Question: Am I working out my client too hard?

[Roccar]

I have a client that constantly complains about one thing or another after every so many sessions. The best part about it is that with each complaint my client is in extreme pain and can pinpoint it to an exact exercise that caused her discomfort.
I take full responsibility for guiding and directing my clients and their programs. I am very conservative with her programming due to hypertension and obesity issues. At first, I was really beating myself up every single incident but now it is almost a guarantee that within a couple of sessions she will complain about something. I am starting to think she does this to cancel sessions for no reason or that she can not deal with muscle soreness. Last week it was chest pain which turned out to be muscle soreness. If she ever wants to progress she needs to be consistant and she is going to experience muscle soreness from time to time.
Can anybody offer me advice as to what I am doing wrong? Or can it be due to something else going on with my client?

I work at a small gym with only two other trainers which really don't mentor me. I have asked for their advice and have come up empty. Any suggestions?

Thank You in Advance for your input.

[SpagsFitness]

I would say that your first issue is being overly conservative. You should make sure you don't injure her, but hypertension and obesity, especially depending on what brought on the hypertension (hmm, I wonder), are obstacles that you should go through, not around. Monitor her vitals, and push her like you would (almost) any other client her age.

Her complaining for what she pays you for is not your problem. Her not getting results solely because she complains about everything, will eventually become your problem.

[KyleAaron]

You should do and encourage things which help recovery.

Stretch at the end of the workout, and any areas which were stiff or worked hard or painful during the workout, give her a couple of stretches to do before she goes to bed and when she gets up tomorrow.

Encourage her to get massages from a competent masseur.

Ensure adequate nutrition, a workout drink like milk rather than just water, and what is eating when she goes home after your sessions?

Make sure you have open communication between you. I always tell clients,

"Our bodies adapt because we stress them. This stress will mean sometimes we have pain or discomfort. Now, there are two types of pain and discomfort. One hinders your movement, one is just sore. Just sore or the occasional twinge is the price you pay for stressing your body - without that there'll be no change.

"But if your movement is hindered, you need to go to the doctor. If you miss a session due to pain, I'll need to see a doctor's certificate before you can train again. If it's not serious enough to go to the doctor, it's not serious enough to miss a session. I'm here to help you. That helps means we must stress your body. It's a bummer but there it is, that's how we change our bodies."

Each of those sentences will have to be repeated from time to time during sessions. Some people have the idea that they'll go to a few sessions, "get fit", and after that it'll be easy - but of course it won't be, because you'll increase the resistance and pace, right? So emphasise that it's a process, that sessions will always be hard, because without stress there's no adaptation. And stress occasionally means pain and discomfort.