How to Become a Personal Trainer

What Do Personal Trainer’s Do?

Personal trainers create fitness programs to help clients reach their goals. Trainers then guide the client, often in a collaborative process, through the program. Trainers create and manage programs for both individuals and groups of people of all abilities.

Previously, personal trainers were only in charge of their clients’ cardiovascular, flexibility, and strength training regimens. Over the past 10 years, trainers have started to support clients both in and out of the gym. This includes nutrition guidance, injury prevention, and proper sleep habits.

While trainers are now helping clients beyond the gym, their work environment has also changed. They still work in your typical health club and neighborhood gym, but they also now train clients online and in their homes. Many have started a hybrid approach of seeing clients both in person and over a video service like Zoom.

Now that we know what trainers do, we can look at the process of becoming a personal trainer.

 

Steps to Becoming a Personal Trainer

 

Step 1: Make Sure You Have the Prerequisites

 

High School Diploma or GED

Accredited and reputable personal training certifications, including the ones listed below, have a requirement of a high school diploma or GED. If you don’t already have a diploma, you can typically complete the GED in under three months.

You Don’t Need a Bachelor’s Degree to Be a Certified Personal Trainer

A college degree isn’t required to become a personal trainer. A degree, especially in exercise science, exercise physiology, or a related area, will definitely give you a head start on becoming a knowledgeable trainer. It isn’t required, though.

I’ve seen many good trainers, including myself, not have a degree and still go on to successful careers in the industry. The internet provides access to whatever information we want to go after. While advanced education provides a structured environment to learn the information, it doesn’t prevent those who want to learn from doing so. The same textbooks used in lectures can be purchased online. You can also enroll in specific courses on human anatomy, kinesiology, and exercise science. There are also countless numbers of independent workshops that you can take without receiving a degree.

The choice is up to you. Attending a university and learning in a structured environment has its advantages. Four years with other like-minded individuals and access to a structured curriculum are hard to beat. A bachelor’s degree also gives you a leg up in job interviews down the road.

The alternative, though, is becoming certified in less than 6 months and gaining real world experience at a gym or health club. You can then take the money you would spend on school and put it toward independent education.

CPR and AED

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) certifications are required. These courses allow you to assist clients and members in need of medical attention.

Courses can be completed in a day and usually cost between $30 and $75. Depending on the personal training certification you are taking, you may even take CPR and AED online. Check with the organization first before purchasing.

Also note that you aren’t required to have your CPR or AED before you purchase or study for your training exam. You must, however, complete these courses before receiving your training certification.

 

Step 2: Choose Your Personal Training Certification

To become a personal trainer, you need a nationally accredited certification, which gives you the basic requirements to work as a trainer. It is required for employment at most gyms and health clubs. It is your ticket for entry and is the bare minimum any trainer should start with.

The idea is to give personal trainers a baseline of knowledge before they train clients.

Note that there are some gyms, like Equinox, that will hire you without a training certification with the idea that you have a time frame to become certified. We would still recommend becoming certified before training clients!

What is the Best Personal Training Certification?

There is no right or wrong answer to this.

Over the years, NSCA, NASM, and ACSM have gotten attention for the quality of their certification processes, and you really can’t go wrong with that name recognition. I have taken the base certification from three different organizations, including NASM, AFAA, and NCSF. They were all at different times in my career, but I really can’t say one was head and shoulders above the others.

Each certifying body has its own method and system of learning. Choosing the one that is right for you will be what makes it the best.

What is NCCA Accreditation?

The National Commission for Certifying Agencies, or NCCA, is an agency that was formed to develop standards of excellence for voluntary certifications in healthcare. In short, they tell you if the certification you are looking at lives up to the standards set for professional certification programs. Most of the big organizations that have personal training certifications are NCCA accredited programs. This includes all the organizations on the list below. This doesn’t mean much for you as a trainer except that most gyms and health clubs will require an accredited certification.

Which One Do Clients Prefer?

Nine out of ten clients won’t have any idea what your certification is or who the organization is that offered it. You might meet one in a thousand people who is aware of NCCA accreditation. What they will care about is that you have a certification, and that you can help them reach their goals. Over the course of 20 years of training, I can count on one hand the number of clients who knew about a trainer’s certification or organization.

Which One Do Gyms Prefer?

This is all going to depend on the gym you are applying to. Many gyms have a list of the certifications they accept or recommend. They may even have connections with the organizations that will allow you to get a discount on your purchase.

When in doubt, almost every gym is going to accept organizations like the NSCA, NASM, The Cooper Institute, ACSM and ACE. Many clubs also realize that the basic certification doesn’t define a trainer, and they will accept any that are NCCA accredited. There are certain gyms that have the aforementioned relationship with a certification and will require you to get it through that organization. Other local gyms or athlete-specific facilities will want all fitness instructors and coaches to have the same basic credential.

It’s always best to contact the company you would like to work for ahead of time to see if there is a requirement

What Does a Personal Training Certification Qualify You For?

Not much! I don’t want to rip on national certifications, as there has to be a standard set in the industry.

With that said, your first certification is there to get you in the door, and is your ticket to entry in the field. Most national personal training certifications will simply take you from being a new or not very experienced trainer to an average one at best. None of these certifications will establish you as a top professional or as a go to resource for clients.

It’s what you do after you get this certification that defines how good of a trainer you will eventually become.

Where to Get Your Personal Trainer Certification

I’ve listed 11 of the most notable certifications in the industry. Most gyms will accept these certifications, but as mentioned above, it’s always best to reach out to the company you want to work for ahead of time.

1. American Council on Exercise, ACE Fitness

2. Aerobics and Fitness Association of America, AFAA

3. American College of Sports Medicine, ACSM

4. The Cooper Institute

5. International Sports Sciences Association, ISSA

6. National Academy of Sports Medicine, NASM

7. National Council on Strength and Fitness, NCSF

8. National Exercise and Sports Trainers Association, NESTA

9. National Federation of Professional Trainers, NFPT

10. National Strength and Conditioning Association, NSCA: Certified Personal Trainer

11. NSCA: Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

Certification Study Packages

Organizations have different levels of study packages based on the support given. This is often an attempt to upsell the candidate. Going with the base study package is usually the best option to gain access to the certification. If you learn better with live access, then upgrading to a more “premium” package may be a good option for you. There are also several independent resources to help you pass your certification.

Getting the Best Deal

If you currently work at a gym, check if there are any discounts available for the certifications listed. Many times, corporate gyms will have a relationship with certifying bodies and receive heavy discounts on the cost.

Also, be sure to use Google as a resource to search for coupons or discounts before purchasing.

Personal Training Schools

There are many personal training programs and schools out there that provide you with hands on experience in a classroom or gym setting. They are usually much more expensive than a base national certification, but you leave with the same certification. I’ve seen some excellent trainers come out of these schools, but their success wasn’t a result of the school. The schools aren’t listed because I believe your money is better spent in a self-study program. You can then use the extra money to spend on your future education.

Step 3: Study For and Pass Your Certification Exam

After deciding what certification is best for you, it’s time to get ready to pass your exam. The basic structure for most organizations is to provide a book, review questions, and online practice tests.

The study period is, on average, 3-6 months, but can be shorter or longer depending on the time you have to study. You’ll want to spend whatever amount of time you need to feel comfortable training your first client. Yes, you want your certification, but keep in mind that the goal is to become a competent personal trainer. Cramming for an exam in a month’s time may get you certified, but probably isn’t the best route to retaining the information.

There will be over 100 questions, and up to 200, on the exam, which is usually computer-based. Depending on the organization, it’ll be in person or proctored online. Since the lockdown and COVID, most organizations now offer the online option.

 

Step 4: Find a Job as a Personal Trainer

As mentioned, there are health clubs and gyms where you don’t have to be certified to get started. These locations may have their own education structure in place to help you get started without a certification. There may also be the option of internships or apprenticeships that allow you to learn the ropes from someone with more experience than you.

Gyms and health clubs aren’t your only options in starting your new career as a trainer. As the fitness industry continues to grow and change, there are different paths for fitness professionals to take.

Let’s walk through some options, noting the positives and negatives of each.

Career Paths for Personal Trainers

 

Health Clubs, Corporations, and Franchise Gyms

Health clubs, corporations, and franchise gyms are usually working under a company’s umbrella. They have a structure in place to ensure a similar experience across locations. The difference comes into play with corporate-owned locations versus franchise-owned locations. Equinox and Lifetime are corporately owned, with similar experiences at each location. Anytime Fitness or Crunch are franchises that are run by individual owners. They have similar experiences among the franchise locations, but can differ based on the owner.

In short, working for a health club as a personal trainer is one of the best ways to build your resume and establish yourself as a professional.

Positives

• You’ll work with a wide variety of clients with different ability levels and personalities. The repetitions you’ll gain in the assessment, sales, and training process will be hard to replicate elsewhere.
• The environment provides structure. You have the advantage of working in what is usually a very structured environment with built in mentors in the managers and trainers. The guidance and mentorship you will receive from these fitness professionals will blow away most of the information you receive in your certification.
• Built in educational opportunities. This includes in house training from other trainers and workshops in the company. In addition, you’ll often receive discounts or reimbursement for attending external education. Companies like Equinox and Lifetime are both recognized as leaders in the field with education and development programs that others can’t match. They each also have required in house education for new and seasoned trainers.
• More opportunities to prospect. Not only do managers help set you up with new clients but you also have a fitness floor full of prospects. This gives you the opportunity to network with members and build a roster without leaving the club.

Negatives

• You’ll be working the floor to build your business. In my experience in the health club world, the biggest complaint that fitness instructors had was in building their personal training business. When starting at a big box gym they will often pay you a floor wage to prospect for new clients and clean the floor. While there was ample opportunity to build a business by prospecting among members, it wasn’t always as easy as they’d expect. Networking, like fitness training, is a skill that is learned. There were many trainers that didn’t feel comfortable having to start a conversation on the fitness floor.
• You have to be able to sell. With networking also comes the sales aspect of personal training. You can be the best trainer in the world but if you can’t get the value of your service across to potential clients, then you won’t build a client base. In a health club or corporate gym they will expect you to sell training programs to prospects. The good news is that most companies will provide training and repetition to get better at sales. Unfortunately, in the beginning you will have to have thick skin to get over some of the rejection.
• There can be competition amongst trainers. Health clubs will provide you some of the best mentors and peers you have in the fitness industry. On the other hand, it will often feel like you are competing with co-workers. Many of the larger clubs have training staffs up to 50 trainers. With this many trainers, it can often seem like you are competing for new clients and appointments. My best advice here is to realize that the more effort you put in to meet members the more likely you are to realize that your co-workers aren’t your competition.
• Your training session split will be lower. As mentioned, the benefits of working at a big box gym are the structure, ready-made prospects and built in education. With those opportunities you can also expect the infrastructure cost of the company to be higher. The more a company has to pay in these areas the more likely that your training split will be lower than what you could make on your own. Most gyms will take between 40-70% of the cost of a training session. If you are charging $100 a session that means the gym is taking between $40-70 a session. Leaving you taking home only $30-60 a session. Again the other perks that come with the job have to be considered. Advertising and finding ready-made prospects alone costs money and time.
• There will likely be a non-compete. The other downside of health clubs is that they rarely allow you to train elsewhere. There will usually be a note in the contract about not training within a certain distance of the club you work at. This could be a negative for those who also want to build their own client base and independent business.

Locally Owned Gyms

Locally owned gyms aren’t affiliated with other locations or franchises. They will often have a local owner, often someone who is passionate about fitness. Working for this type of gym is an excellent way to get your feet wet in the industry.

Positives

• The owners are usually passionate about fitness. Many of these gyms are owned by personal trainers, so you’ll work with passionate people who have been in your shoes.
• You can more easily impact the culture. Local gyms are usually smaller than the big box clubs giving you the added benefit to help shape the company’s culture and work environment. A small gym often has fewer trainers and members making it different from working for a large chain or franchise operation. You may develop closer relationships with a tighter knit personal training staff and be able to develop deeper relationships with the members.
• Your schedule should be more flexible. In addition to the impact you’ll be able to have there is often the opportunity for a more flexible schedule and the ability to work independently as well. The employee contract you sign may not have the same stipulations about only training at that location.
• You may start off with clients. Often small gyms will look to hire a fitness professional to fill a need within the gym. This means there may be a greater opportunity for them to fill your client base from the start. This can give you a good chance to start with a little more income than you would at a bigger club.

Negatives

As you can see, there are many positives to working at a smaller gym. With the positives come the tradeoffs you have to make compared to working at a bigger health club.

• There likely won’t be as much structure as a bigger company. A smaller club may allow you to have more of an impact on the culture in place but it can also mean there is less structure and guidance when you first get started. They simply may not have as many resources available as the bigger companies.
• You have to prospect on your own time. Many big box gyms offer a paid floor schedule. This gives you the opportunity to get paid to network for new clients. Most small gyms don’t offer floor hours and you’ll instead have to prospect on your own.
• The education will vary by location. Some will have established trainers in place that will provide guidance and mentorship to new trainers. In others they may leave you to figure it out on your own. It’s true that your mileage may vary at big box locations as well but some of the more developed chains, like Equinox and Lifetime, have mentorship and required education for new fitness professionals.
• With fewer resources comes less stability. As covid showed small businesses don’t have the same resources to survive in shallow times. Most owners will have shallower pockets than the big box owners and more suspectible to their businesses being affected during recessions.

Working Independent

This is when fitness professionals will pay to rent space in local gyms or studios. It also includes in-home training. It is the model many trainers have always dreamed of, but it is recommended for those who have more experience under their belt.

Positives

• For all intents and purposes you are the boss. This gives you as much freedom and flexibility as you want. You create your own schedule and come and go as you please. This obviously leaves you open to pursuing online and hybrid opportunities as well.
• You create your own systems and brand for your company. This includes structuring your own sessions, create your own assessments, and making sure client relations are the gold standard. Personal trainers who go this route are usually self starters and want to put their own mark on their business.
• Higher percentage of the per session split. Out of all in person personal trainer salaries this will be one of the highest per session. You determine how much you charge and only have the cut you pay to the gym or studio. If you are training the client in home, you will keep the entire session rate.

Negatives

• You’re on your own with education. Without the structure of a big box or locally owned gym, you no longer have the education benefit in place. You lose access to the guidance of the managers and other trainers in the gym and the workshops and fitness industry discounts.
• You don’t have a gym full of members to prospect from. When working at a health club or local gym you usually have a pool of prospects to pull from if you lose a client. When you are working independently your prospects mainly come from advertising and referrals. This leaves you in a state of constantly having to worry about adding to your client base. While we firmly believe that all trainers should always be prospecting, this is easier to do when you have access to hundreds of prospects a day.
• The higher training session split comes with a caveat. Yes, the pay per session is higher when working on your own. That is before you consider the marketing, equipment, travel time and travel costs associated with each session. Not to mention having to pay for your own health benefits! While you should still come out with more money per session it won’t be as drastic of a difference as you imagined.
• You’ll have to search for mentors. Local and corporate owned gyms usually provide the built in co-workers and mentors. When you are working on your own, you have to seek out peers in the fitness industry. This is an important component I’ve seen trainers miss. The ability to connect with and learn from other fitness professionals daily is invaluable.

Online Training

This is the new go to model and career path for personal trainers. It gives you the flexibility and satisfaction that come from building your own business while avoiding having to split per session costs with gyms.

Monthly Program

Personal trainers will use the online avenue to create monthly fitness programs for clients. Often providing strength training, cardiovascular programs, mobility work, and nutrition plans. The clients will receive weekly check-ins and have access to their trainer during set hours. The parameters will vary based on the service and cost. Monthly programs usually start around $200 and go up based on what the trainer is offering.

Besides the monthly program, trainers may offer virtual 1-on-1 training for an added cost.

1 on 1 Over Video

Covid pushed virtual training sessions to the forefront. There were already companies providing this service, but it hadn’t taken off in scale yet. The fitness industry is pushing further in this direction, with many gyms offering the option. There are also companies like Forme that are looking to enhance this service with more sophisticated technology.

For the average trainer and client, Zoom or FaceTime work just fine. A personal trainer can put together an hour-long session on their phone and guide a client almost as if they were there in person.

Hybrid Training

While Working For a Gym or Health Club

Going all in with online training has a ton of benefits but still carries with it the risk of being independent. The lack of benefits, peers, in house education, and marketing costs still exist.

This has led many fitness trainers to pursue a hybrid approach. They will train private clients online while also working for a gym or health club. This allows the trainer to have a stable base of clients at the gym while also building up their private business outside of it. Finding a company that allows this is the key to that model.

Working Independently

Other trainers will use the hybrid model to train their private clients in person and online. This gives local clients the option that fits them best while allowing trainers to avoid some of the costs of renting space.

Finding the Right Fit

Only you will know what the best career path is for you. We highly recommend getting experience in a health club or local gym before starting off on your own. However, each trainer comes into the fitness industry from different backgrounds. Starting off online or working for yourself may be the best option for trainers switching industries.

Some questions to ask yourself when looking for the right fit:

• Are you looking for mentors and built in education?
• How much money do you have to invest in outside education if you go independent?
• Do you thrive on freedom and autonomy or do you need more structure and accountability?
• Do you have experience with marketing yourself? Generating leads and referrals?
• Are there studios to train in your location or mainly big box and franchisees?
• Do you thrive on big teams or smaller ones?
• How much money do you need to make in your first 6 months? Do you have a runway of money saved while you build your business?

What to Look For In a Health Club and Gym

1. A group of trainers that have been there for at least 3-5 years. Senior trainers show a strong culture and are a good source of guidance.
2. Managers that have experience being a personal trainer. When starting as a trainer you are putting your trust into the managers and other trainers to help develop you.
3. A recruiting and management team that treats you like you are already part of the company culture. They should be respectful of your time during the interview process and do their best to make you feel comfortable. The managers should show a genuine interest in learning about you and how you will fit into the team’s culture.
4. A front desk and staff that greets you when you walk through the door. Every employee is important in a gym and how you are greeted tells about how the employees are treated.
5. Education and sales should come up. Preferably they’ll mention both and how they have the in house training to back them up.

What to Ask During the Interview

1. How long does the average trainer stay at your gym?
2. What percentage of the training session split do you receive? Are there bonuses in place to earn more.?
3. Is there structured education from the company? Does that individual location offer any among the trainers?
4. Is there a continuing education allowance?
5. How do trainers develop and grow there? IS there a mentorship in place?
6. How do they handle promotions and potential pay increases?
7. How would they describe the culture of the club? Of the training team?
8. How are leads distributed?
9. What separates your most successful trainers from the rest?
10. What goals are there in place for me to grow my business over the first 3-6 months and first year? What are the expectations?
11. What is your favorite part of working for the company?
12. Why did you start your own gym?
13. Do we follow specific programming templates? What kind of flexibility is there?
14. Is there an opportunity to still train clients online outside of the company?
15. How often do we meet for 1 on 1 development meetings? How often do we meet as a team?

Time to Get Started

The fitness and training industry is growing and changing each year. If you’re set on becoming a personal trainer, then you’re entering the field at an exciting time. There’s much to learn after you are certified and choose a career, path. We encourage anyone reading this to take their time and continue to do their research. Educate yourself as much as possible from multiple sources, ask questions of current trainers in the field; and don’t be afraid to go back to school if you feel you need more education or training.

You should now have a clear idea on how to get started as a personal trainer. If you want to learn more, please check out our article on the 6 components that make a successful personal trainer.

Good luck, and happy training!