Finding Life’s Balance to Avoid Professional Burnout

In just about any aspect of life, dealing with high stress levels on a daily basis can generate a plethora of physical and emotional symptoms. Professional athletes, and even elite athletes at the recreational level, will at some point experience how overtraining aligns with a deterioration of immune function, increased negative emotions and overwhelming fatigue. This same situation can also manifest itself amongst coaches and personal trainers; repeated failure to appropriately cope with the demands of clientele, teaching group exercises, running a fitness business and maintaining some semblance of a life outside of work can lead to burnout, sometimes resulting in a desire to completely withdraw from the fitness environment. Recognizing the symptoms that typically cause such burnout, and understanding how to reclaim balance in life, makes the difference between a coach who gives up and one who can stay the course in a healthy manner. In this article, we present strategies to keep burnout at bay, embrace self-care, and sustain a fulfilling career. 

Living with an All-Consuming Passion

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), unmanaged stress can lead to symptoms such as irritability, anxiety, headaches, depression and sleep issues. In the world of fitness, burnout can feel like an invisible injury – one that often sneaks up on coaches and personal trainers, ultimately undermining their passion and interfering with their professional effectiveness. With intense demands on physical, mental, and emotional energy, personal trainers face unique stressors that can quickly lead to exhaustion.

Consider the following scenarios ~

• A demanding, unbalanced and draining career path
• Work constraints consuming all of your time and energy
• Non-stop work days that leave no time for family and friends
• You constantly feel tired and overwhelmed by the end of the week
• Your career begins to feel unsustainable
• You find yourself unable to sustain this frenetic pace, leaving you dreading the following work day
• Outwardly you seem calm, but on the inside, you can barely keep your head above water

Something definitely needs to change…but what, exactly, and more importantly, how??

Common Burnout Triggers

The job descriptions of professional football coaches, Olympic gymnastics team coaches and full-time personal trainers may differ widely; however, they share many of the same potential burnout “triggers”:

• Long hours
• Physically demanding work

• “Compassion fatigue” from constantly supporting others
• Pressure to attract new clients/retain current clients
• The ongoing need to create personalized training/nutrition plans
• Managing marketing, social media, and last-minute client cancellations
• Coping with personal injuries/mental health challenges

The key to preventing burnout lies in learning how to manage these stressors. This begins with taking steps to prioritize personal well-being.

Key Strategies for Preventing Burnout

Finding a balance between work responsibilities and personal life goes a long way towards maintaining a successful career. While sounding simple, this basic tenet often eludes fitness professionals. Creating a balanced life involves making space for relaxation, hobbies, social activities, and downtime. Balance also requires establishing — and adhering to — boundaries surrounding work hours. Personal trainers and coaches need not make themselves “on call” around the clock.

Below we list some primary time management ideas ~

• Block out work hours
• Schedule periodic breaks
• Establish clear start/end times each day; clearly communicate this to clients
• Plan for down time/days away from work

Having a structured approach to work keeps it from encroaching on personal time and also improves productivity. Clients will come to respect and value consistent, reliable scheduling.

Essential Self-Care Practices

Self-care, one manifestation of the “practice what you preach” principle, goes beyond physical health; it involves giving attention to emotional, mental, and social needs as well. Making self-care a daily to-do item will help prevent burnout and increase your chances of staying energized and passionate about your career. Contrary to popular belief, “self-care” need not mean “selfish”—rather, the following tips might help guide your path towards sustained health and happiness ~

• Maintain regular exercise, outside of the job
• Eat nutritionally -balanced meals
• Prioritize sleep

• Practice deep breathing to center yourself throughout the day

• Meditate or journal to process emotions and release tension

• Engage in an activity just for fun, such as watching a movie, crafting, reading or working on a favorite hobby

Building a Supportive Network

Sharing knowledge and experiences, as well as personal job-related frustrations, with other trainers fosters a closely-knit sense of community. A strong network offers a lifeline in moments of stress, providing advice and often a fresh perspective. Before full-blown burnout threatens to dismantle your career, seek guidance from mentors, attend workshops, or read industry-related articles online. The more people in your professional circle, the better your chances of connecting with individuals who have experienced the same issues you face each day.

First Step: Recognizing the Problem

In order for all of the aforementioned suggestions to help, trainers and coaches must first recognize when their breaking point seems imminent. Signs to watch for include the following ~

• Having a cynical attitude
• Being overly critical of yourself/co-workers /clients
• Increased feelings of anger/irritability
• Struggling to keep up with your own fitness regimen
• Forcing yourself to show up for clients versus looking forward to sessions
• Experiencing a lack of motivation
• Trouble focusing/concentrating
• Lacking a sense of achievement or accomplishment in your work
• Coping with stress in unhealthy ways (substance abuse)
• Inability to sleep or sleeping too much
• Experiencing headaches or body pain with no physiological cause

Perhaps you will recognize yourself in one of the following categories describing types of coaches at a high risk of burnout:

1. The Helper – You may attach your self-worth to how successfully you help others.Bursting with empathy, you may actually feel and absorb other people’s pain. You may have trouble disconnecting or compartmentalizing your work. You struggle to let go of things you cannot control. You harbor the belief (subconsciously or otherwise) that helping others must take precedence over helping yourself.
2. The Athlete Warrior – You place a high value on extreme performance, viewing any acknowledgment of the need for stress management as a show of weakness. The ability to keep going/working/enduring while others around you give up makes you stand out and feel special.
3. The Passionate Go-Getter – Passion for the profession, a laudable trait, can make you want to do more/work harder/push yourself, when taking a break might better serve your interests. You ignore your own needs, because what you offer clients feels more important.
4. Role Model – You may feel pressure to act and look like a picture-perfect icon of health. You ignore signs that you need a break, because others count so heavily on you. A preconceived self-image of “just average” will never satisfy you.

If you have identified with any of these, you can begin to grasp the importance of regulation and finding ways to move in a healthier direction. Here we offer strategies for building your own resilience and avoiding burnout ~

• Cultivate a curious/growth mindset
• Focus on behaviors rather than outcomes
• Have compassion for your clients’ struggles, but rather than trying to fix or remedy their discomfort, offer them your belief thatthey can handle this.
• Check in with your body on a regular basis
• Re-frame your professional ideals
• Reach out/ask for help

Final Thoughts

For personal trainers, burnout poses a very real risk. Burnout depletes us. We feel defeated and hopeless, overwhelmed by the challenges we face every day in deal with the public.

Burnout far exceeds simple fatigue; burnout drains energy, reduces motivation, and ultimately affects performance. Sadly, this author has personally witnessed co-workers who have gone so far as to question their career choice when in the midst of a burnout crisis. Clients notice when we fail to present the best version of ourselves, which can ultimately have a negative effect on relationships and business. When you invest in yourself, with understanding, grace, patience and appropriate self-care, everyone in your professional world will benefit.

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