How To Become A Personal Trainer

Posted by David Gonyea on November 13th, 2019

If you want to share your passion, expertise and love of fitness to the world, then personal training can be a great career choice. Becoming a personal trainer is an incredibly rewarding career path as you work with and support people to help them to reach their goals. Helping each client to achieve their objectives gives you a great sense of achievement and each journey will be slightly different allowing you to expand on your skillset and gain a richer, deeper understanding of people and their motivations.

So, if you’re a fitness enthusiast and want to share this enthusiasm with others, then how do you become a personal trainer? Read on for our quick start guide of how to become a personal trainer.

Four Steps For How To Become A Personal Trainer

1.      Be aware of the pros and cons

A career in personal training can be incredibly rewarding. Furthermore, it is a career choice that offers flexibility with your schedule, and you can manage your time and business in the way you want to. It is a career full of variety where you will come across many individuals from all walks of life.

There are some drawbacks to the job too. The income, for a start, is uncertain and unreliable, one month you may be busy, the next you may have no sign-ups at all. If you want to manage your own personal training business, you’ll need to have a range of business skills from marketing to bookkeeping and even sales to convince clients to hire you. You’ll often have to work around client’s or employer’s schedules, which may mean working evenings and weekends which may feel antisocial for your personal life.

2.      Get certified

An online personal training course is a great way to learn more about your future career and means you complete the necessary training and exams to become a certified personal trainer. There are lots of different qualifications you can take to boost your skills as a personal trainer.

For how to become a personal trainer, it is wise to have a Level 2 Fitness Instructor qualification and Level 3 Personal Trainer too. You can find combined courses that cover both of these aspects here.

You can also specialise with additional CPD courses such as becoming a Kettlebell, Circuit, SMT or Cycle specialist. This can help you to develop a niche personal trainer offering.

3.      Land your first gig

Depending on your preferences, you may wish to run your own personal training business. Alternatively, you may want to be an employee for another business. While the obvious role would be in a gym or training studio, there are lots of options available such as at spas, wellness centres, holiday resorts, hospitals, corporate fitness and even on cruise ships.

4.      Keep specialising

Just like with your fitness, you want to be at the top of your game as a personal trainer. With this in mind, it is important to keep learning, completing more qualification and keep striving for your ideal clients and training type. Some personal trainers get a buzz from helping athletes while others get their kicks from assisting with lifestyle and weight management. Whatever kind of training makes you happy, keep specialising and pursuing this niche, so you have a career that you really love.

To find out more about how to become a personal trainer and the different accreditation options available, search PT Skills.