YourClientsWon'tBeWhoYouExpect

Before you start working as a PT, you probably have a picture in your head of who your clients will be. Young people wanting to get in shape, perhaps. People who are already motivated, who show up ready to go and just need someone to point them in the right direction. The reality is usually something else entirely - and the sooner you make peace with that, the better the PT you will become.

The demographic almost nobody predicts

Charlie from Wade Fitness expected his clients to look like him - young, sporty, training for performance. When he actually built his diary, roughly half his clients turned out to be women aged 40 to 60. Not the demographic he had imagined, but as it turned out, one of the best he could have asked for. Similarly, Marcin found that about 80 per cent of his clients were women. Both PTs said the same thing: they were surprised at first, and then they were grateful.

The people who most reliably show up, do the work, follow the programme, and come back week after week tend not to be the 22-year-old who already loves the gym. They tend to be people who have a real reason to change something, who have perhaps struggled with their health or their confidence, and who genuinely trust you to help them. That trust is valuable. Do not take it for granted.

Why women are often the easiest clients to work with

This is something that comes up repeatedly among experienced PTs, and it is worth saying plainly. Women tend to come to sessions with less ego attached to the process. They are more likely to ask questions, admit when something does not feel right, and actually follow the advice they are given. Men - and this is a generalisation, but a useful one - often come in thinking they should already know how to do this. They have spent years watching football or going to the gym and have formed strong opinions about what training should look like, even when those opinions are working against them.

Marcin described it well: it is like expecting to drive a car before you have had a single lesson, but being too proud to admit you need one. The ego gets in the way of the learning. Women tend not to have that problem to the same degree. They ask better questions, take on coaching more readily, and often make faster progress as a result.

What this means for how you approach your work

Do not go into this job with a fixed picture of who your ideal client is. The people who will genuinely benefit from your help, who will refer their friends, who will stick with you for years - they may look nothing like what you imagined. Stay open. Be equally prepared to work with a 55-year-old woman managing a knee replacement as you are to work with a 25-year-old who wants to add 10 kilos to their deadlift. The diversity of your client base is one of the best parts of this job, if you let it be.