Becoming a personal trainer can be your career choice if you love fitness and helping others achieve their goals. As a fitness enthusiast, you've probably already done unofficial personal training over the years. There are more steps to take to get certified as a personal trainer, find employment, or set up your independent business. Learn more about this career to decide if it is the right one for you.
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The Pros and Cons of Personal Training
From the outside, personal training looks like a satisfying career. You get to help people in a field you love, it's flexible, and you have lots of options for where you can work. There are some great things about personal training, but it's important to look at every angle before taking the plunge.
Pros
Some of the best things about personal training are:
- Working one on one: If you're good with people, personal training gives you a chance to delve into each client's situation, get to know them, and then use your knowledge and creativity to create workouts that fit them.
- Rewarding: There's nothing better than that moment when a client can finally see and feel the difference in her body.
- Flexibility: In many cases, you can set your schedule for which hours and days you work. You may even be able to set your fees if you work for yourself.
- Variety: Personal training can often be a jumping-off point for other things like being a fitness instructor, a health writer, or going further in your education.
Cons
Be prepared for these challenges:
- It's tough to make a living: Personal trainers can make anywhere from $15 per hour to more than $100 per hour, depending on where you live and work. But you may work limited hours per week, which reduces the total income.
- Uncertain income: Cancellations occur all of the time in private training. 1 day you might have a complete schedule and another, nobody to work with--so you are not getting paid.
- The reverse side of a flexible schedule: Customers might want to cancel or reschedule without much notice. And many will want to train before work or after, so that your active hours will often be very late or early at night.
- Having to sell your services: Most individuals do not get in the industry because they enjoy selling, but that's a part of your work, particularly if you work in a commercial gym.
- Risk of burnout: Personal training requires a whole lot of energy, both physically and mentally. It's easy to get burned out, especially if you're training all the time.