What preparation is needed to be a Personal Trainer

Its not all about looking good with a perfect shape in order to become a personal trainer, there is a lot of other things needed to ensure you have a level of credibility.  At the end of the day, this role is a coaching role that is supporting people on their endeavour to get themselves fit or to maintain their fitness.  With this comes a lot of responsibility and dedication in order to make sure the right level of coaching and guidance is given, in a professional and consistent way.  If you are thinking of a career as a personal trainer, then here are some of the things you will need to know or do.

Training / Qualifications

There is a number of qualifications and training courses available in order to become a professional personal trainer.  These courses are really vital in order for the personal trainer to be good and consistent at their job.  If they get the advice wrong that they give to clients, it could lead to injury, and they could in fact be liable.   There are many courses by Study Active that support the development of personal trainers.  These courses include things such as Gym Instructing, Personal Training and Nutrition.  This is a all wrapped up into one qualification and would be a good, rounded outcome covering many areas.   These courses are also priced very reasonably, and they cover both interactive / online training and face to face.   There are assessments aligned to these in order to assess competence which further enforces this as a credible qualification.   When you are qualified you will find that a lot of clients are extremely interested in knowing the details of the qualifications that you have. 

Coaching Skills

Having the qualifications on paper in terms of knowing about personal training is just one step, being a good and encouraging coach is the next step.  Coaching for satisfactory performance is something those personal trainers need to research and be good at.  This will include them looking at setting achievable targets for the client so that there is a challenge but also something that is achievable.   Setting goals that are unachievable will only demotivate the client (and may make them leave) but setting goals that are too easy will not challenge them.  The balance of this needs to be agreed by both and then the personal trainer needs to do their best to help motivate.  There will be days that the client is demotivated and tired and the trainer needs to catch on to this and do their best to get the client motivated.

Insurance Cover

If you do become a personal trainer you will need to decide on how you provide your services.  This could be via an affiliate gym, or you will work alone.  If working and employed by a gym, then normally you will be insured by the gym.  If, however you are not employed by the gym and you work self-employed then you may wish to consider insurance.   This is something that people normally forget about but is an important part of the credibility.   It is unlikely that someone will hurt themselves however if they do you want to be prepared and ensure that you have the right level of cover.  Depending on the exact services you offer and location of this (indoors or outdoors) will determine the right sort of insurance package you need which you can continue to tailor as you feel fit.