FSHP Academy
Personal Training (ACE-aligned) — all lessons

Introduction

Role and scope of practice for personal trainersIntegrated fitness training models (ACE IFT framework)

A Client-Centred Approach

Basics of behaviour changeEffective communication, goal setting and teaching techniquesPreparticipation health screeningNutrition for health and fitness

Assessments, Programming and Progressions

Resting assessments and anthropometric measurementsCardiorespiratory training: physiology, assessments and programmingMuscular training: foundations and benefitsMuscular training: assessmentsIntegrated exercise programming: from evidence to practice

Programme Modifications for Special Considerations

Considerations for clients with obesityConsiderations for clients with chronic diseaseExercise considerations across the lifespanConsiderations for clients with musculoskeletal issues

Professional Responsibilities

Legal guidelines and business considerations

Effective communication, goal setting and teaching techniques

Rapport, active listening and motivational interviewing; SMART and process goals; and teaching methods and cueing that help clients learn movement skills.

Beginner Evidence: Strong evidence 3 min read Reviewed 2026-10-31 Status: draft

Learning objectives

  • Use active listening and open questions to build rapport
  • Apply core motivational interviewing skills
  • Set outcome, performance and process goals using SMART principles
  • Teach movements with demonstrations, cues and feedback that support learning

Before this lesson

Why this matters

Programmes only work if clients understand them, believe in them and can perform the movements. Communication and teaching skills are therefore as important as exercise science knowledge.

Fundamental concepts: communication

  • Rapport — trust and understanding, built by attention, empathy and consistency.
  • Active listening — attending fully, paraphrasing, checking understanding.
  • Motivational interviewing (MI) — a collaborative style that strengthens the client’s own motivation for change [mi2013]. Core skills (OARS): Open questions, Affirmations, Reflections, Summaries.
Instead of…Try…
“You need to do cardio.”“What kind of activity have you enjoyed in the past?”
“Why didn’t you train?”“What got in the way this week?”
“That’s wrong.”“Let’s try it with this change and see how it feels.”

Goal setting

Goal-setting research shows that specific and challenging goals, with commitment and feedback, outperform vague or easy goals [locke2002].

  • Outcome goals — results (e.g., lose 5 kg).
  • Performance goals — measurable personal standards (e.g., walk 5 km in 45 min).
  • Process goals — behaviours the client controls (e.g., three sessions per week).

Make goals SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound. Process goals keep motivation alive when outcomes are slow.

Teaching movement

  1. Explain the purpose briefly.
  2. Demonstrate clearly from a useful angle.
  3. Let the client try, with one key cue.
  4. Give feedback, focused and positive, then repeat.

Cues that direct attention to the movement’s effect (external focus — “push the floor away”) generally improve performance and learning compared with cues about body parts (internal focus — “contract your quads”) [wulf2013] [chua2021].

Common mistakes and misconceptions

Case study

A client struggles with deadlift setup. The trainer replaces five internal cues with one external cue — “push the floor away and keep the bar dragging up your legs” — and films a set. The client self-corrects after viewing, and technique holds in later sessions without reminders.

Further learning: video lessons

Video links are only marked “verified” after a human has watched them. Unverified entries open a YouTube search for that channel and topic rather than a guessed link.

Introductory needs verification — opens a YouTube search

Motivational interviewing basics

MI trainers (search)

You will understand: OARS skills in practice

Why: Demonstrates the conversation style.
Technical needs verification — opens a YouTube search

Internal vs external focus of attention

Gabriele Wulf lectures (search)

You will understand: how cue wording changes learning

Why: Primary researcher.

Knowledge check

Knowledge check · 0/5

1. Which is an open question?

Answer B. Open questions invite elaboration.

2. OARS in motivational interviewing stands for…

Answer B. These are the core communication skills of MI.

3. Goal-setting research (Locke & Latham) found the best performance with goals that are…

Answer B. Specific, difficult goals with commitment and feedback lead to higher performance.

4. “Push the floor away” is an example of…

Answer B. It directs attention to the effect on the environment.

5. Which is a process goal?

Answer B. Process goals describe behaviours the client controls.

Short-answer & application questions

  1. Rewrite “get fit” as a SMART goal with one outcome and two process goals.
  2. Role-play an MI conversation with a client who is unsure about joining a gym.
  3. List three external cues for a hip hinge.

Key takeaways

  • Listening more than talking builds rapport and reveals real motivations.
  • Motivational interviewing uses open questions, affirmations, reflections and summaries (OARS).
  • Specific, challenging, achievable goals improve performance more than vague “do your best” goals; combine outcome and process goals.
  • External-focus cues tend to improve movement learning compared with internal-focus cues.

Connected topics

strength conditioning

Fundamentals of coaching in strength and conditioning

functional training

Designing functional and group training programmes

geriatric fitness

Behavioural coaching, communication and adherence

References

  1. Miller WR, Rollnick S (2013). Motivational Interviewing: Helping People Change (3rd ed.). Guilford Press. Textbook check pending
  2. Locke EA, Latham GP (2002). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: a 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9):705–717. Narrative review check pending
  3. Wulf G (2013). Attentional focus and motor learning: a review of 15 years. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 6(1):77–104. Narrative review check pending
  4. Chua LK, Jimenez-Diaz J, Lewthwaite R, Kim T, Wulf G (2021). Superiority of external attentional focus for motor performance and learning: systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 147(6):618–645. Meta-analysis check pending

Educational content only — not medical advice. Consult a qualified clinician for diagnosis or treatment.