Ray Smith — Psychology, Retention & The Goal-Gradient in Fitness

Ray Smith is an Australian fitness professional and founder of Fitness is B.S. — short for Behavioural Science. After nearly three decades managing recreation and leisure facilities, Ray turned his focus to helping gyms and coaches apply behavioural economics to fitness marketing. His work bridges psychology and practical coaching, showing how understanding human behaviour can drive long-term member retention. In this interview, he explains how trainers can use motivational techniques to get clients going and keep them going.

How can trainers apply psychology, like the goal-gradient effect, to motivation?

Ray: Goal setting isn’t linear. The goal-gradient effect shows that people get more motivated the closer they get to a goal. Early on, you don’t get that natural tailwind, so you need pre-commitment strategies to help clients start. Exercise works well because beginners see early gains, which keeps them moving. Later, as returns slow, they’re closer to the goal — so motivation tends to ramp up again.

What practical things can trainers do to help clients climb that motivation curve?

Ray: Use pre-commitment — something signed, or publicly stated — “I’m committed to this goal.” Make progress visible with apps or tracking tools, and talk about that data at the right times. Motivation changes over the journey, so your coaching emphasis should shift too.

You also talk about loss aversion. How can that help with retention?

Ray: People are more motivated to avoid loss than to chase gain. When someone stops training, they lose fitness, strength, and progress. If you’ve tracked things like tonnage or effort, you can show them what they’ve built — it’s not guilt, it’s a reminder of value. It reframes staying as protecting what they’ve earned.

What about clients who stop training for a while? How do you bring them back?

Ray: Some people will pause because of life, time, or finances. The key is managing how it ends. Clients remember the peak and the end — psychology calls it the peak-end rule. Make the ending positive: thank-yous, a small gift, or a personal note. We even created a “free membership” downgrade, like a freemium tier. They stay connected and often come back when ready. Then you need to be in a good spot, relationship-wise.

How can trainers tell when a client’s motivation is dropping?

Ray: On the floor, you see it — fewer sessions, rescheduling, less energy. Systematically, track a simple end-of-session check-in: “How do you feel?” on a 1-10 scale or smiley faces. If scores drop and attendance dips, it’s a red flag.

Some trainers say that their clients don’t care about data. Why would they spend time tracking and analyzing if their client doesn't care?

Ray: Everyone who hires a trainer has a goal, even if they can’t articulate it. They’re paying to have an outcome. Data gives feedback to both client and coach. Not every client needs to monitor the same way Choose metrics that match the person — volume or 1 rep-max for one, perceived exertion for another. Don’t overload them; make it simple and relevant.

Should trainers focus on educating their clients, or just getting them results?

Ray: Both. Early on, it’s more instruction. Later, it’s feedback — “What did you feel on that lift?” Teaching principles like progressive overload helps clients stay motivated and autonomous. If they know what they should be doing, that makes the job so much easier for you and the client is motivated. You need to build their capacity to grow. Bring them to a level that can bring them to the next level.

What do you think about online coaching and hybrid models?

Ray: It’s great for accessibility. Trainers can reach more people at lower price points without losing quality if they define their niche. And we should collaborate more — refer clients between specialists instead of competing for everyone. When I started in the 80s there was the gym and that was it. Now there is so much more. More people are exercising, which is good - and the pool has become larger. It used to be an elite group, now it is more accessible. Technology gives you the opportunity to work with a wider range of clients.

Where does AI fit in all this?

Ray: AI is good for analysis — spotting patterns, summarizing notes, flagging when clients plateau. But programming still needs a coach’s judgment. AI tends to regress to the mean. Use it as a support, not a substitute. You can’t use AI to automate your skill.

For social media posts and getting volume out, it can help you. But people become more aware of AI in marketing. AI could help with going through data, instead of you checking rows and rows of workouts. Automate trend spotting, check-ins, scheduling.

So...too much information, too little time. You mentioned velocity-based training and sensor data. What did you learn there?

Ray: Early devices tracked lots of reps and tempo data, but we couldn’t use it well. There was too much. Now, with AI, that same data can be meaningful because we can get insights faster and with less effort — tempo control, eccentric emphasis, peak velocity. It’s especially useful for strength work or machines with simple sensors.

What’s the next big challenge in fitness?

Ray: Psychology and retention. We’ve made huge strides in biomechanics and physiology, and people are smarter about training. But adherence hasn’t improved. The future is behavioral science — understanding why people keep showing up (or not).

And the biggest change in physical activity?

Ray: The next frontier is keep people exercising. There is much more knowledge now. If I asked someone what glutes were in the 80s, they wouldn’t have known unless they trained it deliberately. The level of skill of personal trainers is so much higher than it used to be: if you would drop them in the 80s now, they would blow people away.

The big question is how we keep people exercising. We’re constantly fighting against inactivity. That’s our next big challenge. We didn't do that well as an industry; use psychology to motivate people to move.

If you could give trainers one piece of advice, what would it be?

Ray: Learn how motivation works. People rarely quit because training was bad. They quit because of life — time, stress, money. Your job is to make it easier for them to keep going: commitment, peak-end memories, loss aversion, and small wins along the way. They’re a lot of external factors at play. How do you manage those? That’s your competition.

My blog has a list of cognitive biases that can be used. All are easy to implement, cost nothing, and backed by research – I include a bibliography of the studies used in each blog post.