What are the best ways to keep people motivated during exercise and between training?

Positive reinforcement helps telling them they're doing well or showing good technique things like that can aid motivation as if you feel your doing well at something your more likely to want to continue to do it. Other things could be keep mentioning goals you can use session specific goals, short term goals and even long term goals as this should make them want to continue and drive towards their goals! I suppose there's not a generic answer as everybody is different and different people are motivated in different ways intrinsic/extrinsic etc so I'd say its all about getting to know the person you're training and what makes them tick and working from there. It could be beneficial for you as a trainer to do a little research on psychology and also on goals/target setting as this will give you a more in depth idea on some of the things I've mentioned.

Hi Vicky,

First and foremost, keep the exercise fun! We all chose to pursue careers in fitness because we enjoy being active and exercising. Most people cringe when they think about exercise because their only experiences were either in gym class growing up, or in the case of my patients, basic training when they were in the military; neither experiences usually generate happy memories.

I have my patients take an active role in their exercise prescriptions. I ask them what exercise they enjoy, avoid activities that they don’t like, and have them be active participants in the progression of their exercise program. This empowers them and increases their self efficacy and they’re more likely to buy into their exercise program if they’re an active participant.

Second, I acknowledge with my patients that it is difficult to adopt a new behavior and that there will be false starts and they will fall off of the bandwagon, and that’s OK. The trick is to work with your clients to identify their own personal barriers for not maintaining a regular exercise program and to help them strategize ways to overcome those barriers. Remind them that they are constantly negotiating with themselves about how to fit exercise into their daily lives and some days they will be more successful than others. If there aren’t strategies to overcome barriers that have prevented someone from remaining active, willpower simply won’t be enough.