The Show Up Fitness Podcast

Must-Read Books for Personal Trainers | Best Books to Read

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness • Season 2 • Episode 211

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Discover the top books for personal trainers to read like Grit, How to win friends and influence people, How to Become A Successful Personal TRainer and many more.

Reading might be the most underrated skill for personal trainers looking to elevate their careers above the 90% who quit within their first year. While most fitness professionals obsess over certification acronyms, the truly successful ones are quietly building their intellectual foundation through consistent, deliberate reading habits.

The contrast is striking. Picture a potential client walking into a gym to meet two trainers: one scrolling social media, the other absorbed in a professional development book. Before a word is spoken, one has already established themselves as a dedicated professional. This single habit creates an immediate differentiation that clients intuitively recognize and respect.

Starting a reading practice doesn't require massive time commitments. Begin with just 5-10 minutes of distraction-free reading daily, timing yourself to establish a baseline reading speed. Create the right environment by eliminating distractions – put your phone across the room, find a quiet space, and treat reading with the same discipline you bring to physical training. As with fitness, consistency produces remarkable results over time.

The reading curriculum for elite trainers spans multiple disciplines. For mindset development, explore works like "Grit" by Angela Duckworth or "Can't Hurt Me" by David Goggins. Business acumen grows through texts like "Go For No" by Richard Fenton, which teaches the counterintuitive approach of pursuing rejection to calibrate value. Technical mastery comes through studying "Starting Strength," "Fat Loss Forever," and "The Science and Practice of Strength Training." For comprehensive development, aim to read 50+ books annually – a simple habit that places you among the intellectual elite in fitness.

Transform your reading habit into

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Speaker 1:

When it comes to sales and business. I think you should read Go For no by Richard Fenton. He talks about chasing the no. When you have five assessments and all say yes, you should be thinking that's awesome. But what if I were to charge an extra 20 bucks? What if I were to charge an extra 50 bucks If those last five people didn't have any challenge or objection? Maybe my value is significantly higher than I think.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry. One qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showupfitnesscom. Also, make sure to check out my book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Howdy y'all. Welcome back to the Show Up Fitness Podcast. Today is day two. Live in San Francisco. I'm looking out at Coit Tower, beautiful Bay Area. You get like three days like this a year and I showed up and brought the great Southern California weather. So you are welcome. I'm looking out at Coit Tower, beautiful Bay Area. You get like three days like this a year and I showed up and brought the great Southern California weather, so you are welcome.

Speaker 1:

We're going to talk about hotel workouts and best books to read. It's a very common question I get. People will raise their hand I don't pay them and they say what are the best books to read as a trainer? Well, obviously you should start with mine, volume two, out now, one of the top sellers, but I have about 50 books in there to start checking off. And I think before we get into the book selection, we have to do some things to get into the habit of becoming a better reader, the two things that people in general especially trainers, I believe we don't do a lot of, and that's reading one and two is thinking. We're always scrolling and swiping right, left, whatever the hell you kids are doing today. We're not utilizing our noggin, and so reading is great because it just levels you up.

Speaker 1:

I'm reading a book right now. It's called Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, and in the book he talks about Abe Lincoln and how great of an orator he was the gift to being able to communicate. They would have debates where one candidate would speak for an hour. The next one would have an hour and a half to speak and then it would come back to the candidate to finish off for the last half hour and the language they were using was definitely more prowess than what we use today. So if you really want to level yourself up, spend 10 minutes a day, get a little card bookmark we have them and see how many lines you can read in five minutes and that's going to give you a starting point for words per minute.

Speaker 1:

There's some great books out there, like Limitless and how to Suggest Reading. That one helps improve your reading skills and just mentation overall, and then, as you do this regularly, these little snacks are going to help you improve and read more. I've had a lot of really great success stories helping trainers help their clients and clients get in great shape and blah, blah, blah. I've been doing it for 20 years. That's easy now. But the cooler stuff that I like to pat myself on the back are when people say I wasn't reading before you and now I'm reading Katie Hell. She's like 16 books this year and we're reading a book a week, sometimes two. You're leveling yourself up. You're taking off that lid to see your potential. The more books that you read, the better off you're going to become the average adult.

Speaker 1:

Ask people. It's scary. They don't read after high school and college, maybe a book a year. Could you imagine talking to like a fourth or fifth grader and they said they don't read. You would automatically judge them like something's wrong, something's off. But for adults, oh, that's fine. Just go on social media, see what Karen 13 and Frank 28 are saying, and that's what we read. I read the news. The read is bullshit. The news is filled with negativity and bullshit.

Speaker 1:

Get into books, so test yourself, just like you're testing your clients. What's your PR? You can't do a pushup. You don't call them an idiot. You work on it. If you can't read six 700 words per minute, that's okay. You're not an idiot. You work at it, just like your clients work at push-ups. And you get better and better and better.

Speaker 1:

Common pushback I get. I'm just not very good at reading. I can't really retain the information. Talk to me more about where you read. Oh, I have my phone out the TV on music blasting and I'm right in Starbucks downtown with a bunch of people coming in. No, you have to take it seriously. Isolate yourself, nothing around, put your phone on the opposite end of the room and then tell Siri put a timer on for five minutes and just read and see how many pages you can get through.

Speaker 1:

Start with the number that's digestible Five, 10 pages Because what you're going to find is you get to five and you go, I'll get to 10. You get to 10, I'll go to 15, 20. Because you want to get to that chapter. You're two pages away, so you keep on reading. Reading is going to separate you from the masses of trainers and in my book I talk about this photo all the time because I love it. Not only does it depict the average certified trainer. They get their NASA, mesa, issa, like everyone else, and 90% quit within the first year. And you have that one going the opposite way. They're building streams of revenue. They have physical therapists, they have registered dieticians, doctors, on their team. They're different. There isn't competition in this field. There's competition if everyone's fighting for social media and bullshit on this side. But when you look at the Blue Ocean Strategy great book, by the way and you see what everyone is doing and you do something different, it's significantly easier.

Speaker 1:

Let me ask you this how do you set yourself up for assessments? I'll be willing to bet you're sitting down and you're scrolling. So the client comes in. It's nothing different. They expect it. Have a conversation. Your handshake's probably shitty and you go through overhead squat assessment. You tell them they're broken. You sit them down after some stability ball workout. You say you should train with me three times a week. It's going to be 1200 bucks. And they go I can't afford that. And you go ah, shucks, I'll get the next one. Versus.

Speaker 1:

Imagine this scenario You're sitting down, you're dressed professionally, you have a polo on, you have a book and you're reading it. Client comes in, you get up and you walk over to them. You shake their hand. Hello, my name's Chris. I'm going to be taking you through today's workout, but first we're going to go through an assessment, go through your medical history, your background, do some blood pressure this stuff is really awesome to find out where we can improve. We'll talk a little bit about nutrition, we'll get into the workout and then afterwards we're going to sit down and talk about a solution that's best for your needs. Do you have any questions before we get going? Oh, by the way, if you parked outside, make sure to put some quarters in there, because it's 90 minute parking. That person's like wow, this is some great service. This is a professional. I want to work with them.

Speaker 1:

That seed has been planted, that you are different, because we have a negative stereotype. We are gold, gym, dental, tea, floss shirts, what we are wearing with our biceps bulging, which is cool, don't get me wrong but we don't look professional, we don't act professional and what's the biggest problem? That trainers experience we're not respected. Well, no, that trainers experience we're not respected. Well, no shit, sherlock, we're not professionals. We're not acting professional. So when you do that, you understand anatomy, you master programming, because anatomy is a prerequisite for understanding programming. You get into the nutrition, understand the body mass equation, level yourself up. You are in a field that is completely empty. It is yours to master.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about some books For the mind. I'm going to start out with Grit by Angela Duckworth. Awesome story about this professor who talks about why we've lost that grit and how you can really level yourself up. Highly highly suggest watching her TED Talk, getting her book. And I'm not a big believer of audio books. They're fine, but it's not the same as actually reading it. It's just an excuse. Oh, I do seven audio books a month. Well, great, tell me about them. Can you give me a one page summary or a five minute summary on what the book was about? What was a word that you learned? What's the take home? What are you implementing now from that book?

Speaker 1:

A lot of times we're doing other shit, you're doing pushups or you're cleaning your house and you're only getting like 20% of it. I'm a big believer in physical books. Another one I think is great that you should get into when it comes to mindset Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins. If you don't like that military mindset, that's fine. Another one would be Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. Definitely level up and get you out of that comfort zone, because we're comfortable, we sleep in, we push snooze, we're not disciplined. These suckers are disciplined and it's something that is contagious. You look at that and you're like, wow, I have respect for you. I want to be more like that when it comes to sales and business. I think you should read Go For no by Richard Fenton. He talks about chasing the no.

Speaker 1:

When you have five assessments and all say yes, you should be thinking that's awesome. But what if I were to charge an extra 20 bucks? What if I were to charge an extra 50 bucks If those last five people didn't have any challenge or objection. Maybe my value is significantly higher than I think. I want my client to say that's a little out of my budget and I say, great, talk to me more about that.

Speaker 1:

What were you thinking when you came in today to work with the best trainer in Santa Monica? You can say that confidently and not braggadociously I'm the best freaking trainer in the world. Look at my bicep. Kiss that sucker. You need to work with me. It's not going to work. But when you say it with a smile, I'm actually curious, because I can get you out of pain. I can get you in the best shape of your life. I can get you promoted. I can get you to a better sex life. I can get you a better partner if you're not happy with your current relationship. Those are all things that we can do because we are leveling you up. When you look at yourself and you go, wow, I achieved something I never thought was possible. I never thought I could do a pull-up. Working with you, chris, I was able to do seven. That's significant.

Speaker 1:

We are life coaches. You see those memes online about we're more psychologists than we are trainers. Our clients trust us, sometimes more than their significant others, their coworkers, their family members. We are capable of leveling up everyone. This is the best career in the world, because not only do we help people achieve physical feats, but mental feats Hell. Challenge your clients to read more.

Speaker 1:

Have a book club. Part of my nutrition coaching. It's more of a wellness coaching where you sign up for this 500 bucks a month. You get to work with an RD. There's a physical therapist who I work with, but we also have a weekly book club call and we're going to talk about intellectual books. We're going to read Moby's Dick and we're going to talk about it. We're going to read old school literature, we're going to read current stuff and you're going to choose as well. That's why I'm charging this amount, because I'm leveling you up not only physically but mentally. You will get into the best shape of your life and you will be a better person. I guarantee it.

Speaker 1:

Other great books for business Red, hot, cold Call Selling, I think, is great. It gets you out of that comfort zone of being afraid to call someone or text someone or email them, which you should be building that email list. I would put something like Atomic Habits in there, because that has to do with business. When you are better at scheduling yourself and becoming more organized, you will become a better trainer and everything will fall into place. 10x is easier than 2X. By Dan Sullivan. That's a great book.

Speaker 1:

I'm not 100% against audiobooks. I'm going to take that back because I do listen to audiobooks when I run. I'm going to take that back because I do listen to audio books when I run. I just did my hotel workout. I did five minutes of running. I did a set of incline presses you know it's a badass hotel gym when they go up to hundreds so I took those suckers for a ride and I did six sets of that. When I was running, I was listening to my audio book, and right now I'm listening to the Deadline Effect by Christopher Cox. So you can get some books via audio, but just don't get them all via audio. I like to use a 50-50 ratio. If you're going to read one book, sure, then do one online.

Speaker 1:

The War of Art is an amazing book by Steven Pressfield. If you want to level up those ants automatic negative thoughts you are not good enough. That negative energy that we all experience, you have it, I have it. It's a matter if you let that bring you down. And Stephen talks about that in the War of Art.

Speaker 1:

I love Deep Work by Cal Newport. He talks about some of the best minds in the world and how they would isolate themselves for weeks at a time to just think no technology. Literally, they would go to a cabin and just think how can I become better? Write into books and write on the walls, level yourself up, get into nature and just allow your mind to become better. And the two iconic ones are going to be Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and how to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. That's a great starting point.

Speaker 1:

And when you get into the exercise science, nutrition stuff, I think everyone should read Fat Loss Forever by Lane Norton. Starting Strength by Mark Ripito is a good one. You have the Max Muscle Plan by Brad Schoenfeld. Elite Physique by Chad Waterbury. Let me tell you there's a big hunk in that textbook. You're going to see my calves in there and, holy moly, those suckers are gigantic. Conscious Coaching by Brett Bartholomew. The Beck Diet Solution by Judith Beck Her and her dad are the ones who are the founders really of cognitive behavioral therapy. Her dad was. And she talks about how you can implement this psychological strategy. It's almost like the biopsychosocial model of pain, but we implement it with nutrition.

Speaker 1:

And so you see a cookie and you go, huh, do I want that cookie? Yeah, I actually would. It's going to be really, really good. I love the way cookies taste. Okay, chris, so you do eat that cookie. How are you going to feel afterwards? Right now I'm trying to lose five pounds, so it's really not going to be aligned with my long-term goals, but I've had a really stressful day and I feel like this cookie is just going to make me feel better. That's all right, chris, have the cookie, but only have one. Do you understand that? I eat the cookie and I go throughout my day, but what do we do? Today, we see a cookie in the break room, we eat the whole box and the next day we feel like shit. So we do it again and again, again.

Speaker 1:

It comes back to the habits and stuff that we talk about with James Clear and Atomic Habits and the main three habit books. You just type in top habit books, read those three. They literally always pop up. I'm brain farting on the little habits one, but there's some really good habit books out there to help you level yourself up so then you can pass it along to your clients and a lot of these habits slash. Cognitive behavioral therapy books are applicable to train as trainers, because our clients are going through a lot mentally and obviously we're not psychologists. Again, throw in there part of your wellness package. Get a psychologist on your team. Why not have a therapist? Have a physical therapist and then also have an RD and they could switch off every single week and do it in person. Bring in a massage therapist and have little 10 minute massages for your clients. The more that you give, it's going to allow for you to charge more and have those streams of revenue. The Bible of strength and conditioning would absolutely be the science and practice of strength training by Kramer and Zatz or Zatowski. It's Eastern block periodization marrying Western block and Dr Kramer was really the founder of the Western block periodization which we are obviously improving today with daily undulating periodization and so forth.

Speaker 1:

You want to get more into pain. Explain pain by Butler and Loramere Mosley. I think you should watch that Ted talk from Dr Mosley because the dude is funny and he helps explain what's happening with pain, as we do in the seminars we lead with the biopsychosocial model of the pain. How is it that the worst injury in the world is a freaking paper cut? I love that story of the guy who was scuba diving in South Africa and he got his abalone and he was swimming up and he felt this inertia of water go by him. He put one hand on the boat and he tried to swing up his other one, but there was no arm. And he looks around and it's just blood red and then he sees his arms gone because a great white ate his arm. Holy crap, how in the hell did he not feel that? Because the brain is awesome. It sends out some. Basically, this is an emergency, this is not an emergency. So pain is fascinating. It's multifactorial.

Speaker 1:

The things that we teach at the seminars aren't to simplify it. If you're a trainer and I ask you, how do you help a client with shoulder pain and you say supinated band pull-aparts, that's not the right answer. You need to screen them. You need to learn about their past. When it hurt, how it hurts now. Is it stability? Is it strength? Is it mobility? Is it a deficit with range of motion? Maybe it's tissue capacity? There's a lot of things that go into it Central amplification, all things that we help so you can implement those soft tissue mobilization techniques, lower that threshold and then get into the workout. And it's okay to have a little bit of pain. If it's more chronic, acute, you have to really analyze and see if you need to refer out to your team practitioner. I think that is a good foundation for you.

Speaker 1:

If you're like, holy shit, chris, you just named out 50 books, buy my book how to Become a Successful Personal Trainer, volume 2. Literally numerous books in there. You can just start checking off. Then you can level yourself up. How to get clients help Nick the acronym to level yourself up as a trainer. And I just challenge you read a book a month, start there, then get to two books a month and by the end of the year we're in quarter two. Right now you could absolutely be reading four to six books a month. That's 50 plus books per year.

Speaker 1:

Imagine how much better off and more confident you're going to be by reading 50 books. That's a badge of honor. You're talking to people cocktail hour, happy hour, whatever we're doing today, you're socializing. You say, yeah, I've read 50 books this year. They're going to go. Holy crap, that's insane. I haven't read a book in 15 years. So then you're starting to understand the psychology of your clientele and then those conversations are just going to level up and they're going to be better for everyone. I challenge y'all read more, get into your story. Challenge your followers to read more. The more that we read, the better off the world's going to be. Have a great, freaking Saturday. Enjoy life because it is freaking awesome being six feet above ground and smile more. Help people read more books and remember big biceps are better than small ones, and keep showing up.