Wellness Coaching Opportunities Revealed

If you’ve been training clients one-on-one, in small groups or group exercise classes and are contemplating making the switch to ‘wellness coaching,’ meet three diverse ACE-certified fitness professionals trainers whose philosophy on coaching and careers may surprise you.
David Bagby
A veteran trainer with more than two decades of experience, Bagby has taught group fitness classes and personal training in health clubs and corporate settings. He also helped develop wellness programs, including smoking cessation and stress management programs, in clinical settings before “wellness” became a buzzword.
Even today, Bagby doesn’t refer to himself as a lifestyle or wellness coach. After all, both wellness coaches and ACE-certified personal trainers design exercise programs to help clients improve their physical health, including cardiovascular, strength, flexibility and endurance. They also both act as motivators, educators and accountability partners within their scope of practice to help clients make lasting lifestyle changes.
So what are some of the differences then?
In a lot of cases, it comes down to education. Wellness and lifestyle coaches see themselves as addressing the whole person. They often spend a lot more time merely talking to clients, often over the phone, asking probing questions, such as about their clients’ nutritional habits, overall health and daily routine to try to uncover underlying factors that lead to unhealthy behaviors; and then work with clients to find solutions to help them unlearn their unhealthy behaviors and make better decisions with the goal to achieve lasting good health.
For Bagby, who is an ACE-certified Personal Trainer, Advanced Health & Fitness Specialist, Group Fitness Instructor, earning the ACE-Lifestyle & Weight Management Consultant certification was critical to his career success. The LWMC certification brings together three critical components: Nutrition, lifestyle change and exercise.
“When you have the LWMC certification and go to a clinical setting, you have so much more credibility,” said Bagby.
As an independent contractor, Bagby trains clients at their gym or at their home. He also contracts with an internist in private practice, who markets an anti-aging program to consumers. With the program being fee-for-service only, the practice attracts mainly sedentary middle-aged and older individuals who are often overweight and obese and are looking to improve their overall well-being.
“I assess the patient’s strength, alignment, flexibility, the nutritionist does the food diary, and sets up a weight-loss program, and the internist supervises the program,” Bagby explained.
Among his other tasks are developing the exercise program to train clients, tracking their exercise log for adherence and following up with clients to ensure that they get their blood work done on time.
To summarize, “I keep up with everything about them that they consider your business in what has to do with their health,” he said.
He finds that certain personality types may be better suited for wellness coaching as it takes perseverance and empathy to be successful.
Dr. Mark Jackman
With a Ph.D. in sociology from Duke University, Mark Jackman isn’t your typical ACE-certified Personal Trainer and Lifestyle & Weight Management Consultant, and wellness coach.
Still, as someone who specializes in working with overweight and obese clients, Jackman can offer anyone interested in working with that population great insight. He is also living proof that working with America’s continually rising overweight and obese population, is mutually rewarding.
Jackman gave the example of a middle-aged obese female client who suffers from multiple health conditions, including type 2 diabetes, arthritis in her hands and feet, anxiety and depression, whose life he helped turn around.
“I’ve been working with her to envision a healthier, happier self,” Jackman said. After working with Jackman, the woman started cooking healthier meals and recognized the pitfalls of poor eating habits.
“I helped her recognize what she has accomplished and feel good about it and reframe her all-or-nothing thinking,” Jackman said.
Learning how to eat better and training with Jackman, while visiting with a psychotherapist, also helped the woman overcome destructive thinking patterns.
Jackman notes that wellness coaches should not be confused with psychotherapists.
“I don’t try to help people find the perfect job or save a marriage,” Jackman said.
Wellness coaches, however, can be instrumental in changing people’s negative health behaviors. He also finds that earning the ACE-LWMC certification is a pivotal first step to wellness coaching. For more information on Mark Jackman, visit Life Signs.
Dr. Mary Jayne Johnson
Dr. Mary Jayne Johnson, an exercise physiologist and Pilates Method Alliance Gold-certified Pilates teacher, said she was recently approached by one of her Pilates students. The student wanted to see if Johnson would help her regarding a difficult health decision. A breast cancer survivor, the woman felt she needed to entrust herself in someone outside of her medical network.
This is how Johnson meets most of her wellness clients.
“If someone is going to entrust you with their well-being, you have to be someone they trust,” Johnson said. “You have to be knowledgeable, honest, engaging and (clients have to feel) comfortable to come to you with their concerns.”
A 30-year veteran of the health and wellness industry and former Southwest Regional Health & Fitness Manager for the Wellbridge Company, Johnson also isn’t your typical ACE-certified trainer.
But she knows what it takes to be a successful wellness coach.
“A gifted personal trainer may already be a wellness coach, if they have taken the time to broaden their expertise, such as in psychology,” Johnson said.
In her view, wellness is a personal state.
“What wellness is for me, may not be wellness for you. I have a hard time (believing) that you can attend a weekend certification course or workshop to have the qualifications needed to provide sound advice. The Lifestyle & Weight Management Consultant certification can be backed up with evidence and scientific research,” Johnson said.
Yet, to be a successful wellness coach takes experience and continuing education: That is life experience, extensive awareness of what’s going on in the literature, knowledge in nutrition, psychology, prescription drugs, exercise, as well as the spiritual component and emotions of well-being.
Some wellness coaches offer advice over the phone, but for Johnson face-to-face interaction is key. “I like to look into someone’s eyes, read their body language, how they’re standing. I want to see the quality of movement, see if their breath is in the neck, their belly or chest to get a better idea of where (the individuals) are holding their stress and tension.”
For Johnson, uncovering the cause of physical symptoms, such as pain, is as critical to helping clients achieve well-being as engaging them in regular physical activity.

“When someone is telling me their back is hurting, I ask what is going on in their life,” she said. “My interest is going beyond the traditional health approach.”
To contact Mary Jayne Johnson, visit www.doctormaryjayne.com.
For more information see the ACE-Lifestyle & Weight Management Consultant certification program page.
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Marion Webb is the managing editor for the American Council on Exercise and an ACE-certified Personal Trainer and ACE-certified Group Fitness Instructor. For specific fitness-related story ideas or comments, please e-mail her directly at marion.webb@acefitness.org.