You can look at whatever projection model you want on the fitness industry. Some say it is going down, some say we’ve hardly seen the start of it. My answer is NO. Personally, I have all the job security I could ever want. Here is my statement on the profession as a whole and why this role will always be of use to society.
Just look at the statistics on personal trainers. This profession is growing like mad.
What is the Role of a Personal Fitness Trainer?
A personal fitness trainer is an educator. He teaches others how to move their bodies. He demonstrates movements and gives cues to steer his clients in the right direction.
A fitness trainer is responsible for overall program design, injury prevention and sometimes for rehabbing injuries in coordination with physical therapists or other medical professionals.
Preventative Medical Measures for a Happy Life
The most logical way to live is to take preventative steps so that nothing major goes wrong with your body.
We do regular maintenance on our vehicles, but more often than not we don’t treat our bodies the same way. What are the regular preventative steps to take to stay on the rails? Any fitness trainer should be able to rattle them off without a second thought.
For some reason, our current healthcare system doesn’t push fitness and exercise, but funds and subsidizes all sorts of medical costs once things have gone wrong. One day they’ll catch on.
Personal trainers play a key role in preventative healthcare. We show people how to correctly exercise, prevent injury, and improve our clients’ well-being and quality of life.
The Role of a Coach
There will always be gymnastics coaches, football coaches, basketball coaches, etc. In the year 2095, I’m sure that we will still have a snowboarding coach somewhere.
So who is the coach for your average person? That’s where the personal trainer comes in.
The difference between the Olympic snowboarding coach and the fitness trainer in your local gym is only a difference in degree. The snowboarding coach trains athletes to jump very high, works with crazy levels of force and ranges of motion than the fitness trainer who works with your aunt Sally.
But they are doing the same thing.
I teach coordination, agility, accuracy and balance to the elderly and people of all ages. We do strength training, but with lighter weights. Endurance training, but with shorter time frames.
We are all looking to improve performance and prevent injury.
Personal Trainers Are Experts at Injury Prevention
I would say that injury prevention is the majority of my job.
It doesn’t mean that I’m going nuts trying not to hurt people. It just means that I have to think through every which way that a specific client of mine can get hurt and then make sure I don’t do that. It’s kind of a backwards point of view but once I set up the boundaries, I play like hell within those boundaries.
Any idiot can say “Do 1,000 burpees” and give someone the “hardest workout of their life.” The problem is that it would likely cause several injuries and the person would never come back or actually get fit.
People often come to a personal fitness trainer to get a “hard” workout. My goal is always to give a precise workout.
Personal Trainers Map a Route for You To Reach Your Goals
If injury prevention is the majority of my job, the second biggest part is working out a logical approach to get someone to reach their goals.
The way I measure my worth at the end of the day is whether or not I got my clients to reach their goals. It isn’t smiles or high-fives or followers on social media. All of that comes with having happy clients attaining their fitness goals.
There is a lot of data that a personal fitness trainer has to know to be certified. It is growing every year and is veritably exploding now that we have all of this new biometric technology measuring every time we sleep, step, fart or sneeze.
There is also a morass of false information about the body and health. A personal fitness trainer is in a perfect position to help someone navigate it and just give it to them straight. This alone is worth a personal trainer’s fees.
Personal Trainers Help Control the Gym Floor
A fitness center can be a dangerous place. I could make a massive list of things that can go wrong in a facility. From medical issues, dropped weights, inoperational machines, interpersonal conflicts, hygiene situations (don’t get me started) and so on and so on.
If you’ve got a person who is able to communicate with every person that comes in the place, you’ve struck gold. He can foresee that the guys starting their workout are going to completely overtake a girl who’s got her dumbbells set up for her circuit over in the corner and handle it appropriately. He could do her a favor and say “Just leave those out when you’re done because in 15 minutes these dudes are going to use them.”
He spots potentially injurious form or kids doing stupid things. The amount of prevented legal situations and ambulances is worth having a competent person on the floor at all times.
Also, sometimes people just want to be shown an exercise or to have someone critique their squat.
I don’t know how I would own a gym without at least one of these guys on the floor at all times. It’s got to be the right person, though. Being paid by the gym will also help eliminate any conflicts of interest. He will be concerned with everyone. If he’s got free time, put him on cleaning or machine maintenance.
Trainers Create a Positive Atmosphere
A good fitness trainer can inject energy into a space. They are motivational, uplifting and get people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t do on their own. They make exercise fun and positive instead of some self-hating beatdown.
They are often physical models of where the clients want to be. This basically means that they aren’t fat. But it also means that they portray a healthy lifestyle and practice what they preach.
If I were unhealthy and wanted to get healthier, I would go to a place where people made good decisions about their bodies. Ever heard the saying “If you want to be smart, surround yourself with smart people”?
The Current Society’s Activity Level
There are so many desk jobs right now. Sedentary lifestyles seem to be the norm.
We need fitness trainers now more than at any other point in history. Most people’s workday doesn’t involve going down to the stream and getting water. That used to be work. My great grandma was born on a farm in Oklahoma territory in 1901 and as a kid she was picking cotton in the fields along with everyone else there.
Now what are we doing? When I was a kid I watched generous amounts of TV just to pass the time. Sweets were more of a norm than just a treat. Obesity and diabetes are looked at as epidemics.
There is no shortage of potential clients.
Conclusion
We need people pushing healthy, active lifestyles more than any time in history.
Personal fitness trainers are in a great position to make serious changes in society. We are the ones doing the footwork and converting people over to healthier lifestyles. We train you today so that in ten or even fifty years from now, you are still moving around and able.
If you are the type of person who can sit down and get someone interested in going with you to the gym, you’ll have all the job security you want.
