Advice for Personal Trainers: Guidelines for Recruiting Clients Over 60

I'm a certified personal trainer and have found that men and women of senior age are the most difficult to recruit as new clients, even though many of them have more than enough money to purchase personal training packages.

Some women of retirement age will stare at the personal trainer as though they believe the trainer wants to run them into the ground with grueling routines. They will tell you they don't need a trainer. They already know everything they need to do at the gym. But then they'll go off and do something incorrectly, risking injury, and not even know it.

These women grew up during a time when women just didn't lift weights. A woman's place was in the garden or at the dance studio. Women back then (and many today) believed that any kind of weight lifting would bulk them up.

But they finally decided to get a gym membership, following a health scare or doctor's advice. Now, many senior women are stronger than you might think. Not all are frail with brittle bones or heart ailments. I had one 65-year-old woman who was curling 20-pound dumbbells in each hand for reps of 6-8, with good form.

Senior women may be more receptive to male trainers. I have observed this. An older woman does not feel "intimidated" by a male, because she cannot compare herself to him in any way. She might even be flattered that a male trainer, complete with charm and nice physique, would like to help her out. So if you are a male trainer, you might want to approach senior women more often. Do not assume they won't be interested in buying training sessions.

Senior men seem to enjoy challenging female trainers who approach them. While they are obviously annoyed that some women would approach them with advice on how to do something, at the same time, they seize the opportunity to find out just how much the trainer really knows. This is good news because it gives the trainer a chance to deliver a message and do some prospecting. As long as the prospect keeps talking, even if there's ilk in his voice, the trainer has a crack at getting a new client.