Are you feeling trapped at your current job? Is it making you reconsider the career path you took a few years back? If you are going through similar feelings, you are not alone. Many people struggle through this career identity crisis at some stage in their life. However, it does seem quite overwhelming to decide on a career path to take now. A critical question that may also serve as a guiding light for you in this journey is that you have to keep asking yourself if you can find meaning and a higher purpose in the career path you are considering?
If you are not really sure where your interests lie, you will have to explore a little. One of the things that seem to be of interest to almost everyone is working out. If you are just starting on this exploratory journey, we recommend you start with the role of a personal trainer. This is because it is quite dynamic and you can mould it to your interests. Naturally, we all have a fondness for working towards staying fit and by becoming a personal trainer certified online, you can turn this interest into a profession.
What Does it Mean to Be a Personal Trainer?
As a personal trainer, you will be guiding individuals or people in small groups through exercise or workout routines. For people who love working out, this may seem more like a hobby and less like work. As a personal trainer, you will be helping people get strength training workouts or cardio workouts that will assist them in reaching their fitness and health goals. This is quite an exciting opportunity for someone who likes helping people enhance their quality of life.
Be More Altruistic
As a personal trainer, you get a chance to reshape the lives of people around you and help them reach their fitness and health goals. So, even if you are a little bit interested in exploring the personal training niche, you must be someone who wants to help people achieve their fitness goals, experience less pain, lose weight or optimize their athletic performance. According to an estimate, about 70% of the population in the US is struggling with obesity and actively looking for personal trainers to help them reach their fitness goals.
Reaching fitness goals is not only about losing weight, but it also has to do with avoiding all the other health issues that obesity brings along like diabetes, cardiac ailments, and more. The important thing to notice is that people are actively seeking help and looking for fitness professionals who can assist them in achieving a better quality of life.
What Does it Take to Be a Personal Trainer?
As a fitness or personal trainer, you need to have a decent college education, certifications, and experience. It really depends on how you plan to sell your skills because everyone has to start at some point and then build up from there. You will find a lot of information about this online, and you can refer to any reliable personal trainer guide to help you through the course of action. Generally speaking, it requires you to have a high school diploma, a bachelor’s degree, or an associate degree (if you are looking for better roles). As a personal trainer, you can look into exercise science, physical education, or kinesiology. You also need to have some certifications and emergency or first aid care training as well.
What Should Be the Skill Set of a Personal Trainer?
It is not all about teaching people how to work out. As a personal trainer, you need to have a lot more to add to the training experience of your clients. The most important skill to have as a trainer is being able to communicate clearly because, as a personal trainer, you are going to interact with your client directly and that requires good communication skills. You also need to have good interpersonal skills because these will help foster conducive relationships with your clients and may even turn them into long-term or recurring ones. As a personal trainer, you have to be a good listener because you cannot hope to build rapport with your client without understanding their needs. You should also have amazing stamina, strength, and problem-solving skills because your clients are coming to you with loads of problems and they will be looking to you to help them sort it out.
Where Do They Work?
Well, the work environment of a personal trainer is very diverse because they can work in fitness centres, companies, private groups, or residences. As a personal trainer, you can also open your very own fitness facility that is dedicated to solving fitness issues. It will all vary and depend greatly on your client and their unique needs.
Now that you know the fundamentals of the personal training profession, you can either explore more or give it a try to make your decision. Your reasons for selecting this to be a new career path will be unique. So, get started on this exploratory journey of an exciting new career possibility without further delay. The very first step to a rewarding new career is to embark upon an educational expedition. Because, by getting the required knowledge and expertise, you can really succeed in no time.