Top Reasons to Become a Personal Trainer

Since the beginning of time, human beings have attempted to improve their physical appearance and physique with the help of training. If you look at ancient Greek civilization and see their sculptures you will immediately know that developing such finely chiselled and perfected physiques could not have been achieved without special training routines. The Trojans would from a very early age use training routines to develop their soldiers into elite warriors. The Greeks also trained for and participated in the very first Olympic Games. Training methodolgies and techniques have progressed and advanced since then but at a fundamental level, things have really not changed much.

What has seen a sea change though is the professionalism that is associated with training. Those days are gone when you learnt how to work out from your pal who was doing it longer than you! Those were also the days when the trainer at the gym was some guy who was beefed up and won some local competition and he could help you beef up too! Well that system is still around. But for those who desire perfection and scientific methodologies and for attaining long term results without injuries, Personal training in India has now become a respectable and lucrative career and is in fact one of the fastest-growing careers around.

Personal Training – No Longer a Luxury

If you look back about twenty years ago, even in the West, paying for a personal trainer was considered to be a luxury. A couple of decades down the line, the personal training business in India is an industry which according to our estimates generates over a 100 million dollars in revenue in India and that figure is rising exponentially year after year. As office going people and health conscious folks become aware of the inescapable need for regular exercise, there is a growing demand in India for well-trained and experienced personal trainers. Personal trainers were and still are found for the most part in health clubs and gyms working with healthy fitness-conscious adults but one can now find personal trainers in a wide variety of settings and working with diverse populations. Personal trainers are creating separate niches in the industry working with children, pregnant women, post-rehabilitation patients, people with chronic illnesses and diseases and the senior population. And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the sectors of the population that need the services of a personal trainer.

We are of course aware that a large number of fitness trainers are unable to achieve their financial and professional goals. This is we believe solely due to a lack of domain knowledge, inter personal skills and marketing skills. Also the average personal trainer does not view personal training as a legit business. Running a business requires a thorough understanding of sales, marketing, advertising and many other skills. Which is why before someone takes the plunge as a fitness trainer in India’s growing fitness industry, ask some serious questions.

Personal Trainer as a Career Option

There is the general conception in India that Personal Trainers are the biggest guys in the gym – big and beefy with bulging pecs and biceps – Raju the bodybuilder!. These were the guys who had been training for years and then decided to make a go at making some money by helping other gym goers look like him. While that scenario still does play out in many places, the business of personal training has evolved as a whole and still continues to transform into a very dynamic, professional and reputable industry. Most personal trainers are now deemed as health and wellness professionals and have many titles such as Fitness Consultant, Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Fitness Instructor and Personal Fitness Coaches.

Why Become a Personal Trainer?

Most men and women who decide to become personal trainers do so because they feel passionately about being active, fit and healthy and want to teach others to be fit and healthy as well as impart their knowledge to others. These are the kind of people for whom a desk job in an office would be sheer torture. By becoming personal trainers, they are able to be social and on the move during a typical working day.

Red Alert

Choosing personal training as profession requires a person to undergo many long hours of skill development and creating your own brand and personal training philosophy. A trainer must not try to make quick money at the cost of learning and gaining valuable and solid experience in the industry. A trend that we have observed is that a lot of young girls enter the personal training market after undergoing their teacher training programs and then immediately start demanding high fees without having the requisite knowledge, inter personal skills and experience to back up their demands. The result is that their shortcomings are quickly exposed and they start losing clients thick and fast and their careers also end abruptly in the chase for short term success. The better long term strategy would be to take it slow and easy and start building a solid reputation and get better at what you do. Over a period of time, as your knowledge and skills grow, you will be able able to command much more money which you would very well deserve.

Doing a Job You Adore

It is indeed rare to find a person who says that they love their jobs. But in this business, trainers for the most part love their jobs. Personal Trainers as a demographic tend to be vibrant, active, energetic and healthy people who love the fact that they are getting paid to keep themselves and others fit and healthy. Being a personal trainer is a fun job and rewarding too and the work challenges one in a lot of exciting ways. And of course, it is also a lucrative profession for those who do their jobs well!

A Growing Industry

The health and wellness industry is growing in India in leaps and bounds. People in India are living longer and are becoming much more aware of the importance of being in prime physical condition throughout their lives. One of the side effects of modern technology is that human beings are less active today than their forefathers. The ecommerce revolution is doing away with the need to even go shopping at the supermarket – groceries, clothes and even furniture are now being delivered to your house or office. People now have realised that it is important to make time to be active outside of home and work.

We predict that the demand for personal fitness trainers will increase by over 50 % over the next decade. Polls conducted all over the world have already indicated that this profession is amongst the fifteen most desirable career options for men and women. If you are beginning your career now, you are becoming a part of a tremendous growth opportunity. As the number of health clubs, gyms and yoga studios increase, so will the demand for personal trainers to staff them. This phenomenal growth in the wellness industry is predicted to continue over the near future thus guaranteeing jobs and employment for all those connected with this wonderful feel-good industry.

If you are personal trainer, have a read at this insightful article I read recently and gain some more valuable tips for being successful at what you do! – http://romanfitnesssystems.com/articles/successful-personal-trainer/

Author

Atin Dasgupta is the founder of Wellintra Fitness and is an artist-entrepreneur who makes music and builds businesses in his spare time!