The difference between a Personal Coach and a Personal Trainer

Personal trainer is also a Personal Coach

Today we want to tell you a bit more about what makes a personal trainer also a personal coach. The term 'personal trainer' actually describes exactly the kind of work he does. He trains his clients personally, one-on-one, or in small groups with a lot of personal attention, towards a goal. These training sessions are always physical and varied. But what exactly does a personal coach do?

From trainer to coach and from coach to trainer

A trainer will always guide their client based on their professional knowledge of training and movement. They tell their client what and how to perform their workouts, how often, how intensely, and how progressively. A coach, on the other hand, does more; they look at the client's own needs and work with their client's own strengths. In other words, a coach views their client as the expert on their own life.

An example

Many of our clients want to get fitter and usually lose a few kilos as well. He can tell you a lot about nutrition, but the client himself knows what he eats in a day. That is why we always ask: “What do you think you need to change about your diet to lose weight?” That gets you thinking, and that is a completely different approach (coaching, in other words) than if, for example, we were to tell this client what is best for him to eat in a day. If we tell him what to do, that is called training; if we ask questions and work with the client's answers, that is called coaching.

Asking the right questions

One could therefore state that a coach asks a lot, but also asks the right questions of their client to find out what is going on and what is needed to help them. The difference, then, lies in the conversation. In that conversation, the sentences do not begin with “we think…”, but rather “what and why you do the things you do.”.

Not an hour a week, but 24/7

The unique thing about being a personal coach is that clients are guided not just for an hour a week, but 24/7. By allowing the client to tap into their own strength during coaching, they continue working on improved habits *after* the personal training sessions. After all, the client is the expert on themselves and therefore the expert on their own life. This creates a '24/7 coaching feeling'. How much service can you receive from a coach? Do you also want to experience what we can offer in personal coaching and feel how great it is to be coached 24/7?