Recently, a profession such as a fitness center trainer is gaining popularity rapidly. But before learning this specialty, it is worth paying attention to a number of important parameters. Having become acquainted with them, you will understand how to become a trainer of a fitness center.
Physical stamina
This criterion is especially relevant if you are aimed at a long professional path. A group program coach is forced to exercise for several hours a day. The gym instructor gets tired less, but from a long conversation he gets psychological fatigue. Which is very important, both the first and the second must be positive, regardless of well-being and mood. Today, such a load is a joy to you, but will it be so after 5 or 10 years? Honestly evaluate your health and answer this question. Especially if you are already over 25 years old or have serious injuries associated with a sports past.
Communication
One of the true reasons a client purchases a club card is his need for attention and communication. So, the instructor must a priori possess the following qualities: non-conflict, sociability, sociability (providing services with pleasure) and the ability to find a language with different types of people. If a person does not have the above character traits, then he should not even think about how to become a fitness center trainer. Sometimes the instructor acts as a personal psychologist, listening to the problems of the client. For many, this will seem unbearable. So, if you love fitness, but are a pronounced introvert, then it’s better not to “break yourself” and choose another profession.
Communication and physical endurance are determined by the characteristics of education and genetics. Therefore, they are weakly amenable to correction. What does it take to become a fitness trainer, in addition to the two qualities listed above? We will talk about this below.
Appearance
The fact that people are met by clothes is known to everyone. Without proper physical form, an ordinary or personal trainer will not be successful with clients. It is not necessary to pump over muscles. A fairly slender taut figure with embossed muscles. In this case, you will become a good motivator for customers.
Seller Skill
The personal trainer receives most of the salary from the sold individual lessons. The club card will provide some of them, but the main “piece of the pie” will have to be earned on your own. Here you will need active sales skills. Unfortunately, many beginners are burdened by this moment and believe that working as a fitness trainer is too complicated for them. Therefore, they leave the industry. “It’s hard for me to impose myself” - this is the answer of most failed specialists. Of course, if they had even worked a little, they would have understood the simplicity and banality of the sales technology. But this is given only by the most hardworking.
Higher education
Now, in order to get the work discussed in the article, it is necessary to complete the fitness trainer courses with state accreditation. For example, FPA.
But higher specialized education in most cases will be the main condition for the admission of a coach to an elite club. Although in fact no university in Russia provides training for instructors. To work in the fitness center, special knowledge is needed, and not what they give at universities with a sports focus. That is, in fact, general education is not as valuable as many club leaders believe.
Also, some fitness centers prefer former athletes. Therefore, in the advertisements for the availability of vacancies, the requirement often slips: "The title is not lower than the CCM." The logic of the employer is clear - if he knows how to, then he will teach others. But in practice, things may look different. Not every professional athlete is able to competently answer questions asked by the client and explain to him all the details of the training process. We need special knowledge that can be obtained by completing fitness trainer courses.
Individual approach
More recently, the title "instructor" was awarded to any seasoned pitching who was able to build muscle for himself and a couple of friends. Today, fitness centers come not only for large biceps and triceps. More precisely, not even this. For attention and communication. For health. Behind a beautiful figure, which is almost no longer associated with hypertrophied muscles. The instructor must provide all this, otherwise he will not be in demand.
Among the clients there are quite a few girls who came for a flexible camp and a flat tummy, office clerks who suffer from physical inactivity and have a whole bunch of deviations in health. In the afternoon, older clients and teens go to the club. Some fitness centers also have children's cards. As you can see, the range of clients is quite wide, an individual approach is required to each of them. All people who know how to become a fitness center trainer understand this very well. And those who cannot figure it out will never make a successful instructor career. Move on.
Special education
Work as a fitness trainer is not easy and requires his deep and versatile knowledge in sales skills, client psychology and training methods. Now there are no problems in order to learn all this, especially in megacities. The field of fitness education offers a large number of narrow thematic seminars. For example, in the FPA there are about 30 of them. An absentee format is available for nonresident listeners.
Separately, it is worth mentioning former athletes who have finished their careers and are looking for work in a related field. There are quite a few of them: gymnasts, rowers, swimmers, skiers, athletes, etc. Their undoubted advantage is the presence of a sports education, which means knowledge of human physiology and anatomy. On the other hand, they should be able to switch from their training schemes to training programs for regular club customers. As a rule, they have much less motivation and there are certain deviations in health. If a former professional athlete automatically transfers his training programs to ordinary clients, then he can simply destroy them. This is another significant reason for instructor courses.
Versatility
Over time, a developing fitness trainer always becomes closely within the same direction. For example, power, cycling, stretching, etc. Ideally, a professional instructor should have in his arsenal several directions honed in practice, supported by a voluminous theoretical base. Otherwise, the client may go to other trainers. Accordingly, the size of wages will decrease. Yes, and the client himself may want diversity: today he is only interested in cardiovascular equipment, and tomorrow he will want to try something else. And for such a turn you need to be prepared in advance. Therefore, professional trainers are regularly trained in related disciplines and new techniques: various types of stretching, massage, functional exercises, etc. The ultimate goal is to become a universal instructor that can solve any client problems.
Fitness Trainer Salary and Tips
Both group and individual lessons are not cheap. Therefore, you should not count on tips. Some customers may give small presents. As for salaries, a good, professional trainer can earn up to 200 thousand rubles a month. Income will directly depend on the level of development of the parameters listed in this article.
Schedule
Now you know how to become a fitness center trainer. It remains to discuss a secondary, but rather important point in choosing this profession. It's about a work schedule. He can be free. But here it is worthwhile to understand that most of the customers can deal only in the evening. On weekends, work is also enough. Accordingly, it will be difficult for you to communicate with friends and relatives who work from 10 to 18 hours.