The Top 3 Roles and Responsibilities of a Personal Trainer

What are the responsibilities of a personal trainer?

The health and fitness industry has been seeing a steady increase in growth each year. More and more people are realising the importance of being fit for their overall well-being and quality of life. 

That said, once people decide to join a gym, health club, or even just start working out at home, they find out just how difficult it is to achieve fitness alone. So much goes into a diet, mentality, discipline, and so on. 

That is where personal trainers come in. People need someone they can depend on to steer them in the right direction towards health and fitness. Personal trainers are certified individuals who work with clients on a one-on-one basis. They tailor fitness programmes, conduct training sessions, and monitor progression to help people achieve their fitness goals.

In truth, anyone can be a personal trainer but to get started you need to complete a Level 2 Gym Instructing Course and Level 3 Personal Training Course. These qualifications can open the door for you in the fitness industry.

What are the top three roles and responsibilities of a personal trainer?

1. Conduct a Fitness Assessment.

Every client you work with will have different bodies, goals, and fitness levels. Some people will want to lose weight. Others will need your held bulking up or getting stronger. It’s all different, and the first step to helping them reach their goals is by knowing their current fitness status.

You must determine health issues, limitations, or problem areas your client has before beginning training. This will help you create a fitness programme perfectly suited for their capabilities. 

Depending on each trainer, the assessment can entail various things, but the staples are the postural assessment, movement analysis, flexibility assessment, and a cardiovascular fitness test. You will also need to get their body measurements, like height and weight, to help you keep track of their progress.

2. Conduct One-on-one Training.

Being a personal trainer usually means working with your client one-on-one. There might be instances where a family or two friends will ask to be trained together, in which case you will have to accommodate and adjust your programme to their requirements.

Now, again, each client is different and will need a personalised training programme. For example, you might have clients that need to rehabilitate their knee from an injury. The programme will entail mobility and strength training to get their body at an optimum level once again.

During these training sessions, you must guide clients through the workout and assessing their form and movement quality. Typically this happens in a gym setting, but it’s not uncommon for clients to request to be trained at home or some other location.

3. Offer Advice on Nutrition and Lifestyle.

It is not within the responsibilities of a personal trainer to prepare meal plans or create them for your client, as that requires a different certification, however you can give them valuable expert advice. Personal trainers have to be fit and healthy themselves, and it’s well known that it requires hard work and effort. Therefore, you can advise what diet and habits they should adopt to achieve their goals faster or more efficiently.

The Bottom Line

Being a personal trainer is a rewarding and popular career—and with good reason. It is a great and effective way to help people feel good about themselves and live healthier lives. 

However, there are a lot of responsibilities of a personal trainer. You need to guide your clients in the right direction and be a good example. It’s tough, but for the right kind of people, it’s a true calling.

If you’re a health and fitness enthusiast interested in helping others achieve fitness, maybe you should become a personal trainer. With the proper discipline and attitude, we here at Create PT can help you get the appropriate training and certification you need to start this journey!