Personal Trainer

Then becoming a personal trainer may be your calling! It’s the perfect job for someone who loves all this fitness - and the gym - who wants to specialise in the physical form and how to make it the best it can be.

Try out our guide below to find out more.

What is a personal trainer?

What is personal training? Under the personal trainer job description, personal trainers in the UK help others to achieve fitness goals and is an ideal career for anyone passionate about health and personal fitness. Personal training involves creating one-on-one programmes for clients, providing guidance to achieve fitness goals and motivating clients.

The personal trainer description also details how you will teach individuals to exercise properly via their plans and by using techniques, as well as how to lose weight or gain muscle. Other roles similar to a personal trainer includes a fitness instructor or a gym instructor. However, a PT trainer holds more qualifications and can provide tailored health and exercise advice and guidance.

What does a personal trainer do?

What do personal trainers do? The role of a personal trainer will allow you to use a range of skills, from keeping up to date with the latest techniques and practices, providing advice to clients on nutrition, health and lifestyle to holding group and one-on-one sessions and conducting fitness assessments.

The personal trainer description extends to helping clients with workouts and monitoring their progress. Additionally, a personal trainer profile typically involves maintaining positive and trusting relationships with your clients and providing innovative and challenging exercises to keep their clients engaged and motivated.

You will provide personal trainer advice, have a friendly and outgoing personality and inspire clients.

What are the roles and responsibilities of a personal trainer? The responsibilities of a personal trainer include proactively seeking and providing feedback, recording training sessions and tracking paperwork and acting as a positive role model for all clients.

Personal trainer duties will also have you marketing your business to increase your clientele and maintaining an online presence through social media, a blog or a unique website.

Do you need qualifications to be a personal trainer?

A personal gym trainer will need a Level 3 personal training qualification; ideally, personal trainer qualifications are accredited by a reputable organisation, like the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPS).

Personal training qualifications can also be accredited by the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMPSA). You can still gain personal trainer skills via a personal trainer degree or through an apprenticeship.

Although it isn’t compulsory under personal trainer requirements, it’s beneficial to hold a cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) certificate. Personal training qualifications are not usually in the form of a foundation degree, HND or degree.

Still, there are relevant subjects you can take if you want to undertake a higher education qualification. Relevant topics include health and fitness management, personal training, health, nutrition and exercise science, fitness and personal training and sport science and personal training.

What skills are useful for a personal trainer?

Personal trainers have excellent communication, people and interpersonal skills. They can inspire and motivate people and tend to have an outgoing and friendly personality to match. They’ll be great with people and can work with a range of individuals from various backgrounds, needs and abilities.

Also, time-keeping and organisation are essential for the role as you’ll manage several appointments a day. Furthermore, an excellent understanding of the human body, nutrition and fitness is crucial. They should have a high level of stamina, energy and love health and wellness. Personal trainers need to provide high levels of customer care, enthusiasm, and be able to solve problems.

Also, having a decent understanding of safeguarding policy and practise is essential. You should be able to work under pressure and have stress management skills. Technology is becoming increasingly important, from record-keeping, session reminders, class scheduling and invoicing. You’ll need IT skills to be able to manage individual or group sessions and analyse your client's progress.

Other roles similar to a personal trainer includes a fitness instructor or a gym instructor.

Can you work as a personal trainer remotely?

Most work face-to-face individually or within group sessions in gyms or health centres. Some aspects of the work can be carried out remotely, whether that is planning or scheduling sessions and managing a blog or website. However, most of the duties are performed outside of the home and outdoors.

How to become a personal trainer in the UK?

Now you know the fitness instructor job description and the skills needed to be a personal trainer, you’re probably wondering how to become a successful PT. Personal trainers working hours vary and depend on whether you are employed by a gym or fitness centre or working self-employed.

You should be flexible to meet the needs and available times for clients, and most likely work evenings, mornings and weekends. In some cases, you may work long shifts as you work with clients and manage your social media presence and try to expand your client base.

You should also lead by example and manage a healthy lifestyle and diet plan that you can showcase to your clients while keeping up to date with developments in your industry. If you are a freelance or self-employed, you should have public liability insurance as well.

What is the personal trainer career like?

You will provide personal trainer advice, have a friendly and outgoing personality and inspire clients. A personal fitness trainer will hold excellent people skills and time-keeping and organisational skills. These are important to manage schedules and appointments with clients. A gym instructor job description will require gym work experience, especially at the start of your career as you build clients and experience, it will also provide you with the opportunity to obtain more in-depth knowledge and understanding of the industry.

Furthermore, an excellent understanding of the human body, nutrition and fitness is crucial.

What is a personal trainer salary?

A self-employed personal trainer will earn a different amount to a personal trainer wage in a gym. A private trainer can expect to earn between £20 to £40 an hour, but it can be much higher, as much as £100, if you’re working with high profile clients. A large proportion of personal trainers are self-employed or freelance and are paid by the hour or by session.

The personal trainer wage in a gym can expect a salary and typically start at around £14,000 to £16,000, which can rise with experience, increasing to a range between £20,000 and £30,000. A personal trainer business manager may earn more if they build a successful business in managing PTs. If you’re looking for personal trainer vacancies, you can try leisure centres, health clubs, hotels, spas, cruise lines, health care charities, resorts, gyms and personal training studios and the armed forces.

What are the prospects of a personal trainer?

Once you are qualified, you can begin your training business straight away, but most people work for an employer first to gain experience and clients. Whilst working, you can branch out once you’ve established a decent client base and honed your skills and networking abilities. It will help to be creative and social media savvy, as a lot of people sign up to training programmes to do at home or through Instagram and YouTube. One of the critical measurements of success would be how many clients or subscribers you have.