Training Obese Clients
I work with many obese clients. Today I want to detail how I train obese clients to improve fitness without causing these people pain or injury.
In the United States today, around 35 percent of people are obese. Another third of people are overweight. Many of these people face chronic, comorbid conditions such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, joint pain, heart disease and more.
Fortunately, more and more obese and overweight people are looking to improve their health and exercise habits through personal training.
Many of these people can achieve significant weight loss and improvements in physical fitness. Even small improvements in fitness can have far reaching effects on health and well being. It is important to train and encourage obese clients properly. Good training principles for this population can mean the difference between a client making progress and a client giving up.
Considerations when Training Obese Clients
Here are some of the obstacles I keep in mind when training obese clients to help them make progress without undue frustration and pain.
Obese clients often have labored breathing, joint pain, poor posture, poor stamina, trouble getting up and down off the floor, and trouble with complex exercises. Let’s discuss each of these in more detail.
Labored Breathing
Obese people usually have poor cardiovascular capacity, and they also have heavy, labored breathing. Difficulty breathing is due to a combination of poor fitness, too much fat surrounding the neck and airways, and being overweight.
When working with obese clients, it is important for me to keep cardiovascular training easy and short in the beginning. For these clients, breaking cardio up into 5 minute chunks with rests in between may be a good strategy.
Low intensity exercises like walking, using an elliptical, cycling, or performing low intensity circuits can work well.
In the beginning, I like to let these clients rest as needed during circuits or weight training.
As these clients loses weight and gain fitness, they can exercise for longer time frames. These clients can work up to sixty minutes at a time or longer.
Joint Pain
Obese clients typically have joint pain. Most have at least some lower back pain, knee pain and even hip pain. Extra stress on weight bearing joints can make these areas painful.
In addition, high levels of inflammation can predispose these people to more pain in their wrists, hands, shoulders and non weight bearing joints.
I aim to train obese clients with low joint stress exercises. Jumping, running and pounding are all out of the question.
Poor Posture
Due to excess weight around their midsection, obese people often develop poor posture, abdominal distention and start to accommodate shifts in their center of gravity.
They often also begin to exhibit poor posture and rounding shoulders as well as forward head posture.
This means we often need to include more work to restore muscular balance and improve core stability.
Poor Balance
Obese clients can often have problems with balance and coordination.
Balancing on one leg is an important part of everyday life in order to walk up and down stairs, do house work and yard work and more.
Initially, I like to teach clients exercises on two feet so that these clients can balance their weight and do not feel unstable.
Eventually, we can progress to single leg weight shifts, modified front lunges, step ups and other exercises to improve balance and coordination on one leg.
Poor Stamina
Obese clients often have poor stamina to start. That is why I like to include moderate intensity sessions in the beginning so they can build some fitness without feeling too wiped out. This tactic improves feelings of success, motivation, and persistence.
Now that we have discussed some of the obstacles that obese clients face, let’s discuss some other aspects of training obese clients.
Trouble Getting up from the Floor
Obese people often have trouble getting up and down off the floor. I like to use exercises that do not require getting up and down off the floor for this population. Instead of planks, I might recommend wall planks. Instead of glute bridges, I might recommend glute kickbacks with a cable.
Trouble with Complex Exercises
Because of poor balance and coordination, complex rotational exercises can often cause pain or injury. I like to use simple exercises to start to boost safety and feelings of success with this population.
Now that we have covered some of the obstacles obese clients may face, let’s answer some general questions of concern for obese clients.
Should Obese Clients Weight Train?
Weight training is actually excellent for obese clients. These clients need to improve strength and muscle function. Weight training is also much safer than the crash and burn HIIT style or Crossfit style workouts that are so popular today.
However, weight training needs to be targeted to the overweight client so that workouts are manageable, safe and efficient.
What Kinds of Warm ups Should Obese Clients Do?
Obese clients need simple warm ups that raise body temperature without causing too much fatigue. Two to three minutes of walking or gentle calisthenics can work well.
What Kind of Stretches can Obese Clients Do?
Standing stretches are better than stretches that require clients to get up and down off the floor. Stretches that increase contact pressure on a joint are usually not recommended.
While stretching may feel good, too much stretching time takes away from more important components of the workout. For this reason, I like to keep stretching to 5 minutes maximum for obese clients.
Should Obese Clients Do Weighted or Bodyweight Exercises?
For most obese clients, handling a significant portion of their body weight on exercises like push ups, pull ups and more can prove disastrous.
It is often more appropriate to use cable pulley exercises and dumbbell exercises with overweight clients so they can start with a percent of their bodyweight and progress to heavier loads as they get stronger.
Good examples include the cable chest press, cable seated row and rope face pulls.
Should Obese Clients Use Full Body or Split Routines?
For obese clients, I prefer using full body workout programs versus split routines. Full body routines burn more calories and cause less soreness, and are more time efficient.
Should Obese Clients Follow a Home Exercise Program?
Obese clients should do a home exercise program, even if they are working with a trainer a couple of times per week.
They can start with 10 to 15 minutes per day of physical activity. Usually I recommend starting with walking on a flat surface to minimize the risk of injuries and joint pain. Once that time frame has become doable, they can work up to 30 to 60 minutes of walking on their off days.
Should Obese Clients Receive Nutrition Counseling?
Obese clients should definitely receive help with nutrition since changing their nutrition habits is responsible for around 90 percent of their results.
Working with a nutrition coach or registered dietician can help these clients make small, lasting changes to their nutrition.
These people should focus on portion control, internal signals of hunger, proper food choices and water intake.
Sample Exercises for Obese Clients
Some sample exercises for obese clients include squats, lunges, step ups and partial step ups, deadlifts from a box, chest press, seated row, lat pulldown, pallof press, wall plank, wall side plank, walking, swimming, water aerobics and more.
Final Thoughts
Training obese clients requires a good attitude and targeted approach to prevent frustration, fatigue and pain. Good training only improves the chances of success for obese clients.
