If you love fitness, careers in the personal training field may be perfect for you. Personal trainers help clients achieve their fitness and weight loss goals by creating personalized exercise programs and offering encouragement, advice and support along the way. If you want to become a personal trainer, there are a variety of job settings, types of clients and specializations to choose from.
Background
Personal trainers are certified by a variety of fitness organizations, and trainers are also required to have up-to-date CPR and First Aid certifications. There are many groups that offer training to get certified as a personal trainer, including the American College of Sports Medicine and American Council on Exercise. Training usually covers topics such as nutrition, anatomy, kinesiology, legal issues, teaching methods, exercise science and physiology.
Career Settings
Once you are a certified personal trainer, you have the option of working in a variety of settings. Some trainers work with clients in their homes, some work in gyms or fitness clubs and other trainers work in clinics. Private businesses also hire trainers to work with office employees, in hotels, on cruise ships and with groups for fitness seminars. You can also work out of your home, offering client services in a home-based gym. As a personal trainer, you can be an independent consultant or work for one gym or company.
Client Populations
Personal trainers you may choose the clients they work for. A general personal training certification qualifies you to work with healthy people who are able to follow a regular exercise program. Clients who want to lose weight are most commonly the customers that personal trainers serve. Some trainers obtain specific training to work with diseased populations or certain groups of people, such as obese clients, young people, seniors, cancer patients or people with heart conditions.
Specializations
After you become a personal trainer, you can further your education and earn certifications with ACE or ACSM in areas such as advanced personal training, group fitness instruction, cancer exercise trainer, physical activity in public health specialist or weight management coach. An advanced personal training certification can open up doors to management jobs at fitness centers, or positions doing physical fitness and exercise program assessments, as well as qualify you to work with clients with common conditions and diseases, such as diabetes or heart conditions. Specialized and advanced personal training jobs can also allow you to raise your rates or find higher paying positions.
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