It’s one thing to gain new clients—and an entirely different task to hang on to them over the long-term. Client retention is, as many will tell you, more of an art than a science—and some trainers are definitely masters. Here, several top pros share their secrets for ensuring their clients keep coming back, week after week.

ACE-certified Personal Trainer Nicole Copare shares her story of why she decided to become an ACE Health Coach and how this one decision has had a huge impact on both her career and her ability to help improve the health and well-being of her clients.

Could you be inadvertently scaring off your clients, simply by the names you use to describe the exercises you recommend? Fitness expert Jonathan Ross thinks so and has proposed a new set of rules for describing and naming exercises, which will help clear up confusion and prevent clients from feeling intimidated by exercises that sound more frightening than functional.

You may have heard that obesity is now being recognized as a disease instead of as a condition, but how does that affect you? Learn what this new designation may mean to both the general population and to those who work within the health and fitness industry.

This is the first installment of an ongoing series highlighting how people in a wide range of industries are using their ACE Health Coach certification to expand their careers. Here, physical therapy assistant Stephanie Longson explains why she was inspired to become an ACE Health Coach, and how the tools and knowledge she gained has enabled her to assist her clients in making positive, lasting lifestyle changes.

Tragic and senseless acts such as the Boston Marathon bombings can leave many people feeling traumatized and stressed, even if they have no personal connections to the incident. If you find your clients are struggling to deal with these recent events, Dr. Michael Mantell explains how you can help them utilize wellness tools to cope with the emotional aftermath of this horrific tragedy.

Could the words you use with your clients be causing more harm than good? While words like “shredded” or “ripped” are common in the fitness industry, they may not have the same appeal to other, less performance or appearance-driven clients. Learn how to modify your language and better connect with your clients as you help them achieve their health and fitness goals.

When it comes to making a workout more enjoyable, nothing quite matches the power of music. And the science proves it—from increasing intensity and reducing how difficult exercise feels, to enhancing explosiveness and lactate clearance during recovery, music improves nearly every aspect of working out.

Looking for ways to maximize your workouts and shake things up a bit in 2013? Here are 5 great tips for rejuvenating your exercise routine, increasing your motivation and getting off those dreaded plateaus.

Setbacks and unexpected life events are inevitable, but they don’t have to completely derail your clients’ efforts or progress. Here is some important advice for how to help your clients keep moving forward, no matter what life throws at them.

The New Year’s rush is almost here—that time of year when healthy resolutions send droves of people to the gym. But by mid-February or so, many of them have already abandoned their efforts. ACE Exercise Physiologist Pete McCall offers some great tips for how you can maximize the New Year’s resolution rush and develop clients who will stay with you for the long haul.

The human tendency to think and act in extremes is particularly common in the fitness industry. ACE Fitness Expert Jonathan Ross discusses the tendency for fitness professionals to “ride the pendulum” from one extreme to the other in regards to abdominal and cardiorespiratory exercises, and shares tips on how to avoid this behavior.

If you believe your clients follow every piece of advice you give, chances are you’re probably wrong. Struggling with clients who resist changing their behavior – even if it means living a happier, healthier lifestyle – is something most everyone experiences. Check out some key strategies you can help overcome your clients begin to embrace the changes you recommend.

Why would your clients settle for a Model-T when they could have a new Corvette? Don’t use the old model of personal training; be a coach. Explore how going beyond biomechanics and exercise program design can help your clients achieve more, and build your business in the process.

It’s inevitable that clients will ask you about weight loss. After all, it’s one of the most common health and fitness goals. And with the diet industry’s heavy marketing efforts out there, you can be sure you’ll have to answer questions about popular fad diets, too.

Since fewer than two in 10 Americans get the recommended levels of exercise, and more than 25% of U.S. adults do not devote any time to physical activity, there was likely a sudden rush of new members and former recommitted clients at your gym at this new year. Many of these new gym-goers are probably also leaping into levels of exercise intensity that may have a negative impact on adherence. Learn how to ensure you'll be training new and recommitted clients through Valentine's Day.

There are 6 million pregnancies throughout the US every year, with just over 4 million live births and nearly 2 million pregnancy losses, according to the American Pregnancy Association. The likelihood is great that you will be privileged to serve as a fitness coach for a pregnant woman. How can you train them effectively?

Some fitness trainers make “safe and effective exercise programming decisions” for their clients while others who have more of a coaching mindset go one layer deeper and unlock their client’s potential, helping them learn how to enhance wellbeing and performance. Find out how you can take your training to the next level.

With nearly 40% of adults not exercising sufficiently, and 50% of those who do begin an exercise program discontinuing within the first six months, obtaining and keeping clients can be a major business hurdle for fitness trainers. Become a fitness professional, however, and that hurdle might not be so challenging. Find out what that entails.

If you aren’t hearing what your clients are thinking above the general commotion on the gym floor, you will miss important cues in both assisting them to achieve their fitness goals and to effectively promote their adherence to training — both business building necessities.

It is no secret that today’s youth are more sedentary, overweight, and at risk for lifelong ailments. They need mentors who are going to lead by example and help them to develop positive relationships with physical activity that will make it a habitual part of their lives.

When it comes to linking mind-body awareness for your clients, one key element to teach is a degree of “mental toughness.” That means, in part, exterminating “ANTs” that your client may bring to your training session.

When you hear, “to run faster,” “build endurance,” “to lose body fat,” or to “get thinner,” besides thinking about structuring an integrated fitness training program, do you ever wonder if these performance goals are thinly disguised indicators of anorexia athletica? Probably not, given that compulsive exercisers are often erroneously honestly mistaken for people with an enviable, deep commitment to exercise. They are far from that, pushing the threshold of distance, intensity or duration beyo

Truly outstanding and distinguished personal trainers can stand out. They act on an understanding that physical training, fitness, and well-being—happinesss—are intimately entwined, closely related and have a direct link. They bring current thinking on mind and body enhancement and expansion into every interaction with their clients whether in the gym, boot camp, group ex, home training, goal setting, and relationship development collaboration.

When I was training and teaching group fitness fulltime I was a big education junkie and would always be reading the latest industry literature to learn strategies and techniques for helping clients to achieve goals or design fun and challenging classes. Rather than spending down time in the gym where it might be perceived that I was slacking off during work (even though I was only paid while training clients) it made more sense to me to would use a local Starbucks as my office to catch up on wh

It’s been said that the most important element of communication is to hear what isn’t being spoken. When it comes to the all important ingredient of building trust (visceral) and credibility (intellectual) during the rapport building phase of creating a healthy client-trainer alliance, you would do well to rely on Jimi Hendrix’ adage, “Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”

Rapport with clients is necessary for designing effective exercise programs of the ACE IFT model. Understanding the psychological and emotional needs and characteristics of clients forms the base upon which to build this rapport.