HOW TO WORK WITH
YOUR CLIENT’S
ACTIVITY TRACKER
F
itbits, Vivos and
Garmin, oh my!
Activity trackers
and multi-sport watches
are everywhere on the
market these days. We can
track our steps, calories,
distances, sleep patterns
and more all from a
convenient watch-sized
accessory that syncs to our
smart phone and sends us
daily reports of our progress.
The technology is fascinating, everdeveloping and always improving; but
where does that leave the humble PT in
a world of wireless heart rate monitors
and built in GPS? And how do we use
all this tech to our advantage when it
comes to helping our client achieve
results?
10
By Lynsey Fraser
Embrace the change
Time out
When I first qualified as a PT, pedometers
– the simple step counters – were only
just available on the market and food
diaries were kept in notebooks, which
were maybe emailed over to me once a
week (if I was lucky!).
We know that the time we spend with
our clients is only a small contribution to
their overall result – it’s not that one hour
we spend with them each week, but
ultimately how they live for the other 23
hours each day that will dictate their
success. And this is where an activity
tracker can be of great value.
I had a diary to track my client’s
sessions and a manual receipt book
to record payments, but as calendar
apps replaced diaries, and payment
gateways with auto invoicing replaced
docket books, the modern day trainer
must also adapt to the advantages that
technology such as activity trackers can
provide to us and our clients.
Technology is changing the way we
run our businesses and the way we
train our clients. I don’t believe that any
app, watch or tracker will ever replace
an actual trainer’s good old fashioned
hard work in a training session, but it can
help us gain valuable insight into our
client’s performance and, ultimately,
their results. Therefore, it’s time for us, as
trainers, to embrace the new technology
and use it to our advantage.
We can now access our clients even
when they are not under our watchful
eye. Most activity trackers have apps
that collate and store the information
picked up from the wearable device,
and this is usually synced, stored and
accessed using cloud technology. For us
trainers, what this means is that we can
access all of the info from our clients’
tracker as well – provided they agree to
share it with you, of course.
Many trackers also link to food tracking
apps like my Fitness Pal – so you can
literally log in and see your client’s steps,
calories burned, sleep and food all
collected from one handy device they
wear on their wrist (so long as they put in
a little work by logging the details into
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