This article first appeared in CanFitPro magazine A number of years ago I got curious about why it was that some clients who were exercising regularly and eating less (and more healthily) would simply ‘fail’ to meet their weight-loss goals. Were they secretly eating more than they were letting on? Did they just need to work harder? Did we need to do more CV / less resistance or vice verse? And on it went. Most of these clients had a history of ‘failing’ and had spent a fortune on gym memberships which they had never exploited; now they were working with me, and ..’failing’ – worse still, others dropped out completely. For some clients the annual fitness quest had become part of a pattern that wasn’t getting them the results they wanted - and I didn’t have the answers.
It was then that I discovered that I had been asking the wrong questions. My professional supervisor told me about NLP. She explained that both my work with clients and my questions, were concerned only with the client’s behaviour, that is, with what the client was doing, or not doing. At no point was I intervening, or was I able to intervene, at a higher level and work with the client’s thoughts and feelings in order to facilitate the process of change. The behavioural approach that I had adopted, as practised throughout the Fitness Industry, was severely limited; it simply did not allow for whom my clients perceived themselves to be, and the values and beliefs they held.
Realising that I was in fact poorly equipped to be working with what is essentially change management I made the decision to train in NLP. As I sat and listened on my Practitioner Training, I experienced one ‘Light Bulb Moment’ after another. I had discovered the missing link; having skills in NLP would enable me to work with my client’s minds and not just their bodies. I would be able to help those clients whose beliefs about themselves and what they were capable of had got in the way of them achieving their fitness goals. I would be able to help clients to be more confident and break habits.
Interestingly, a little research revealed that in fact (and not coincidentally), some of the best names in fitness had already discovered NLP and were using it successfully. However the tendency was to keep very quiet about what it was they were using – seeing it as their secret weapon – if you like - in today’s competitive market. My take on it was slightly different – being aware of the difference NLP could make to people’s lives in terms of helping them make the changes they so desired, I asked myself how I could reach as many ‘clients’ as possible. The answer was very clear – I wanted to make other fitness industry professionals aware of the huge potential benefits of NLP and to train other personal trainers in NLP skills they could use with clients. In this way ultimately more people would benefit from this wonderful resource.
My vision was to train other Fitness Professionals. ‘Dare to Dream’ was the motto of the training organization, and I did just that.
Five years on, that dream has become a reality. There can be no greater advertisement for the potential benefits of NLP. Fitness Unlimited is recognised as the market leader in specialist NLP training for Fitness Professionals and, as founder of the business, I have become spokesperson for NLP within the Industry.
Using NLP as a complementary tool in the fitness arena is a concept whose time has come
I now understand that the ‘doing everything right / getting nowhere fast’ phenomenon can be simply explained – if a client ‘sees’ themselves as being an overweight person and they have difficulty believing that they can ever be anybody other than an overweight person – their attempts will almost certainly fall short of what they could achieve.
It really is a question of mind over matter - or not - as the case may be. What NLP offers are effective techniques which address and resolve deeper issues making that change possible - and if clients got more of what it is they want….results .. the industry as a whole would see unprecedented expansion. Certainly if the industry’s managers believe that they can increase profitability by enhancing the service we provide they would do well to consider offering a more integrated, mind-body approach as a way forward.
On a more personal level, I believe we are enormously privileged in our position as Fitness Professionals – on a daily basis we meet the challenge of and are given the opportunity to help people effect real and lasting change in their lives. That is an honour, I would suggest, that we might strive to fulfil to the best of our ability.
NLP is about how we learn everything, from excellent performance to bad habits. It helps people understand, at a practical level, how they and others make sense of the world. It enables people to detect their own learned patterns of thought and behaviour, and where desirable it has the tools to change, or reprogramme, negative patterns with more positive ones. Understanding and using NLP enables people to enhance their confidence and effectiveness in both their personal and professional lives. People become clear about what they want, solve ‘problems’ creatively, use time more effectively and achieve their goals. As such, NLP is used widely and with outstanding results in a diverse range of fields from advertising and marketing, to communications and therapy.
Case Study
Female
Goal : Weight Loss
Histrory : yo-yo dieting, weight problem since early teens
This particular client had previously achieved substantial results on more than one occasion working with a personal trainer; however client would reach a certain point and then stop her program – this had become a pattern. She would then gain back the weight she had lost and gain more.
This pattern was identified during the initial consultation.
The client progressed well, losing a considerable amount of weight and achieving measurable gains in her fitness. This was achieved through a combination of healthy eating and regular, consistent exercise sessions.
After 4 months client reached a plateau; when she lost a few pounds by the following week she would have gained them. Following a successful weigh in she would miss sessions and her diet it was reported deteriorated. The client reported that this was how she had ‘let herself down before’.
The client’s trainer tried all of the standard techniques to overcome this phase; however these were all on a behavioural level , for example, change in programme, increase in intensity, and had no effect. The client was becoming increasingly frustrated, and her trainer was concerned that she would discontinue her attempts.
At this stage the trainer decided to use NLP with the client as it became apparent that suggesting various changes she could make at the behavioural level was not going to be enough.
The client was currently at the lightest she had ever been, and previously it was always at this point that she had sabotaged her programme. The trainer asked how she had seen herself when at the beginning she had visualised herself after losing weight.
The client revealed that she had only ever been able to imagine/see herself at around this current weight; she was not able to imagine/see herself as any lighter or smaller. She was adamant however that she wanted to lose more weight, and that this wasn’t where she wanted to be.
Essentially this client was unable to identify with being a smaller size because it was so unknown to her. It didn’t fit with her sense of self. She had never been that size and so didn’t actually believe that she could ever get there. This was the point that she had, in her view, previously failed at, so not only expected but in fact had conditioned herself to stop when she got here. She had a limiting belief that she was never going to be any lighter or slimmer than she was now. Her sabotage of the programme was designed to ensure that she could not move on, and in so doing maintain her belief.
Using NLP she achieved great results over a relatively short period of time. The particular techniques which enabled this success were Fit, Healthy Future ( an adaptation of a Suzi Smith’s Compelling Future timeline technique) ; a Submodality Belief Change technique and Robert Dilts linguistic Belief Chaning Technique. Using timeline work the client was able to revise her sense of self and create a new lighter, slimmer image of herself which she then began to feel comfortable with. The belief change work would help her unravel the sense that it wasn’t possible for her to change, and replace this belief with the sense that it was possible. Happily the outcome was successful, she lost more weight and is still exercising regularly.
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