There are now more than six million people who call themselves personal trainers. Thanks to training organisations and a clear certification path, interest in the fitness industry continues to grow. And why wouldn’t it? It’s a career that’s super rewarding. You get to choose your own clients and your own hours, and there’s no hard-to-navigate dress code: you just put on your gym kit and that’s it. How do you know if personal training is for you? Here are some signs that you’d make a great personal trainer.
1. You Love Technique
Things like squats and deadlifts look simple enough. But if posture isn’t correct, then these movements can cause injury to the spine and muscles in the back. To properly perform even basic movements, the body has to be correctly aligned and posture has to be good. As a personal trainer, you’ll spend a lot of your time helping people master techniques, especially those whose body shapes make it harder for them to perform certain lifts correctly.
2. You Love Data And Structure
Exercise affects people in different ways. Some people are so-called “super-responders.” These are the people whose fitness, musculature and strength improve dramatically after just a small amount of exercise. Then there are individuals who exercise and workout all the time and barely make any gains. You’ll meet all these kinds of people, especially if you use a platform like PT Distinction. But they won’t all respond the same way to a given training regimen.
This is one of the reasons why personal trainers are so critical to helping people achieve their fitness goal and why one-size-fits-all training DVDs miss the point. Yes, some people will benefit from Cross Fit, but there will be those who don’t. Data becomes imperative because only through measurements will you be able to discover what works and what doesn’t for people who don’t respond to exercise. Personal trainers, even those who are online, need to do things like customizing client programs, planning and evaluating. They also need to take into account the individual mobility of the people that they train, as well as their general lifestyle. Progress in the gym will be short lived if a person has a particular injury or they eat a terrible diet. For many people, all that data and evaluation is boring and tedious. But for others, it can be fun and exciting. If you find it interesting, it’s a sure sign you’ll love working as a personal trainer.
3. You Love Being Social
Personal trainers meet all kinds of people in their travels. One minute, they’re training university-age fitness enthusiasts, the next they’re helping rehabilitate an elderly hip-patient. It helps, therefore, if you’re an outgoing person who likes to meet lots of new people and getting attention. You’ll be spending many hours every day with different people, talking to them, discussing their fears and making money in the process. You don’t necessarily have to be a high-energy Mister Motivator-type, but you do have to be friendly and encouraging, otherwise your clients might not come back. Sessions often involve a lot of listening.
4. You Love Researching Fitness
Many people who are into fitness, love researching the latest data and trends, as well as exercises. We’re constantly looking for the most efficient ways to train so that we get the best results from our gym sessions. If that sounds like something you do, then you probably have a lot to offer clients. As a fitness obsessive, you know that some types of training are likely to be more effective than others. You’ll also be in a position to convey the latest science and data to your clients, experimenting with them to find out what the best regimes are and how you can get them closer to your goals, faster. According to Anthony Wall, Fitness Director of Professional Education, being a trainer isn’t about trying something just once and then stopping. It’s about continuously learning so that you can help people realize and succeed in their goals.
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