing them, and they take me forever, so I stick with written content like Tweets and carousels.

As long as your message is good and presented clearly, you can create any kind of content that will get attention.

I hope this section has given you some inspiration for the kinds of posts you can create and some examples of the people in our industry doing it well already. I spend a minimum of 60 minutes per week looking for inspiring content. Whenever I see something I like, I save it and come back to it. Many of my best pieces of content have come from templates I’ve seen others use, and I just put my spin on them. So, I hope this does similar for you.

One Exercise Variation

This Week’s Exercise: Hollow-Body Hold Single-Arm Press

This is one of those deceiving exercises your clients will love and hate equally.

Assuming your client has nailed the hollow body hold position for a solid 60 seconds, this is a way to make it more difficult.

And get some extra horizontal pressing work in, too.

Get into a hollow body hold position, grab one dumbbell or kettlebell and press it on each side. I like to do sets of 6-8 as part of a core circuit or as a filler exercise for a client who loves to do core work.

One Coaching Cue

Recommended Cue:

“Ensure your elbows sit under the dumbbells and just in front of your shoulders as if you were holding two waiters trays.” - H/T Nick Winkelman

What is it for?

Overhead dumbbell shoulder press.

I’m sure you’ve had a client press dumbbells and have their wrists and elbows end up in weird positions.

This cue helps keep everything stacked like we all like to see.

Thanks so much for reading.

Until next Friday, Stuart.

Here is how I help in-person PTs like you build businesses they love:

1-1 Mentoring

I work closely with in-person PTs to help them fix & grow their business so it’s profitable and with a schedule they don’t hate.

It is 100% 1-1.

I don’t do group stuff.

I don’t have staff I pass you off to.

I don’t sell you one thing and give you another.

This is 1-1 mentoring where I work with you just like you do your 1-1 clients.

I’ll get to know you and your business before I offer any advice, and we’ll work together to make a plan that gets your business looking and feeling how you want it.

Then, we’ll talk on the phone every single week.

I don’t hold punches on these calls; you’re paying me for help and support. I'll tell you if you’re not doing something I think you should be. If your content isn’t good enough, I’ll tell you. If you tell me you want one thing but keep doing another, I’ll point that out.

Many PTs just need someone to tell them to do what they know they need to do. This is why it’s 1-1 and not a group because the 1-1 piece is essential to staying accountable and pushing things forward.

If you’re interested in chatting about how I can help, hit reply, and we’ll set up a free 30-minute consultation.