How To Be A Personal Trainer – Are You Right For The Job?
How to be a personal trainer
With rates of obesity rising at a dramatic rate, it is no surprise then that the fitness market has grown tremendously and that plenty of people want to find out how to be a personal trainer.
Arm yourself with as much info as possible
While the road to becoming a personal trainer is relatively straightforward, you still have to be the right sort of person for the job. Are you outgoing and do you have the ability to motivate others towards their goals?
Obviously it would also pay to make sure that you are in peak physical condition yourself and have a capacity to be very patient with people and never lose your cool if they don’t achieve the results that they set out to achieve.
Many personal trainer certification guides will tell you that it is not essential to be 100% fit yourself, but I’m of the opinion that you should be at least presentable because in effect you are setting an example for your client and if you look fit and slim your client is likely to take both you and the exercise more seriously.
How to be a personal trainer – training and certification
If you want the best of the best, then you should considering receiving your certification from the Aerobics and Fitness Associated of America (AFAA). Apart from being nationally recognized and accredited, they offer a high standard of theoretical and practical teaching to give you the best possible chance of landing a job once your training is complete.
Having said that, many different fitness centers or institutions require different qualifications so you should check exactly what your employer of choice requires before undertaking the training itself.
Choosing a specialty to boost employment chances
With more and more people entering the fitness industry on a daily basis, many applicants are searching for ways to differentiate themselves from the crowd by undertaking further study and specializing in a particular field within the personal trainer field. Check the personal trainer job description of the position you are applying for to be absolutely sure of what is required.
Being able to provide more than just basic personal training is great way to get attention from potential employers but also earn more money at the same time. It is also a great way to achieve more satisfaction from, for example, helping people who have chronic diseases or physical disabilities.
Employed vs. self employed
While it is true that being self-employed offers you more flexibility in terms of qualifications and work demands, it will no doubt leave you with the other hassles of running a business like doing the books and more importantly, marketing and advertising to get the word out about your services. You will also need to arrange some sort of fitness instructor insurance, especially if you are going into business for yourself and don’t have the third party cover of a large fitness institution to fall back on.
In the beginning it may be difficult to let others know of your new business, but the best approach in my opinion would be to tell your friends and family about it and let the power of word of mouth do its thing.
Once you have a small group of regular clients it is just as important to retain those clients as it is to recruit new ones by investing some of your income back into more wider-reaching forms of advertising.
How to be a personal trainer? Read a book!
If you are still unsure of the direction that you want to take regarding how to be a personal trainer, one of the best things that you could do is pick up a book detailing each step.
Click here to view a selection of personal trainer books
My personal preference would be the Becoming a Personal Trainer For Dummies book which comes highly recommended to get you off on the right foot.