30 Quotes for Personal Trainers to Inspire, Motivate, and Amuse

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Sometimes we all need a little motivation, whether you’re inspiring a client or you need to motivate yourself to get your business booming. Maybe you need to make your client laugh to keep them going when it all seems too hard.

So have a look at some of these quotes that can inspire you to stay on track to becoming a reknowned personal trainer, keep your clients engaged and keep yours and their sense of humour in good working order.

Quotes to Inspire You

“The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.”

Vidal Sassoon

Unless you are a wordy person, your business isn’t achieving any level of success without a lot of work.

¨The human body is the best picture of the human soul.¨

Ludwig Wittgenstein

And you get to be the artist for your clients, moulding the clay of every individual to create a beautiful work of art.

¨Success is what comes after your stop making excuses.¨

Luis Galarza

When it all seems too hard, and you keep thinking, “the market is too saturated” or “I can’t find my perfect clients”, get back on track and try a new approach. Would you take excuses from your clients?

“If something stands between you and your success, move it. Never be denied.”

Dwayne Johnson

There’s nothing you can say to “The Rock” that won’t make you sound small-minded and plain wrong. Love him or hate him; he has a way with motivational phrasing.

“You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”

Wayne Gretzky

Are you still thinking about starting your own fitness business? You aren’t going to succeed if you don’t even give it a shot.

Quotes to Motivate Your Clients

¨Look in the mirror. That’s your competition.¨ 

Be careful with this one. Unless you know your client well, you don’t understand how they see themselves in the mirror. However, it is essential to emphasise that they are training for themselves and they are the only person who can judge their success.

¨A feeble body weakens the mind.¨

There are many variations on this quote. One of the more well-known ones is “mens sana in corpore sano”, which means “a healthy mind in a healthy body”. Both mean the same thing: for the mind to work correctly, the body has to be healthy too. You can’t have one without the other.

¨Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.¨

John F. Kennedy

See, this is the same thing! It’s just in a different idiom. Choose the one that speaks to the type of person your client is.

¨Number one, like yourself. Number two, you have to eat healthy. And number three, you’ve got to squeeze your buns. That’s my formula.¨

Richard Simmons

For any self-improvement, you have to like yourself first. You don’t do great things and work hard for someone you don’t like.

“Nothing will work unless you do.”

Maya Angelou

She’s not wrong!

¨Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising, every time we fall.¨ 

Confucius

He might not be the biggest role model for most people at the gym, but his words are true enough for everyone and apply to every endeavour. When you fail to do ten push-ups, but you try again, that’s the tenacious spirit that is truly glorious.

“No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.”

Tony Robbins

Nope, he’s not a trainer, but he’s got the right idea.

¨Your current body is the only body that can take you to your new body — so be kind to it.¨

Elaine Moran

A warning to those who tend to overtrain in the first flush of enthusiasm. It’s your job to keep your clients training healthily and productively. There’s nothing guaranteed to make your client fall off the exercise wagon like injury and chronic pain.

“You have a choice. You can throw in the towel or you can use it to wipe the sweat off your face.”

If those are the choices, most people will choose to wipe the sweat off their faces first. It’s incredible how much better it feels to wipe the sweat away – before having another go.

“Your body can accomplish almost anything. It’s your mind that you need to persuade.”

The human body is an amazing machine; most people don’t realise just how powerful and astonishing it can be. Even after decades of abuse and mistreatment, it can still achieve astounding results and recover from its previous treatment. The mind is far more stubborn and inflexible than the body; that’s where so many clients need to focus their efforts.

The physical part is easy once the mind embraces the mission.

“If you can achieve victory over your body, no one in the world can exercise power over you.”

This is important. It’s not just about making your clients fitter and a better version of themselves; it’s empowerment.

Quotes to Keep a Sense of Humour

Sometimes when everything seems too hard, a good giggle is just the thing to get you back on course – even if your clients complain about aching stomach muscles afterwards.

“No matter how slow you sprint, you lap them all on the sofa.”

It’s true, but it also conjures a funny image of running past someone on the start line sitting on the sofa.

When the gym teachers gathered together, the term ‘aerobics’ came up and said: if we’re going to charge $10 an hour, we can’t call it ‘jumping up and down.’ — Rita Rudner

You have to love the idea of gym teachers trying to market aerobics as “jumping up and down”. I don’t think it would have had the same kind of following.

“If you’re on the treadmill next to me, the answer is yes, we are racing.”

“Exercising would be so much more rewarding if calories screamed when you burned them.”

Wouldn’t this be glorious? Listening to the tiny screams of calories being burned as you exercised. Unfortunately, it would get REALLY annoying considering we burn calories all the time.

“Q: How many bodybuilders does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: Three. One to do it and two to chant, “you’re looking huge man, you’re looking huge!”

How trainers can poke fun at themselves and a particular kind of client.

“It’s my workout. I can cry if I want to.”

If crying and letting out emotion is what they want to do, that’s fine. But other than that, it’s a nice play on song lyrics.

“If you still look cute after working out, you didn’t go hard enough.”

This is a hint to all those who like to think they are working out without a drop of sweat leaving their bodies or hair moving on their heads. If it’s not challenging them, it’s not achieving anything.

“Exercise in the morning before your your brain figures out what you’re doing.”

This is how to get your clients who say they hate working out to work out in the morning. Maybe it’s the only time they have, and they aren’t morning people.

“Making excuses burns zero calories per hour.”

I’m afraid that’s not right. Sitting and doing nothing burns calories, but making excuses will do nothing to work off the calories your clients truly want to burn.

Bonus: What to remove from your vocabulary. Now!

Some phrases and quotes have been commonly used with trainers for decades, but they need to be retired immediately. Not only because they can be harmful but because they will alienate your clients and drive them to someone else.

“No pain, no gain.”

Remove it from your vocab altogether. Teaching your clients to ignore pain sets them up for injury and long-lasting damage. Remember that your job is to train people SAFELY. Ignoring pain is not safe.

There is a difference between the burn or ache of hardworked muscles and genuine pain.

“Sweat is your fat crying.”

I’ve no idea who came up with this one or where the idea came from, but it’s rather disgusting.

“This exercise will get rid of [tummy] fat”

Just no!! You are supposed to be an expert on training and the body’s responses. While crunching until your clients can’t sit up will probably give them killer abs, the fat will remain on top because spot training does nothing to influence where people lose fat. Don’t lie to you your clients!

“You’re just being lazy today.”

Definitely not! People have off days, sleep poorly or start feeling a little off before coming down with a virus. Shaming people for not being robotic in their ability to maintain the same levels of effort and achievement is one way to alienate your clients.

“You’re doing that wrong”

If your clients knew what they were doing and could do everything right, they wouldn’t need you. They need you to tell and show them how to do things properly. Berating your clients for “doing something wrong” implies they should already know. And if they already know, they don’t need to pay for a trainer that has a go at them… You want to keep your clients, not drive them away.