Gavin F. Hurley, author of The Playbook of Persuasive Reasoning; @Gavin_F_Hurley

In the summer, I have my morning rituals. For the first several hours of the day, I sit on the couch with my coffee and write. My wife adheres to a different morning ritual. She exercises in the morning and writes in the afternoon. Her workout of choice? Popsugar Fitness. At nine in the morning, she clicks on the Apple TV YouTube app and begins following the on-screen trainers. At first, I plugged in earbuds to drown out the trainers’ voices. But, now I don’t. While my wife mimics the trainers’ physical moves, I am drawn to the trainers’ rhetorical moves.

Personally, I don’t have much first-hand experience with workout coaches. Despite my lack of first-hand experience, I recognize that all proficient trainers share general characteristics: energetic, motivational, healthy, and so on. But, in addition to these characteristics, successful trainers also communicate well—specifically, they are powerfully persuasive. Trainers need to persuade audiences to value fitness because—to be frank—fitness involves degrees of voluntary pain.  Since exercise can painfully strain one’s muscles, workout audiences can naturally resist such foreseeable strain. In response to their natural resistance, trainers seek to uplift the viewer to embrace the pain. To this end, trainers—particularly successful trainers—are often artfully uplifting.

While observing over 15 Popsugar fitness videos, I found three dimensions of their rhetorical approaches to be especially practical. The following tactics can be useful in any communication situation: when persuading others to act, or merely adhering others to understand our spoken or written messages.  

1. Energy through diction

Workout trainers seek to excite participants about workouts. They get viewers to stay engaged throughout workouts and prevent them from quitting. Naturally, such effective trainers radiate charisma. To motivate audiences, they express their energy through gestures, facial expressions, volume and intonation of voice, and so on. Such outward-facing energy can be contagious. It fires up the viewer. However, I found that most Popsugar trainers are fairly controlled with their extroverted passion. Unlike overzealous used car salespeople or yelling infomercial hosts, trainers exude passion while also projecting control and tranquility.

They balance their passion by artfully crafting their diction—that is, the deliberate use of words. Specifically, many trainers channel energy through strong memorable word choices—often verb choices—so they do not have to rely as much on outwardly performing their charisma. For example, trainers may command audiences to “pop off the balls of your feet,” “torch some calories“ or “chase the feeling.” This tactic allows the trainer to moderate their external passion while the words themselves exude energy.

We can learn from this deliberate use of impactful words and vivacious verbs. It stokes persuasive energy within our communication without having to rely as heavily on extroverted outward theatrics.

2. Encouragement and optimism

Optimism is necessary when working out.  After all, exercise often ignites the uncomfortable burn of lactic acid within the muscles. Optimistic rhetoric helps us override our immediate repulsion toward pain. Certainly, the Popsugar trainers are optimistic. But, more importantly, they are consistently optimistic. They may repeat “yes, yes!” throughout the workout (such as trainer Jake Dupree) or repeatedly complement the hard work of viewers (such as trainer Anna Renderer). Even when admitting an exercise’s difficulty, trainers still encourage viewers. For example, a trainer may admit that a leg lift burns the oblique muscle group, but then may tell viewers that that the burning leads to results; they predict that once the burning recedes, viewers will feel wonderful after the workout.

Like trainers, we can integrate optimism into every sentence or utterance of our communication—not in a false or naive way—but in a glass half full way. Optimism serves a practical function. Charisma coaches like Olivia Fox Cabane (The Charisma Myth) are pretty clear that optimism makes us more socially magnetic when communicating. Why? It is simple. Optimism and encouragement makes people feel good when they are around us. Therefore, they become drawn to communicating with us—and more inclined to listen or read our messages. In short, optimism and encouragement is persuasive.

3. Transparency

The trainers may radiate optimism and encouragement, but they are not delusional. They admit that particular exercises can be painful. They do not conceal this reality. Similarly, trainers also transparently outline the purpose of certain exercises. They detail the value of the exercises alongside how specific exercises work. Often, trainers explain how particular movements affect muscle groups. Such transparency ensures that audiences understand that their time and energy is being used efficiently.

We can apply this transparency to our own communication. Specifically, we can use metacognitive signal phrases like, “I am stating this because…” or “The reason why I share this is…” when we write or speak. When doing so, we step back and justify our communication to listeners or readers. This technique builds goodwill with our audience—and clarifies the logical connections between ideas. Ultimately, like a trainer who transparently justifies the moves of an exercise while exercising, we can transparently justify the moves of our communication while we communicate.

In conclusion—

Why not head over to a YouTube fitness channel—perhaps, Popsugar—and experience these rhetorical tactics yourself. Listen to the trainers’ word choices. Feel their projected energy. Maybe listen to a video in the background as you cook dinner, fold laundry, or wash the dog. And as you let the trainers’ charisma seep into your communication habits, it will become easier to wield similar tactics and channel them toward your own success.