Personal Training 13b: overweight clients

This post is part of an ongoing series about my learning process as I train to become a personal trainer.

In this part of the series, I’m going to consider how to put together a personal training programme, which is essentially a large part of the deliverable that a client is actually paying for, unless you are a fantastic cheerleader and your client has zero will-power without you there to cheer them on.

And in this particular post, I’m focussing on what happens to that training programme when the client is overweight.

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Where to look for guidance

Since this is not an population that I have much experience of, and since my training course was dumb on the subject, I am looking to some of my favourite sources of training information for guidance.  Here are the resources I have identified… 

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#1: Mike Boyle

In this article, Mike makes some incredibly astute points, which seem obvious the moment he says them:

• For the overweight person, getting the psychology right is paramount.  The client will almost certainly have tried and failed before.  They need to know that you are on their side and you are working together to beat the problem.Therefore, becoming part of their support structure may be the key to getting it right this time.
• Nutrition is the most important factor: as their personal trainer, you have to figure out ways to get them to eat less (particularly carbs)
• Athletic workouts are the opposite of helpful.  Foam rolling, stretching and core work are out.  Walking, complexes and strength circuits are in.

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#2: Dean Somerset

In part one of his article about training the very overweight client, Dean raises two key issues:

• There will be other complications.  The overweight client may well be suffering from knee pain, perhaps some gout, diabetes and maybe hypertension to boot.  These will affect their dietary habits, their mobility and stability and their ability to recover from workouts.
• It is important to build confidence and commitment by starting out light and not making the client sore in the early workouts.  This helps compliance and belief in the programme.

In part two,  Dean notes:

• Making the client sore can be doubly ineffective as it can give them a reason to reach for the comfort food
• Bodyweight loss can be used as a fairly accurate proxy for fat loss in their condition.

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#3: Lyle McDonald

Lyle McDonald has written a six part article on training the very overweight client.  As you might imagine, it is very comprehensive.  You can find the various parts here: (one, two, three, four, five and six).  In the course of his lengthy series, Lyle notes that:

• Metabolic syndrome tends to accompany being very overweight
• The major element of metabolic syndrome is insulin resistance, which can make people very hungry when they eat carbs
• The key to overcoming insulin resistance is a low-carb diet
• Cutting out all carbs except fruit and vegetables is the easiest way to ensure compliance
• Overweight people tend to have impaired mitochondrial function, which makes large volumes of exercise difficult
• Small amounts of exercise have little effect on fat loss as they burn too few calories
• However, untrained individuals improve quickly and can adapt to more effective levels of exercise quickly
• Overweight people tend to have increased levels of muscle mass, particularly in the legs
• Increased muscle mass means that it is not necessary to perform large amounts of strength training
• However, higher rep (15 – 20) weight training can be used together with a low-carb diet to create a fat-burning environment
• Avoiding getting the client sore in the early workouts is key to ensuring that they keep coming back

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Summing up

Having read the above, my summary approach for training the overweight client is now:

• Start by working out how you are going to get them to be compliant with whatever programme you set them on
• Then proceed to work out how to get them to eat fewer calories and fewer carbs
• Having sorted that, move on to exercise
• Start with gentle cardio, probably walking, and teach them the basics of some big, unweighted compound movements
• Build the compound movements into circuits or complexes with light weight and high reps
• Go easy at first

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My training programme template for overweight clients 

And, if you recall, my training programme template looks like this.  I note the key variances for overweight clients that I am planning in light of the above research:

1. Pulse raiser (if it cannot be integrated) – walk, with discussion of diet improvements to be made in the coming week
2. Mobility and stability warm up – standing movements for movement preparation and for teaching compound lifts to be performed later in the programme
3. Resistance training – free weights – circuits of high reps (15 – 20) with compound exercises
4. Cardiovascular training - walk, increasing in duration and intensity from week to week
5. Post-workout foam rolling and stretches - none

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Does anyone have any other pointers to share?