When working with clients, you may find you need to use behavior-change skills to assist them in meeting their exercise goals. Let's take a few minutes to ensure that you are familiar with techniques to motivate and maintain compliance. Match each client below with an appropriate behavior-change strategy.

Behavior-Change Strategies

a. Teach her to ask herself what's going through her mind when she feels discouraged and to try to correct the negative talk.
b. Suggest that she schedule her sessions at the same time as her husband so that they can come over together.
c. To motivate him in the beginning, you documented each time he came and kept a chart of his sessions posted in the gym. When he attended 10 sessions, he received a copy of his favorite magazine.
d. You discuss with him the factors that may hinder his progress, and you help develop strategies and skills to deal with them.
e. You review the class schedule with her and discover that there are morning classes that she could attend before her other activities.


Client Motivational and Compliance Issues

       

1. Dotty is having trouble getting to her workouts three times per week.

2. Harry was initially reluctant to participate in an activity other than running, but now he's enjoying his resistance strengthening program.

3. Esther is regularly participating in an aquatics class. When you talk to her about her program, she is sometimes hard on herself for not progressing as quickly as she thinks she should.

4. Mabel is having difficulty getting to 5:15 p.m. low-impact aerobics class on time. On speaking with her, you discover that she plays bridge every afternoon and doesn't finish until 5 p.m.

5. Mort is enjoying his aquatics-based exercise sessions that he attends twice per week. He hasn't exercised in the past five years, however, and is somewhat concerned about being consistent.