One of the big questions from any looking at breaking into the fitness industry as a Personal Trainer or Fitness Instructor, is will I be good at it and be able to actually interact and achieve my clients goals, and that is the million dollar questions, and amazingly it is very easy to answer.

Personality

Most people think that you need to be a big muscle bound guy, or a lean and trim girl to be a great personal trainer. Now don’t get me wrong you do need to be in shape, as you do need to practice what you preach. But the most important thing is your own personality, you need to be good with people, you need to be able to understand them, be able to listen to them, and be able to create a bond with them very quickly to keep them interested. Because if you can ‘t keep them interested, you lose them very quickly as a client, even if you know every skill and training technique.

 

The bond and trust factor is one of the biggest features of the relationship between the client and the Personal Trainer.

Interest & Dedication

One of the next major requirements is your interest and dedication; personal training might sound like a fun and glamorous job but its long days and weeks, same routines, same people, week after week after week. You really need to enjoy dealing with people and the exercise industry to cope with this continuous cycle.

 

Everything about it is decided by the client for the first few years at least, so you may have your first client at 6am and your last client at 8pm, you’ll be looking after clients 5 or 6 even sometimes 7 days a week. You’ll have to get used to clients cancelling on you at the last minute, not good if they were your 6am appointment, but not as bad if they are your 8pm client. You have to get used to chasing and asking for money from your clients as well, which for a lot of people is a very difficult thing for them to do. For a lot of people this is enough to put people off the industry all together.

Physical Appearance

And one of the other major points to look at is yourself physically. Due to the image personal training portrays, clients will and do judge on your own appearance. If you don’t look physically fit, then you will struggle to find clients.

 

You always have to look at it from a client’s point of view, in that they want to achieve a higher level of fitness, and feel like they are looking in better shape and for a lot of clients they will use you as the guide point and the driver for this. If you don’t meet that higher level of expectation then they will look for an instructor who will.

Hygiene

Also don’t forget that personal hygiene, you have to remember every hour of most days you will be moving around and possible exercising along with your client. Deodorant will become your best friend and your clients as well. If you do have average or poor personal hygiene, then start getting into the habit very fast.

 

So after all of these things, you think you still have what it takes and want to get into it, read our future articles and we’ll guide you through the process.