How To Become A Fitness Trainer? 8 Steps That Follow

Become a fitness trainer can be an excellent career choice if you like training and supporting others to accomplish their goals. As a fitness trainer, you might have probably already given unofficial fitness training sessions over the years. Still, there are more measures to take as a certified fitness trainer, get a job, or start your independent business. Discover how to become a fitness trainer to determine if it is the best profession for you.

With a growing concern about having healthier lifestyles that give more crucial information about obesity and other chronic disease epidemics, many people are being inclined towards health and fitness professions. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, between 2018 and 2028, employment in the field is assumed to grow by 13%.

Pros of Becoming a Fitness Trainer:

Some people might consider fitness training looks like a challenging profession, where you help people in a field you love, it is adaptable, and you have many options for where you can work. There are some outstanding things about fitness training; here are some listed below.

• It is flexible: In many circumstances, you can set your time for which hours and days you work. You may be able to charge your fees if you work for yourself.
• It is rewarding: There is nothing more satisfying than that time when a client can finally notice and observe the difference in their body.
• There is room for growth and diversity: Fitness training can oftentimes be a jumping-off spot for other stuff like being a fitness trainer, a fitness writer, or going more in your education. 
• You get to develop relationships: If you are genuine with people, fitness training allows you to empathize with every client’s situation, understand them, and then use your intelligence and creativity to build workouts that fit them.
• Keep you in shape: Being a fitness trainer, you have to lead by example, and this thought will keep you on your toes to be in shape to inspire your clients.

Characteristics of a Good Fitness Trainer:

Fitness trainers require an abundance of abilities—just some of the qualities that will encourage you to work like a professional.

• Inspirational
• Analytical
• Focused
• Nurturing
• Patient
• Organized
• Empathetic
• Creative
• Educator
• knowledgeable

To be an efficient fitness trainer, you should appreciate working with different sorts of people, a good listener, and be self-motivated.

You do not need to appear like a bodybuilder as a fitness trainer, but you should maintain a wholesome lifestyle to become a great role model for your clients.

All of those are important, but it is also essential to know what it is like to instruct clients day in and day out. You can discover more about it when you get a professional certificate, but the experience is always the greatest teacher. Training may look like a soothing wind, but it is more challenging than you may understand.

You will serve those clients,

• Who is scared to push too hard or, on the other way, want to push more than they are required?
• Who are careless with the workouts you give them.
• Who criticize you if they do not achieve their fitness or weight loss target.
• Who have all sorts of pretenses for why they can’t or don’t workout
• Who has wounds or other issues
• Who has never worked out and require good modeling for the most basic of workouts
• Who show up without workout shoes or other essential things

Each person is unique, and you need to discover how hard you can motivate that client, what that client requires, and what they need. You also have to be very adaptable and be unhesitant to change the tactics if a workout is not going accordingly.

Steps of becoming a Fitness trainer:

The following are the 8 eight steps you can take which will guide you to become a good certified personal trainer.

1. Do Your Research

Once you have selected to become a fitness trainer is the best decision for you, the first step you take will be searching for the best certification program. Consider a certification from the renowned organization which provides the standard in health and fitness training. After determining the best certification program for you, it is time to collect your study materials. There are many trainer studies programs are created to cover all learning styles by giving content through easy text, graphics, charts, videos, practice tests, online activities, and on-demand study to reinforce the material. This learning practice is self-paced, usually take 80-100 hours over 3-4 months.

2. Get a Certificate as a Personal Trainer

If you have completed your search for fitness training, your next step will be to get certified. It is very crucial to decide from where to get your certification done.

Certifying organizations have their different procedures of certification and behaviors accredited by an independent third party, such as the NCCA. If there a particular organization you like to work for, get to know what certifications they ask or recognize.

Analyze these points before choosing certifying organizations at the websites:

• The exam is taken online, or it is obligatory to attend an on-site examination. If there is an on-site, then the place and time of the exams are offered.
• Is there a requirement of attendance either at a workshop or seminar, and where are these offered? And whether it is a home study program or not? 
• Cost of the fitness training certificate. The prices range from around $400 to more than $1000 and may not cover the study materials and workshops. 
• The certification they provide is national or international. And whether the university is recognized?
• Requirements of continuing education to renew the certificate. Completing a specific number of continuing education (CE) hours is a must of most certifications and will be an additional cost to consider. 

Prerequisites for the exam. At a minimum, most demand a high school diploma, a CPR certification, and that you are at least 18 years of age.

Certifying Organizations:

These are some of the well-reputed certification organizations and their accreditations:

• ACE (American Council on Exercise), accredited by NCCA
• ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine), accredited by NCCA
• AFPA (American Fitness Professionals and Associates), not accredited
• IFPA (International Fitness Professionals Association), accredited by NCCA
• ISSA (International Sports & Sciences Association), accredited by DEAC
• NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine), accredited by NCCA
• NCSA (National Strength and Conditioning Association), accredited by NCCA
• NCSF (National Council on Strength and Fitness), accredited by NCCA
• NFPT (National Federation of Professional Trainers), accredited by NCCA

3. Find a Personal Trainer Job

One of the great things about fitness training is that there are a variety of places you can work, not just at a health club.3 You may be an employee of a business or work as an independent contractor for them. You may also train clients as your own business. If you’re just starting out, however, you might want to work for a larger club to get experience while not having to worry about running your own business. Some ideas for employment opportunities include:

• Commercial gyms: Working at a popular gym is a great way to get experience and many of those clubs, such as XSport, 24 Hour Fitness, Gold’s Gym, and Planet Fitness, hire new trainers all the time. The drawback can be lower pay, working on commission, lots of selling, and having to work long hours doing new member orientations to get new clients.
• Corporate fitness: You can work for a company that offers corporate wellness packages for companies wishing to improve their employees’ health.
• Cruise ships: Many cruises now offer personal training for guests. Cruise Ship Job Finders allows you to search for a variety of cruise lines for different jobs.
• Hospitals or wellness centers: Many hospitals employ personal trainers to help patients recover from illnesses and conditions. These places may require a higher degree or a specialty for working with clients who may have health challenges.
• In-home training: You can train clients in their homes. Another option is to set up a training studio in your home, as long as you meet the zoning and business requirements for your location.
• Local community centers: Check with your local community centers or park district to find out about local clubs that hire personal trainers. Almost all fitness clubs have personal training available, which may be a great place to start.
• Personal training studios: Studios focus almost entirely on personal training and small group training. Because they’re so specialized, they may require more experience or education, but as a result, they will also typically pay more.
• Spas and resorts: All-inclusive resorts sometimes hire personal trainers or fitness instructors to teach exercise classes. Cool Works and ResortJobs.com are websites that provide job listings for parks, resorts, and spas.
• Working for yourself: Once you have gained experience and business acumen, you may set up your own studio.

4. Choose a Specialty

By the passing time and with practice, you will develop an interest in which kinds of clients you most relish training. Then you can invest in your further education and get your specialization done. With a specialty, you will have more to give your clients, and you can charge quite more for your specialized services.

Specialty options are:

• Sports and Athletics: You can assist athletes to improve their stability, agility, speed, and performance.
• Weight management and Lifestyle: You can help your clients to change their behavior and to overcome bad habits, and improve healthier lifestyle.
• Medical: With a Medical Exercise Specialist certification, which is offered through ACE, you can serve post-rehabilitation clients who are improving from conditions such as muscle sprains, heart problems, or orthopedic surgery.
• Nutrition: With this additional certification, you can work with the clients to help them with the diet portion of their fitness objects, give them explicit guidance on how they can lose weight and eat healthily.
• Orthopedics: You can help your clients who have knee discomfort, osteoarthritis, or other similar conditions.
• Special populations: With this type of certification, you can help older adults to work with them to develop the quality of life and sustain muscle mass, or you can help youngsters to make fitness programs that are according to their age and goals.

Many certifying organizations give many specialty certifications, and you may receive a discount if you already possess a basic certification.

5. Develop Your Capabilities and Expand Your Education

Continuing education is not only essential for obtaining your certification, but it also keeps you updated on the advancement in fitness, health, and weight management.

Your certifying organization will offer workshops, courses, and other means to get some additional credits, but there are more different methods to stay informed:

• The American Council on Exercise (ACE) provides touring workshops with credits for ACE, ACSM, NFPT, and more.
• Empower Fitness Events conferences are held in different cities during the year. You can receive all your credits at one time while keeping in touch with what is latest in fitness.
• Human Kinetics offers a diversity of continuing educations courses for nearly every certifying organization.
• The IDEA Health & Fitness Association offers an extensive diversity of courses in both ways, online and in workshops. They also have an annual conference, the IDEA World Convention, where you can get all of your necessary credits in one weekend

6. Start Your Own Business

Once you get certification and get some work experience, eventually, you may start your own business as a limited liability company (LLC), sole proprietor, or corporation. Rather than an employee, if you are a self-governing contractor for a gym, you need to learn the benefits and downsides of these kinds of businesses as well.

Learn How to Run a Business:

Many people go into personal training because they like to assist people. Still, you want to know the aspects of business registration or affiliation, zoning, licensing, accounting, budgeting, filing taxes, tracking your expenses, and more. It is important to take a short business course from a local community college if these things are not familiar to you.

Financial Investment:

In the starting, you will need to spend cash to get your business to grow, which depend on your business type; you may require:

• Business expenses: Business cards, health insurance, website, liability insurance, and continuing education courses to keep your certification
• Fitness equipment: Cardio kits such as weights, treadmill, mats, resistance bands, step, exercise balls, weight bench, BOSU, and other stability and balance equipment
• Other: Quality workout outfits, footwear, music system, water, towels, dispenser, etc

Sell Your Services:

If you do not know marketing tactics, you may require to take courses to acquire the best ways to sell your services to customers.

Get Experience from Outside:

When you work for yourself, you do not get a chance to have other trainers to guide clients. For that purpose, it is usually advised to begin at a gym or some other department before starting your own, to gain some experience.

How Can New Personal Trainers Make Additional Cash?

Think of executing a membership model rather than a pay-as-you-go policy. You can allow various memberships for different periods of time and set up client payment via auto-debit for an accepted term. For clients who cannot manage one-on-one training, consider giving a group boot camp. On the other side, some people like the comfort of training at home, so you can also offer in-home training sessions for an additional fee.

What Kinds of Business Insurance Do New Personal Trainers Require?

Being a certified personal trainer, you require commercial general liability insurance, which includes third-party property damage, bodily injury, and reputational harm. Trainers who run gyms or own many fitness gears may also require commercial property insurance. Go for the best business insurance company that operates with small businesses and has specific packages for fitness instructors and personal trainers.

7. Market Yourself as a Trainer

Marketing without any doubt is one of the most important things you will need to do to draw more clients. The following are a some of the things you may require to get your name out there:

• Business cards: It is effortless to design your own business cards at home, or you can visit a low-cost website.
• Networking: Do inquire locally to know if you can register the Chamber of Commerce or some other professionals group. 
• Referrals: Your current clients can be an excellent source to market you to their social gatherings. Offer a free session or discounts to the people they refer and rewards to the clients who make referrals.
• Seminars: Offer free local or virtual conferences about health, exercise, diet, and similar topics that often a fabulous way to reach potential new clients.
• Social media: Make profiles on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, so you find ways to interact with your clients and potential clients.
• Website: Design your website can be as easy as getting a domain title and signing up with a simple website company or make your site with a web designer’s help.

8. Become Essential to Your Clients:

Being prosperous at this job demands lots of hard work, skill, capability, and experience. To get a certification is no guarantee that you will either capture clients or, most importantly, can be able to keep those clients.

How you train your clients is essential, but how you keep them is even more critical. That’s why you need:

• Attend conferences and workshops: It is incredible how much you acquire from one-weekend attending classes of experts. You also get a glimpse at new tools and can usually purchase them at a discount. Your clients will acknowledge new exercises and equipment as well as your revived energy.
• Give regular assessments: Whether your customers need to lose weight or be healthier, give an assessment every few weeks to see their growth.
• Keep in touch: Send a quick text or emails just to check-in. This is the most important thing you can do for a client. At the start of the session, make it a time to check-in and observe how they feel that day. Modify the workout accordingly.
• Offer extras: Create and print workouts for them to follow their own. Give them your favorite tip or print exciting articles that concern them. It will be a little effort like this that makes them feel you are making your effort on them.

How Do You Assure That a Fitness Program Is Useful for Clients?

There is no specific best workout plan, but many excellent options depend on your client’s beginning point and fitness objects. Do your study, agree on a project with your client, and do your best to get them to attach with it. Training sessions may be challenging, especially at the start; try to concentrate your client on results. At the same time, be adaptable with clients.

Advice from Top Fitness Trainers

For your motivation, we have compiled a list of some advice from top fitness trainers that are excelling in their fields.

Provide a Safe and Comfortable Environment:

“Create a safe space for clients, fostering a no judgment – no competition, no comparison place so that change can happen organically.”

Lead Your Clints By Example:

“Practice what you preach, maintain your own fitness. Anyone can be a trainer but if all of the focus is on the clients it can be easy to overlook your own workout needs as well.

Empower Your Clints:

“The best trainers are coaches with the ability to empower their clients; consistency and connection lead to empowerment.”

Show Your Concern:

“Ask how the client is feeling day to day; truly listen to him or her and adjust the program as needed.”

Help Your Clients to Maintain a Healthy Life:

“Top trainers are comfortable exposing themselves as real human beings with flaws; help the client create a healthy life not just in the gym but when they step out into the world so their hard work and newly-developed confidence travel with them.”

Educate Your Clients:

“A truly great experience is when the client becomes knowledgeable and confident, allowing him or her to take ownership of the workout process.”

Invest Your Time in Continuing Education:

“Take continuing education seriously. Invest the time to develop programs with long-term goals in mind. Listen to clients and adjust the programs to meet each individual’s specific needs. Finally, create a long-term career path by working towards becoming a master trainer; that’s one way to help yourself stand out from your peers.”

Final Thoughts:

Due to the increase in inactive lifestyles and obesity, personal trainers may have many job possibilities. The world always wants new, passionate trainers to get the word out about wellness and fitness. Take out the time to discover what is required to become a trainer before deciding on your career. One of the essential characteristics for a fitness professional is keeping a positive attitude and delivering excellent customer service no matter the circumstances, yet this is something that has to be acquired from experience while serving in the job. There are no alternatives on the way to success in fitness. However, work hard, learn from others, and consistently apply best practices defined by successful personal trainers can reduce the chances of failure.

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