Does holistic coaching sound like just another fitness buzzword? 🤔 

We hear ya, trends come and go *constantly* in this business.

Here’s what’s not trending: your clients are struggling. They’re overwhelmed, stressed, and exhausted from yo-yo dieting and short-lived motivation. The “just hit the gym five days a week” approach? Yeah, that didn’t work. They need more than sets and reps—they need a holistic coach who sees the whole picture (AKA what they can’t see).

A holistic coach is someone who brings together personal training, nutrition, and habit coaching into one wellness experience. The result? Clients are more likely to make healthy changes that stick. The industry is already moving in this direction, and the trainers who adapt first are winning. 💪

With the right platform, you can deliver transformative holistic coaching without adding complexity to your biz—just more results and more revenue. 

Keep reading to learn more about how to become a holistic health coach and how ABC Trainerize helps you make it happen. 

Here’s What We’ll Cover

• Why Simply Offering Personal Training Is No Longer Enough
• Nutrition: The Missing Link in Most Coaching Programs
• Habits: The Foundation of Long-Term Change
• Holistic Coaching and How It All Works Together
• How to Start Coaching Holistically with ABC Trainerize
• FAQs – How to Become a Holistic Health Coach

TL;DR: Your clients need (and want) more than workout plans to succeed long-term. Instead, they need holistic coaching that addresses nutrition, habits, lifestyle, and fitness. ABC Trainerize gives you everything to deliver sustainable, life-changing results in one platform.

Why Simply Offering Personal Training Is No Longer Enough

Be honest…How many times have you thought, “If I just write them a really good program, they’ll get results“?

We’ve all been there. You spend hours crafting the perfect workout plan, getting everything just right—and then your client ghosts after three weeks. Or they keep showing up but still aren’t seeing results.

Truth be told, most clients don’t fail because of programming. They fail because of what happens OUTSIDE the gym. Like poor sleep. Inconsistent nutrition. Stress. Basically all the factors that can make or break their progress when you’re not around.

Exercise alone accounts for only about 20% of weight loss results—the rest comes down to nutrition and lifestyle factors. That’s a huge gap traditional personal training doesn’t typically address.

This is why ABC Trainerize brings together training programs + habit coaching + nutrition tracking in one platform. You get complete visibility into your client’s overall wellness (not just their workouts). You can see if they’re hitting protein targets, staying hydrated, prioritizing sleep, and building daily habits that actually move the needle. 

That’s holistic coaching. 🎯

📝 Read More: Longevity Coaching: Why Forever Clients Are The Future of Fitness

Nutrition: The Missing Link in Most Coaching Programs

Sure, you can create the world’s best workout split, but if your client is crushing pizza and energy drinks post-workout, they’re not going anywhere fast. 🍕

Nutrition is where the magic happens. It’s a huge factor in whether your clients see results in weeks or months. That being said…most trainers avoid nutrition coaching because it feels complicated, time-consuming, or outside their scope.

Don’t worry, we’ve gotchu. 😉

Enter the ABC Trainerize Smart Meal Planner. It takes the guesswork out of nutrition coaching by auto-generating personalized meal plans based on your client’s goals, preferences, and macros. 

Plus, with built-in nutrition tracking, you can monitor exactly what your clients are eating, see if they’re hitting their targets, and catch issues before they derail progress. Pair that with progress photos, and you’ve got a complete picture of what’s working (and what’s not).

Bottom line—your clients get results faster when their nutrition and exercise are dialled. (And you can take THAT to the bank.)

📝 Free Resource: The Guide to High-Impact Habit Coaching

Habits: The Foundation of Long-Term Change

Let’s talk about the real reason clients fail: their habits suck. 🤷

Okay, maybe that’s harsh. But think about it…Your client crushes their workouts, eats well all week, then Saturday hits and they’re back to old patterns. 

Why? Because, unfortunately, temporary motivation doesn’t beat ingrained habits.

Contrary to what many people think, sustainable behavior change is NOT about willpower. It’s about building new habits that stick. Small, consistent actions that compound over time. 

→ Science backs this up—habit stacking (linking new behaviors to existing ones) and accountability are the real MVPs of long-term transformation.

This is where the ABC Trainerize Master Habits Programs come in clutch. Instead of just telling clients to “drink more water” or “get better sleep,” you can assign specific, trackable habits right in the app. Clients check them off daily, you monitor progress, and boom—you’re building lifestyle changes that outlast any 12-week program!

Habits + nutrition + training = over-the-moon clients. Which means more recurring revenue and more referrals. What’s not to like? 

📝 Check Out: Everything You Need to Know About Habit Coaching

Holistic Coaching and How It All Works Together

So here’s where it gets good…Combining personal training, nutrition, and habits together creates a multiplier effect. 

What this means for your clients: 

▶ They’re no longer juggling 3+ different apps or trying to connect the dots themselves. Everything lives in one place. 

▶ Their workouts auto-populate. Meal plans adjust to their goals. Habit reminders keep them accountable. 💪

▶ It’s seamless, and seamless = sustainable.

What this means for you: 

ABC Trainerize gives you a bird’s-eye view of everything. You can see patterns you’d otherwise miss—like why that client isn’t losing weight (spoiler: they’re skipping meals) or why recovery is tanking (hello, poor sleep habits).

No more guessing or more piecing together info from texts, emails, and random check-ins. Instead, you get clear AF data that helps you coach smarter, not harder.

Plus, when everything’s automated and integrated, you can scale without burning out. Which means more clients, better results, and the same amount (or less!) of your time.

That’s the power of holistic coaching on an all-in-one platform. 🙌

📝 Read More: How ABC Trainerize Stacks Up Against the Competition

How to Start Coaching Holistically with ABC Trainerize

Ready to level up your coaching? Here’s your game plan for going holistic with ABC Trainerize:

1. Start with completing a holistic assessment 

Before you write a single workout, assess the WHOLE client, not just their fitness level. Dig into their nutrition habits, sleep quality, stress levels, and daily routines. Use ABC Trainerize’s built-in client questionnaires to gather this intel upfront.

⚡️ TZ Tip: Customize your onboarding form so that it asks about their current eating patterns, biggest obstacles, and lifestyle constraints. This gives you the full picture from day one.

2. Build integrated programs in ABC Trainerize 

Maximize the tools at your fingertips to create a complete wellness experience for your clients.

Use our programming features for their exercise plan, the smart meal planner to generate a custom nutrition plan, and our habit coaching features to assign daily habits related to their goals (e.g., water intake, sleep hygiene, or stress management). 

⚡️ TZ Tip: Start clients with 2-3 simple habits first (like tracking meals and hitting a daily step goal). Once those stick, layer in more. Don’t overwhelm them right out the gate.

3. Use automation to scale (without burning out)

The beauty of ABC Trainerize? You can set it and (mostly) forget it. It’s easy to schedule automated check-ins and use progress tracking reminders so clients stay accountable without you micromanaging.

⚡️ TZ Tip: Set up weekly automated messages that ask clients to upload progress photos or log their weekly wins. This keeps them engaged without extra work on your end.

4. Monitor insights and refine as needed

Check your client dashboard regularly to spot trends. Are they skipping cardio days? Missing protein targets? Not logging habits? Use this data to adjust their plan in real time.

⚡️ TZ Tip: Schedule a monthly “data review” where you analyze patterns across all your clients. You’ll spot what’s working (and what’s not) fast.

ABC Trainerize makes holistic coaching suuuuper simple. Everything you need lives in one easy-to-use place.

FAQ – How to Become a Holistic Health Coach

So, what actually is holistic coaching and how does it differ from traditional fitness coaching?

Holistic coaching takes a whole-person approach to health and wellness, addressing training, nutrition, AND lifestyle habits together—not just workouts in isolation. 

Traditional fitness coaching typically focuses on exercise programming and maybe some general nutrition advice. A holistic coach, on the other hand, integrates multiple pillars of good health (fitness, nutrition, habits) into one cohesive experience. 🤝

Here’s another way to think about it: traditional coaching fixes symptoms (lack of muscle tone, low endurance), while holistic coaching addresses root causes (poor sleep, inconsistent nutrition, stress management). 

📝 Check Out: Offering Holistic Nutrition Coaching: A Mini Guide

Is holistic coaching effective for weight loss and lifestyle change?

Absolutely! Multiple studies show that combining diet, exercise, and behavior change produces significantly better results than any single approach alone. Why? Because weight loss isn’t just about calories burned in the gym—it’s about what happens the other 23 hours of the day.

Holistic coaching addresses the full picture: sleep quality, stress levels, meal consistency, hydration, recovery practices, and more.

Sustainable habits—*including* exercise and nutrition—are the key to your clients keeping the weight off long-term. That’s lifestyle change, baby!

How can holistic coaching improve long-term client results?

Most clients quit because they’re overwhelmed or they hit a plateau. Holistic coaching solves both problems.

By addressing training, nutrition, AND habits together, you’re building a stronger foundation for success. Clients see faster results (which keeps them motivated), and they develop the daily habits that prevent backsliding when life gets crazy.

Plus, when you’re coaching the whole person, you can spot issues early (like stress eating sabotaging their nutrition). Instead of REACTING to slip-ups, you’re helping PREVENT them from happening in the first place, which ultimately helps your clients stay consistent. 

And clients who get consistent results? They stick around. Hello, better retention and recurring revenue! 💰

What tools can personal trainers use to track training, nutrition, and lifestyle habits together?

This is where an all-in-one platform like ABC Trainerize is a game-changer. Instead of juggling multiple apps or spreadsheets, everything lives in one place:

• Training programs for workouts
• Smart Meal Planner and nutrition tracking for food intake
• Master Habits Programs for daily habit tracking
• Progress tracking with photos, measurements, and body stats
• Client dashboard where you can monitor everything at a glance

Client compliance has never been easier! And when you can see all their data in one dashboard, you can coach smarter without burning out. It’s a win-win. 🙌

How can personal trainers incorporate holistic coaching into their business?

Good news: learning how to become a holistic health coach doesn’t necessarily require going back to school or getting a new cert. You can start offering holistic coaching by expanding what you already do.

Here’s how do I become a holistic health coach in 3 steps:

1. Start assessing your clients beyond fitness. Add questions about sleep, stress, nutrition habits, and lifestyle to your client intake process.
2. Use an integrated platform to work smarter, not harder. Tools like ABC Trainerize let you deliver training, nutrition, and habit coaching without adding complexity to your workflow. You’re not starting from scratch, you’re just adding layers to what you already offer.
3. Position yourself differently. Update your messaging to reflect that you coach the whole person, not just workouts. This attracts higher-quality clients who are willing to invest more for better results.

You don’t need to become a nutritionist or therapist. You just need to think bigger than sets and reps—and use the right tools to support your clients’ full wellness journey! 

Take Your Fitness Business to the Next Level with ABC Trainerize

The fitness industry is evolving, and your clients want more than just workout plans. They want coaches who can support their entire wellness journey. 

A holistic approach to health and fitness leads to sustainable client results and more scalable coaching businesses. It’s the future of fitness, and it’s already here. 

The good news? You don’t need to figure this out alone! ABC Trainerize gives you everything you need to deliver world-class holistic coaching without the overwhelm: training programs, nutrition planning, habit tracking, and client management—all in one platform.

Ready to level up your coaching and grow your business? Try ABC Trainerize free for 30 days and see how easy holistic coaching can be!