Throughout the world, in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19, gyms and fitness studios have closed their doors. In response to these closures, many personal trainers and fitness instructors are taking their work online and hooking their clients up with entertaining at-home workouts. Others, like Trainerize, are providing resources to help trainers do just that.

For now, tuning into a live stream bodyweight workout or signing up for a digital class is novel, exciting, and accessible. Eventually, though, clients are going to start itching for some added interest.

To get ahead of this inevitable need to break out of the box, keep reading. Listed below are some tips on how you can help your clients shake things up with entertaining and effective at-home and out-of-the-gym workouts.

Spend Time Outdoors

It won’t take long for cabin fever to set in and, before you know it, your clients are going to be itching to bust out of their apartments and houses. In fact, many of them probably are already.

In either case, introducing outdoor training into your clients’ programs and offering suggestions to social media followers is a good way to break up the monotony of at-home workouts.

Spending time outdoors is great for your clients’ health, too. It can increase their vitamin D levels, which helps to improve their mood and bolster their immune systems. Try to get them outside during the day! If they’re working from home, it’ll provide a little energy boost halfway through their work day. Plus, less chance of busy parks (alright, social distancing!) and more chance of vitamin D!

Workout with the Kids

Lots of parents are struggling to find time to work out right now, especially because kids are home from school throughout most of the world. Make sure your clients know that they don’t have to choose between fitting in a workout and keeping their children entertained. They can get their kids involved and do both.

Clients can hold kids in their arms or on their backs while they do squats. Most kids can handle doing bodyweight and resistance band exercises, too. This is also a great time for parents (with your help) to teach them about safe exercise performance and get them excited about moving their bodies.

Make sure your clients know, too, that kids who are active when they’re young are more likely to grow up to be healthy adults.

Turn Workouts into Games

Look for ways to turn workouts into games for your clients. Some research shows that gamification increases motivation and can improve workout performance.

For example, you could have clients keep track of certain fitness milestones and then create workouts designed to help them beat them. Challenging them to break their push-up record or perform more rounds during an AMRAP workout is a great way to keep them motivated.

During your next live-streamed workout or class, you could also play the dice game. All you need is two dice. Pick a few exercises and roll the dice before each exercise to find out how many reps everyone has to do.

Invite Clients to “Bring a Friend”

Of course, during these times, your clients can’t actually bring friends to their workouts. The benefits of working out with friends are undeniable, though, and you can still help clients to connect and create social time (while also potentially attracting new clients for yourself) by inviting them to tag friends in social media workout posts.

You can also host video training sessions and ask them to invite a friend to join them. That way, they have a chance to catch up with their friend and do something fun together, but they’re not violating any rules about social distancing.

Create Challenges and Social Media Competitions

Finally, start planning fitness challenges to increase your clients’ engagement and increase their motivation. Like games, challenges can provide extra motivation and help clients stay engaged. This is especially true if they have a chance to win a great prize like a free training session or a discount on a new program.

Create a consistency challenge to get your clients motivated to show up and workout every day. You can even do something as simple as challenging them to take a post-workout selfie and tag you in it once they’ve finished exercising. These selfies create a sense of accountability and are great for helping your clients to monitor their progress.

Level Up Your At-Home Personal Training Today

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to make your online personal training more exciting. You can also keep your clients motivated even if you can’t train with them in-person or provide them with gym-friendly workouts. Keep these tips in mind and you’ll have a much easier time helping your clients continue working toward their fitness goals.

If you’re new to the world of online training, or if you just want to improve your work-from-home system, give Trainerize a try. We’ll help you stay organized, keep in touch with your clients, and simplify the payment process. Check it out today and get a free 30-day trial.