The role of a personal trainer is to guide their clients and help them achieve every health and fitness goal that they set for themselves. To be a personal trainer, you normally need to be an experienced fitness instructor with a range of qualifications. To be even more successful and to help their clients as much as they can, personal trainers should take a look at what additional qualifications they should study and obtain so they can help their clients reach their maximum potential. These additional qualifications can also help bring in business and make you stand out from the crowd, especially if you are a self-employed personal trainer. If you are already a personal trainer, or you are thinking about taking this career path and want to know more, then the following has more information about the profession, the qualifications you need to have, and the additional ones you should consider getting.
The Profession
A personal trainer needs to be able to communicate well with their clients. They need to find out what their client’s fitness level is and what their health history is like. Once this information is obtained, they will set a number of short-term and long-term aims and will plan the programs around these goals to ensure their clients achieve them. Personal trainers have to motivate, coach and educate their clients to help them stick to the guidelines and follow the programs in a safe and effective way. They will aid their client’s workout sessions and will give them advice on changes they should make to their diet and lifestyle and what they can do to improve their health. Personal trainers will also check and record the progress their clients make, using specific methods like measuring body-fat levels and their heart rate. In certain cases, a personal trainer may also work as a full-time gym instructor and will do personal training outside their normal work hours.
Essential Qualifications
You normally need to be an experienced fitness instructor who holds a recognized qualification to become a qualified personal trainer. Recognized qualifications include a Level 2 Certificate in Fitness Instructing, a Level 2 Diploma in Health, Fitness and Exercise Instruction and a Level 2 Diploma in Instructing Exercise and Fitness. To study a fitness instructor and/or personal trainer course, take a look at local colleges and private training providers. These courses are usually widely found amongst these places of study.
Additional Qualifications
If you are interested in taking your training further, then you should consider getting some additional qualifications. These include a Level 3 Diploma in Fitness Instructing and Personal Training and a Level 3 Diploma in Personal Training. Another good way to demonstrate your skills and competence and to improve your potential future career prospects is a membership with a professional organization. These include the National Register of Personal Trainers (NRPT) or the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs). For the best personal training certification, visit OriGym and take a look at their personal training diploma. This diploma combines the OriGym Level 2 Fitness Instructor and Level 3 Personal Trainer courses.
Why Should You Do This?
Having additional qualifications is brilliant if you are self-employed as it can be a deal-breaker for new and potential clients. They really make you stand out because they show you have extra knowledge and have dedicated extra time to attain this knowledge. If you’re already qualified as an instructor, then you can get a Level 3 Award in Conversion of Advanced Fitness Instructor to Personal Trainer Status. Having this will give you the opportunity to change your membership status with the REPs to Personal Trainer.
Related Skills
Personal trainers must have public liability insurance and be trained in first aid to be able to work. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation certificate (CPR) must be included with this training. Professional bodies will be able to give advice on this as well as information on insurance, tax and issues associated with self-employment. To be a personal trainer, you need to have great interpersonal skills, be really organised and have plenty of patience with their clients.
The personal training field has become very popular and competitive and this continues to increase. Due to the competition, the importance of learning and development of additional skills is becoming more and more important. If you don’t decide to better yourself, then you could be harming your chances of reaching your full potential in mind and money, and you could be putting your job security at risk. Just make sure any further study is relevant to the sector of personal training you want to go into.