Can You Transition from Another Career to Become a Personal Trainer?
When you slide into a career without even realizing it, you may begin to feel completely stuck. If the career doesn’t feel like it’s for you or you acknowledge that it was more about following in your parent’s footsteps, then don’t worry.
It’s not always the easiest choice but transitioning from one career to another is possible to do. In this article, we suggest a few things to bear in mind when attempting it.
Re-training Will Be Necessary
To move into a new field, especially one that has its basis in nutrition, exercise science, and the human body, it’s necessary to take personal trainer courses to get up to speed.
While you might be an avid exerciser, your knowledge has probably been built up through random articles in fitness magazines, which clearly lacked the formal structure present in personal training courses. That well-rounded structure allows a student to eradicate what they thought they knew and to learn the basics right up to advanced classes on obesity and the connection to diabetes.
The courses from TRAINFITNESS are thorough and provide three levels to choose from, each more comprehensive than the last. It’s up to the student how far they wish to go. Certainly, a personal training course will give you the confidence that you can perform in the role when getting to that point. And that’s important too.
You’ll Need to Look the Part
Once you have graduated from a professional personal trainer course, then you’ll need to look the part.
Let’s face it, a PE coach who’s considerably overweight or obese isn’t always that much of a motivator. There are exceptions to the rule like Robbie from the US reality show, Castaways, but generally, for anyone to believe in themselves, they must first believe in you.
If you’re planning to work as an independent trainer, then your body is one tool to advertise your services. Before anyone gives you a chance, they need to be convinced. So, if you’re out of shape, now’s the time to fix this. Let that process inform you about what your future clients’ personal journeys will be.
Finding Clients Will Take Longer Than You Think
Whether you plan to be employed as a personal trainer or be independent is up to you.
The potential financial rewards are greater as an independent trainer; however, it will take considerable time to build your network of contacts up to keep you busy enough.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you’ll be able to make a living after your training is over. What you might be better off doing is taking a job in a gym as one of their in-house trainers and start your fitness training business on the side. Bring new clients to a different gym chain to avoid any conflicts of interest and develop a roster of paying trainees over time.
Therefore, the transition might initially be from a different type of job to a personal trainer position in a gym, and then later to an independent one.
Lastly, work on building out a brand through a website, Instagram, and elsewhere. Begin as soon as possible. Eventually, you may be able to sell online training courses too.
