10 Signs You’re Ready to Go Professional as a Personal Trainer

Are you ready to turn your love of fitness into your livelihood? Whether you’re a serious gym rat or a meticulous meal planner, here are 10 signs you could be ready to become a professional personal trainer.

1. You love helping people

A huge part of working as a personal trainer is helping people achieve their goals. If you love seeing people grow, progress and eventually smash their goals, personal training could be perfect for you.

2. You want a flexible work life balance

Can’t see yourself working 9-5 behind a desk? Personal training is typically a very flexible career path, seeing you work a casual roster, work on an appointment-only basis, or even be entirely self-employed. If this level of freedom is appealing to you, personal training could be an ideal career path.

3. You get along with people from all walks of life

As a personal trainer, you need to ensure your clients feel completely comfortable and safe with you. This means being able to work with people from all walks of life and backgrounds without judgement. If you fancy yourself an open-minded and non-judgmental person, you’d likely thrive as a personal trainer.

4. You are organised and meticulous

In order to meet client expectations, personal trainers need to ensure they are highly organised and meticulous. From devising workout plans and tracking clients’ progress to sorting out your taxes and other business paperwork, personal trainers need to be detail-oriented and focused.

5. You are a stickler for technique

Personal training involves more than just coming up with effective workout routines - you also need to ensure your clients are safely carrying out all the movements you instruct them to. This requires a strong knowledge of form and body mechanics, as well as an ability to work with people of different physical abilities.

6. You are consistent and reliable

Clients who struggle with self-discipline and routine look to you to provide consistency and structure. Being consistent and reliable also develops trust between you and your clients, which is essential for your success as a personal trainer. 

7. You are passionate 

It should go without saying that in order to succeed as a personal trainer, you need to actually be passionate about what you do. Your clients are looking to you for inspiration and motivation, which means you definitely can’t be half hearted about the work you do.

8. You are data-focused

A technical component of working as a personal training is measuring and tracking clients’ results. Without this, it can be hard to determine how they are actually progressing. You should be able to keep an eye on all of this for your clients, recording their blood pressure, personal bests and more in order to keep them on track.

9. You are a positive person

Your personal training clients may come to get you with low self-esteem, motivation or body image. It’s therefore essential for you to be a positive and reassuring person. While this doesn’t mean you have to be a huge extrovert, you should always make sure to keep up a positive attitude.

10. You are knowledgeable and qualified

Clients turn to personal trainers for expertise. As such, you should be highly knowledgeable and qualified in all things personal training. This usually means obtaining a personal trainer certification of level III or above.

Wondering how to become a personal trainer? Look into a PT course from AIPT to ensure you’re properly skilled and qualified.