Personal Trainer
On your marks, get set, go! This month marks the London Marathon, an event that takes a lot of discipline and training, similarly to this month’s career: Personal Trainer. Help others to become their best selves and achieve their fitness goals. This is a great career for those with a passion for health and fitness and who want a role that will keep you active as you support others to do the same. Training is in session…
Job Description
Salary (Avg.) £28,000
On average, you could earn between £15,000 to £60,000 a year as a Personal Trainer in the UK, according to Future Fit Training. As a personal trainer, you’ll build a clientele and support them to achieve their health and fitness goals. This is usually based within a gym, however you can adapt this role to suit you, with remote sessions or starting your own business. Your day to day will vary depending on the client, as you could be supporting someone with a spectrum of goals, from losing weight, building strength to improving chronic body pain.
Qualifications and Skills
Strengthen some key skills and you’ll be a Personal Trainer in no time! To ensure that this is the role for you, you’ll need to be passionate about fitness. Your primary role will be exercising, whether this is alongside your client or demonstrating a particular form, you’ll need to maintain a high level of fitness. If you don’t find enjoyment in this, this is not the role for you. You’ll also need a good understanding of fitness. A great avenue to this role could be to do Fitness at A-Levels.
You could gain other qualifications to support you and expand your offering, by specialising in particular areas, for example:
- Nutrition: Explore qualifications in nutrition to support your clients outside the gym as well.
- Exercise referral: An exercise referral qualification (also referred to as supporting clients with long-term conditions) allows you to work with clients with common medical conditions. GPs won’t refer patients directly to you, but they may refer patients to a gym which runs a referral scheme.
- Other specialist qualifications: There are other qualifications such as ‘low back pain’ or ‘diabetes’ which allow you to work clinically with patients with these conditions.
What can you be doing now
Get in the gym! If you want to be on the floor and training people in the gym, familiarising yourself with equipment is a great place to start. You could even get a personal trainer yourself, this is a great opportunity to ask them questions and learn from them or ask to shadow them, whilst you learn proper form yourself. Work experience in any customer service role will also be advantageous. This is a career that is very people first, so building those communication skills will support you in the long run.
