How to Become a Personal Trainer
Michael Yi
To become a personal trainer you’ll need bags of patience, enthusiasm and the ability to motivate others. But if you’re passionate about health and fitness and up for a challenge, it could be the perfect career choice.
Here’s a quick guide to this fulfilling job:
What does a personal trainer do?
Personal trainers help people to achieve their health and fitness goals by setting achievable targets, planning individualised exercise programmes and offering healthy lifestyle advice. They also motivate and encourage their clients, monitoring their progress and celebrating their achievements.
Personal qualities play a big part when it comes to becoming an effective trainer. To succeed in your ambition you’ll need:
- Excellent listening skills
- Strong communication skills
- Enthusiasm
- The ability to motivate others
- Patience
- Creativity
- A positive outlook
- The ability to form positive professional relationships
- A passion for health and fitness
- A desire to help clients succeed
The average salary for a personal trainer is $87,770 in Australia
The average pay is for personal trainers is $45 per hour
Popular career paths for personal trainers
When you become a qualified personal trainer you could apply for a job at a gym, a health club, a spa or a resort. Alternatively, you could opt for self-employment and either:
- Pay rent to a gym so that you can work in their space
- Train in public spaces such as parks
- Train in your clients’ homes
- Train in your home
- Set up your own gym
- Teach fitness classes in a variety of venues
As you gain experience you might want to consider up-skilling by undertaking additional training in areas like nutritional advice, postnatal fitness, pilates, sports massage or obesity.
As a beginner, where should I start in personal training?
Before you start working as a trainer you’ll need a valid first-aid certificate that includes CPR.
If you decide to become self-employed you’ll also need to register with HMRC and invest in public liability insurance, in case any of your clients injure themselves while they’re working out. If you don’t have insurance, they could sue you and you could even be liable for their loss of earnings!
Once you’ve dealt with the necessary paperwork, it’s time to promote your new personal training business with passion!
Not sure how to go about doing this? Here are our top tips:
- Offer free trial sessions
- Ask the gym where you train for staff referrals
- Put up posters
- Hand out leaflets
- Approach existing gym goers
- Advertise on Facebook
- Set up a website and share your knowledge by blogging
- Offer free online nutrition workshops
- Ask for client testimonials and share on social media
- Offer a refer a friend discount
- Offer flexible payment plans
Australia’s health and fitness industry is currently worth over $2.4 billion, so why not qualify as a personal trainer and become part of its success story? Check out our range of personal trainer courses and start your new fitness career today!
