A lovely client of mine sent me this article the other day about excuses for not exercising. On a rainy cold day such as today, which is prone to last minute cancellations, I thought it was the perfect time to share my own cancellation excuses with you.

I’ve heard some pretty interesting excuses from clients in my time as a personal trainer. When it comes to cancellations some clients get quite inventive. You can usually tell when a client is lying, do I ever call their bluff? No, there’s no point I don’t think, after all they’re the ones who are lying to themselves. Do I punish them in our next session? Quite honestly – sometimes I do, if the excuse is bad enough!

 

I did a little experiment at my gym, I asked my fellow Personal Trainers what was the best cancellation excuses they had received. I wasn’t suprised how similar some of the excuses were. I put together a list of the best and most common excuses we got. Have you ever used one of these?

 

• It’s raining – that’s ok it’s not raining inside the gym you’ll stay dry
• Swine flu – this is not a joke, a trainer received a formal text about it, turns out we were all ok at the gym though pheww
• Car won’t start – this is a hard one,  sometimes its true sometimes its not
• Period pain – remember in high school when you wanted to get out of the swimming carnival?  Exercise can actually help with your period pain, especially the day before it is due.
• Kids are sick – this is a fact of life, they’re germy little creatures and they like to share
• I’m busy – if you are too busy to train then please don’t book a time with me when I could have booked someone else in. Busy people need to be in good health too.
• I’m sick – depending on the illness exercise can actually help you. If you have a virus though listen to your body and rest.
• I’m tired – exercise will actually give you more energy, the hardest part is just starting
• Car broke down on way to gym – again another hard one, sometimes it’s true and sometimes it’s an overused excuse
• I have to help my ____ move – ok, that is usually something that is planned prior to the actual day. How do you rank your health as a priority?
• My alarm didn’t go off – then set a second one. I set 2 alarms to make sure i’m there for you, do you really want to spend money on a sleepin?
• I forgot – nice to know how important your training is to you.
• Just not feeling it today – sometimes I don’t feel it either, its natural, but then I do it anyway and get over it. Usually feel awesome after.
• It’s too cold – trust me once we start training you won’t be cold anymore!
• Sore throat – again, some exercise may help, depending on your level of sickness
• Sore arm – that’s ok you have the rest of your body we can work with
• Sis/cousin may go into labour – are you going to be in the delivery room? It’s ok labour usually goes for more than your hourly training session
• I can’t make it – personally this is the worst. No excuse and it’s usually last minute too
• I was up last night arguing with my spouse – wow I don’t know what to say about that one
• I have a __________ appointment – you usually know about appointments prior to the day or the day before.
• Stuck in traffic – sometimes this is beyond anyone’s control. However we become suspicious when it happens too often (leave your house earlier!)
• Nothing – enough said.

 

There are of course genuine excuses, life gets in the way I understand.  Most clients generally do their best. However it is those clients who you identify as not really giving it much effort that you feel sorry for. They are the ones who most often give up and never achieve their goals. Its the clients who truly give it their all that get the best results.

 

Everyone has excuses, but ask yourself  “am I going to let this get in the way of achieving my goal?”

 

(photo was taken at a buddhist temple, very zen like day! You are in control of your life, make it happen!)