From nutrition advice to habit coaching, there are many ways that personal trainers help their clients to be healthier and happier.
The best way to ensure you are always doing right by your clients and offering an effective service is by sharpening your knowledge and pointing them toward resources that can further help them achieve their goals.
With that said, let's look at 15 of the best books for your personal training clients' success.
Books for Nutrition
Let's start with some nutrition books. These three books are fantastic guides from fixing diet fails to overcoming your instincts.#1. The New Power Eating by Susan Kleiner
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Renowned in the industry for training male and female Olympians and professional athletes, Susan Kleiner reveals her proven strategies for reaching personal goals.
Her nutrition planning advice is based on scientific research. So not only will you learn what to eat, but you will learn how to amend your eating plans based on your specific energy requirements and your body.
#2. The Hungry Brain: Outsmarting the Instincts That Make Us Overeat by Dr. Stephan Guyenet
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We have all been there, shoveling another spoon of cake in our mouths even though we are full. The Hungry Brain is not about denying yourself any type of food. Instead, it is about understanding precisely why we overeat so that we know exactly what to do about it.
This book is an excellent read for personal training clients whose problem isn't not knowing what they should be doing but more the fact that sometimes they feel powerless and not in control when they have plenty of opportunities to eat during a company event, holiday buffets, and more.
#3. The Diet Fix: Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work by Yani Freedhoff
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With 90% of diets failing, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, a weight-loss expert, delves deeper into our flawed thinking. In this book, you will learn how to break down negative thought patterns that stop you from losing weight. This includes the 10-Day Reset, which supports healthily losing weight while still enjoying your life. This book is ideal for the client who's been on the diet train forever but doesn't seem to achieve anything long-term.
Books for Training
Dieting is only one part of the story. Training is the other. Here are three great books to help your clients achieve success in this area:#4. The New Rules of Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler, Cassandra Forsyth, and Alwyn Cosgrove
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In this book, authors Alwyn Cosgrove, Cassandra Forsythe, and Lou Schuler present a comprehensive nutrition and strength and conditioning plan. The objective here is to revolutionize the way females exercise. Many women worry they will start "bulking up" if they lift heavy weights. However, this book explains that that is certainly not the case.
#5. You Are Your Own Gym by Mark Lauren and Joshua Clark
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One of the reasons why we love this book so much is because it is for women and men of all athletic capabilities. It has been put together by an elite Special Operations physical trainer, Mark Lauren. The idea is that people don't need special equipment or go to the gym every day to get in fantastic shape so long they know how to use their body weight. It can be an excellent read for clients who work out at home or outdoors and don't want to invest in equipment.
#6. The Men's Health Big Book of Exercises by Adam Campbell
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This book contains the most comprehensive collection of exercises ever created, so we had to include it on this list! Whether you are training long-time lifters or beginners, this book will be helpful. It includes cutting-edge workouts from the best trainers in the world, and you will get an insight into the latest findings in exercise science and hundreds of valuable tips. You and your clients will also be pleased to learn that 42 no-equipment-needed cardio workouts exist.
Books for Habit Coaching
Generally, weight loss clients will find that they will only succeed if they can master how to change some of their unhealthy habits around exercise and nutrition.#7. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear
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We can tell you about this book that you will be hooked from the moment you turn to page one. James Clear shares little stories and insights to make reading the book fascinating. You will learn all about the small changes you can make and how they add up to make more significant, positive changes as time progresses.
#8. Tiny Habits: Why Starting Small Makes Lasting Change Easy by BJ Fogg
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This book is all about starting small to make lasting change easy. Like Atomic Habits, Tiny Habits can be an excellent book recommendation for clients struggling to change their habits. They might feel they need to make monumental changes to reach their fitness goals. Naturally, this becomes too overwhelming. However, it is all about breaking it down into small steps. By embedding quick wins into your clients' routines, they will feel more motivated to keep going and achieve more of their goals.
#9. The Kindness Method: The Highly Effective (and extremely enjoyable) Way to Change Your Habits by Shahroo Izadi
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The author of The Kindness Method, Shahroo Izadi, is a behavioral change specialist. She began her career working for the NHS in the United Kingdom. After this, she set up her own private practice. Providing frontline addiction treatment in prison, community, and clinical settings influenced her work and inspired her to write this book. She helped people elicit self-led change, even when resistant to it. Now, she shares her tools to help people change their habits around food and boosts their self-esteem after she's gone through her own weight loss journey by losing over eight stones.
Books for Mindset
Motivation and getting the mindset right can be among the most challenging step for personal training clients. The following three books can be a great help.#10. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle
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When making the journey into The Power of Now, you must leave behind your analytical mind and its false created self, the ego. This book teaches you how to access the Now in the space around you, the silence, and your body. It is about getting into the right state of mind to enjoy inner peace. There is no denying that the journey is challenging, but Eckhart Tolle uses simple language to guide you through it effectively.
Busy clients try to multi-task throughout their day; at work, with family, when meeting friends, eating in front of the computer, and so on. This book might help them to slow down, focus on the present and appreciate its effect on progress and achieving fitness goals.
#11. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
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There are two ways that we make choices. There is the rational, slow approach, and there is also the fast, intuitive approach. This book reveals how prejudice and error can cause us to make mistakes in our thinking. You will learn about the best practical techniques to implement for more intelligent, slower thinking. This helps people to make better decisions in their personal life and professional life too.
An excellent read for people who have issues with cravings or giving into temptation. Learning the skill to stop, evaluate and then make the decision on having an extra muffin can be the first step in the right direction for them.
#12. Mental Fitness: 15 Rules to Strengthen Your Body and Mind by Ant Middleton
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A well-known face for SAS: Who Dares Wins fans, Ant Middleton, takes people on how to get their body and mind working in harmony to reach their true potential. Do you train people who are about to enroll in a challenge and need to build strength and perseverance in their minds? This book is for them, for sure.
Books for Lifestyle
Many personal trainers try to move their clients away from fad diets, helping them to realize that becoming healthy requires a lifestyle change. That is what the final three books are all about.#13. Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival by TS Wiley
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This ground breaking study explores the relationship between human health, sleep, and light. It looks into various health ailments associated with a lack of sleep, including depression, sex drive issues, weight gain, and infertility. It is a fascinating and genuinely insightful read for clients who are always on the run, have hectic sleep schedules, have issues with cravings, and generally struggle to make lasting changes to their lifestyle. Whether they want to lose weight, have more energy, or perform better at work or in the gym, sleep will significantly affect their progress.
#14. Your Body's Many Cries for Water by Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, M.D
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This book explains more about chronic dehydration, which many personal training clients suffer from without realizing it. The book will look at how dehydration can damage the body and mind. You will learn how to use water to eliminate pains and prevent and reverse premature aging. You will also discover how to use water to lose weight and improve hypertension and asthma naturally.
#15. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky
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Last but not least, this acclaimed book is in its third edition, with chapters on how stress impacts addiction and sleep, as well as new insights into personality disorder and anxiety and the impact of spirituality in stress management. In addition, you will discover how you can become sick by activating the stress response and worrying about the future. This is a must-read with plenty of practical advice and good humor for stressed-out professionals or parents.
