How To Become A Personal Trainer

If you love the gym life and want to support people in their own personal training then becoming a personal trainer might be the ideal role for you. But what should you consider when looking to start a career in personal training?

What should you expect?

A Personal Trainer will work closely with their clients to develop and implement a programme of training exercises to help them to achieve a specific target.

This might be weight loss, toning or training for an event such as a marathon. You will be expected to lead a healthy lifestyle yourself enabling you to promote such a lifestyle to your clients.

You will oversee clients as they carry out their programme, you might supervise and lead individual or group exercise sessions and

What skills do you need?

As with all roles that involve working with people, there are some key personal skills that you will need as a personal trainer. These include:

– Patience and Understanding: These are essential skills when working with people

– Flexibility: You might need to be able to adapt a training programme based on your client’s circumstances such as injury or time pressures.

– Positive attitude: You will need to always present yourself in a positive manner. This will help to get the best response from the client that you are working with.

– Independence: Whether you are employed as a Personal Trainer at a gym or are working on a self-employed basis, you will have to be able to work alone in developing programmes and then on a one to one basis with your clients.

– Physical Fitness: You will be required to have a good level of physical fitness to help in promoting this to your client and to be able to work with clients on back to back training programmes throughout the day.

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What qualifications and training do you need?

So, do you need a degree to be a personal trainer? The simple answer is no, however working towards a recognised qualification will not only equip you with the skills and training that you need but also provide you with experience and a great selling point when it comes to finding clients. There are lots of colleges that offer training courses.

A Level 2 Fitness Instructor course is a great entry point and stepping-stone for the Level 3 Personal Trainer Course. Contact your local college to see what courses they have available.

Investment

There are a range of training courses available at a range of prices, starting from just a few hundred pounds. There are some other costs to consider when becoming a personal trainer from business set up and marketing to equipment and clothing costs, so you will look professional.

You should also consider taking out specialist public liability insurance for personal trainers. Most gyms and fitness clubs insist on proof of insurance before you start working on the gym floor, therefore, it is important to ensure that you are protected against claims from members of the public or your clients.

Hours

Many of your sessions are likely to be one to one sessions, often with working professionals. As such your hours will be determined by your client’s availability. This might mean working evening and weekends. The hours can be quite long but you can fit these around any other commitments if you need to.

Becoming a personal trainer is a really rewarding role as you support clients in achieving their goals. There are opportunities to become a more specialised sports coach and ultimately become a gym manager if it is a career with progression opportunities that you are looking for. Consider the points above to understand what is involved in becoming a personal trainer.

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