Your clients aren't lazy athletes, so don't train them like one

Let’s talk about something we don’t address enough in fitness: how general population clients — Gen Pop — are often misprogrammed, mislabelled, and misunderstood.

Here’s the truth: a huge portion of personal trainers didn’t choose to work with Gen Pop. They wanted athletes. They got Gen Pop by default.

No shade. But it shows.

If You Treat Gen Pop Like De-trained Athletes, You're Already Off Track

Athletes train to spend their energy on game day. The gym is supplemental.

For Gen Pop clients? The gym is their game. It’s the primary place they move, focus, challenge themselves, and grow.

If you treat them like lazy athletes — or worse, like injured athletes doing rehab from simply being deconditioned — you’re wasting their time and flattening their experience.

You don’t need to fix them. You need to train them.

"Rehab" for Deconditioning Isn’t Training — It’s Coddling

Unless your client is returning from surgery or dealing with a medical limitation, spending 20 minutes of their session on a foam roller in the fetal position isn’t always the play.

I’m all for gentleness, especially if someone’s new, anxious, or has trauma around movement. But too often, we confuse “safe” with “soothing,” and end up underdosing challenge in the name of safety.

Conditioning is corrective. Movement is medicine. Let them move.

No, They Don't Need a Snatch Progression

Please don’t take your client — who has two sessions a week and a full-time job — and make overhead snatches their main goal.

Cool skills are fun. But for Gen Pop clients, the fundamentals done well and progressed consistently are way more effective than chasing an advanced movement you personally love.

Olympic lifting is complex. It's neurologically taxing. And it eats time. The return on effort for a 45-minute window, twice a week? Low.

Save the fancy stuff for people with the bandwidth and desire.

Your Client Also Isn’t You

This one hits hard.

If you:

• Have elite mobility,

• Recover well,

• Respond quickly to training,

• Or just really enjoy exercise...

…chances are, that’s part of why you’re in the industry. Great. But don't forget that you're the exception, not the model.

Don’t project your response rate, biomechanics, or enthusiasm onto clients who didn’t fall in love with exercise by accident. They need time, belief, and a clear path — not your old PR sheet.

The Genetics Trap

This matters more than we admit.

If I, with my Celtic hips, walk into your studio and you promise me I’ll be doing full-depth squats or the splits in 12 weeks — I already know you don’t understand structural limitations.

A hip scour would show you I don’t have the passive range, let alone active mobility, for that kind of flexibility. I’m not broken — I’m just built differently.

So what happens when your client doesn’t hit the unrealistic promise?They assume they failed.They ghost you.They think they’re the problem.

And you lose someone who could have stayed with you for years — if they’d felt understood instead of judged.

The Real Flex Is Meeting People Where They Are

Training Gen Pop well takes more than regressions and empathy. It takes:

• Biomechanical curiosity

• Skillful progressions

• Nuanced programming

• Clear communication

• And inclusive, evidence-informed coaching

Don’t expect a desk worker to become a gymnast just because you did.

Start with who’s in front of you. Respect their goals, structure, schedule, and history. Then build from there — with them.

Gen Pop Isn't a Back-Up Plan — It's a Privilege

They’re not athletes-lite.They’re not rehab cases.They’re not “just regular people.”

They’re your biggest opportunity to make an impact.They challenge your creativity, your communication, your capacity to adapt.

And if you do it well? They’ll stay with you longer than any athlete ever will.

If any of this hit home — I train, mentor, and teach this stuff inside my courses and coaching. And I’d love to see more fit pros making Gen Pop feel like they belong.

Reach out if you want to build a training business that’s rooted in skill, nuance, and real outcomes — for real people.