One of the biggest questions we hear in private is how to overcome feeling like an imposter in the gym, especially when people are exposed to so many experts, influencers, and fit people online. When I was working as a personal trainer at a commercial gym, I spent my first 2 years wrestling with this challenge before I finally developed a sense of confidence in the gym. This article will share the main lessons and breakthroughs I’ve learned to help you on your journey ahead.
Let’s set the scene and imagine you just finished your qualification to become a personal trainer. You’ve signed a 1-year commitment to pay rent to your gym, and you’re ready to build your client base. But you look around and notice the other trainers have been there far longer than you. Some trainers have over 10 years of experience, some have Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Exercise science, while some have achieved a high level of fitness. How does someone build a presence in such a competitive space? This was the question I asked myself in 2016 during my first year as a personal trainer, which made me realise that I needed help.
Mentorship is very common when you start off as a personal trainer, and the popular opinion at my gym was to be mentored by the most experienced trainer there. However, there was one particular trainer I was always drawn to during my time at the gym. This trainer had less years of experience, a lower level of fitness qualification, and he wasn’t muscular or ripped. But he always maintained a busy schedule with his regular clients. I started to wonder, how was he doing this? I figured he had to be doing something right, so I approached him and asked him to be my mentor.
After a few months of mentoring, I realised my imposter syndrome was based on a very false assumption. I assumed that clients would pick a trainer based on their qualifications, their knowledge, their years of experience, or their own personal fitness achievements. While each of these things do matter, what I missed completely was the human element. The ability for a trainer to empathise with their client, to build a strong relationship over time, to be invested in helping them succeed, and to be relatable. I realised this was the reason my mentor was successful, and I decided to become invested into building good relationships at my gym.
2 years later, I reached a place in my business where I didn’t need to worry about getting or keeping clients. My clients stayed with me for most of my 5-year tenure, and they would often refer new clients to me through their personal network. Of course, I do need to acknowledge that building relationships alone will not be enough to thrive in the fitness industry. Outside of working with clients, I spent my time reading up on training methodologies, attending additional training, and applying these learnings in the gym to expand my toolkit. A level of competence is still needed, but this is something you can develop over time.
An easy way to start is to identify your ‘circle of competence’. The knowledge and skills you have accumulated so far will sit inside this circle, where the things you want to become better at will sit outside this circle. Over time, this circle of competence will expand through experience. Having this simple framework will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses as a trainer. Much like comparing iPhones to Android phones, every product or service has their strengths and weaknesses when compared with each other. It’s okay to have weaknesses in this industry, as one person cannot be all things to all people.
Becoming aware of what you are good at will help you know when you’re playing to your strengths, and when you need to be forthcoming about your weaknesses. For example, I used to tell clients that I am well-researched in eating for fat loss, however I don’t have the knowledge or experience to prepare them for a bodybuilding or physique competition. In a space full of big promises, clients and prospects will appreciate your honesty. But the beauty of being honest about where you are is that it allows you to have confidence in your position. It’s hard to be secure if you’re claiming to be the world’s greatest trainer, but if you make more accurate claims you can stand more firmly behind your promise.
But How Knowledgeable do I need to be?
Expertise is certainly useful, but not all of it can be applied. This is because we typically encounter 2 types of problems when undertaking a fitness journey: Technical Challenges and Adaptive Challenges. Technical challenges involve knowing what we need to do, while Adaptive challenges are more personal. This is when I know what to do, but I just can’t seem to do it.
As a general rule of thumb, beginner clients will encounter more Adaptive challenges than Technical ones. For example: Missing gym sessions, feeling too shy or intimidated in a gym, or lacking self-belief in their ability. The technical challenges are often quite simple – Perform a variety of exercises involving different joint actions, develop multiple fitness components for general fitness, avoid exercises your body does not agree with, etc. On the other hand, an advanced client has learned to regulate their training quite well, and these types of clients do require more specialised knowledge.
Because a majority of gym clients are at a beginner stage of development, you will find most clients will be very accessible to you as someone new to this field. Working with a client will bring its lessons, and these learnings will expand your circle of competency over time to take on more difficult cases.
Lastly, I’ve seen trainers at all different levels experience imposter syndrome due to the number of high performers we’re exposed to. I’ve also experienced this myself as someone who was never the sporty kid (I was the arts kid in high school). As you might have learned in your own fitness journey, the unfit version of you would be surprised to learn what the fit version of you can do. But it didn’t happen all at once, it was one thing at a time. Finishing Cert 3 is actually quite straight-forward, but developing expertise is a larger vision that happens over time. Fortunately, what you will have by the time you finish will likely be enough to help many people. I hope this helps in some way!
Eddie Han
AFA Student Support Officer
