What Does It Take To Become A Personal Trainer?

Personal trainers have a lot of responsibility and training in order to fulfill their job. This is not an easy task to achieve, and it takes a lot of training and courses to get the badge. Clients of personal trainers are usually quite keen to understand the sweep of skills a personal trainer has in order to justify the money spent (usually per hour) for the privilege. It is not only the formal training that makes a personal trainer good but a lot of the softer skills also relate to coaching and performance. Here are some thoughts from us below on what it takes to become a good personal trainer.

Get the Badge

It is important that to hold the badge and call yourself a personal trainer, you actually have the formal qualifications in the background that backs this up. This takes a lot of time and resilience as there is a lot to go through. The personal trainer qualifications will usually take the form of the completion of the formal training and passing of exams. Thereafter a formal certification is credited. Most personal trainers will widen their scope of learning to potentially look at things such as nutrition so that they can also give this sort of support and guidance. The more qualifications the trainer has will result in potentially a higher fee being able to be charged per hour.   Whatever the suite of qualifications that the trainer receives should also be advertised and well known so the client is well aware that they are dealing with a professional.

Patience

Not everyone is looking to be the world’s strongest man and some people are looking for a personal trainer in order to potentially get back into shape or maintain a level of fitness. It is important for the trainer to be very patient with people that are not achieving things at the desired pace. As much as motivation is a massive part of this role, do not overdo it or people may actually feel demotivated, or even worse they could fall ill.  A joint fitness plan should be agreed upon between both parties and at an agreeable pace. If this is then too hard for the client, this should be reviewed together, and amendments made.  Again, maintaining the balance of motivation and patience.

Credibility

Achieving and maintaining credibility as a personal trainer sounds easier than it really is. Personal trainers are looked up to in terms of their ability not only to give good advice but “walk the talk.” The clients will normally expect the personal trainer to do everything they ask of their client and more.  This includes their dieting.  So, if a personal trainer is giving all the good advice about well-balanced dieting but then is on social media posting every night eating junk food and drinking alcohol then it damages their credibility. This is not to say that they cannot eat junk food or drink alcohol, but I guess this cannot be the norm and their lifestyle should be more around what they preach. Maintaining good credibility is difficult and once it is lost it could be hard to get back. Credibility also will link to things such as the timings of meetings and making sure that you are there on time and not canceling or being late. The clients are paying a hefty hourly rate therefore important not to waste their time.