Diversifying your fitness business increases your income and gives you an edge over other fitness trainers. But you can have a satisfying career as a certified personal trainer without doing things the old way.
Why Personal Training?
Taking a personal training certification course provides a base knowledge of fitness. You learn how to work with clients on a more general level. A specialization provides more in-depth knowledge within a specific area. Let’s look at an example.
In a personal training course, you’ll learn how certain foods impact the body. With a health coach specialization, you also learn how to help clients build healthy eating habits, how to eat to manage a chronic condition, and how to provide motivation and accountability.
Benefits of Having a Specialization
Specializations enable you to provide clients a higher level of service. In addition to creating a general exercise program, you can also provide a specialized program, like glutes, for instance. Or, now you can help clients dial in their rest and recovery strategies to maximize the potential of their workouts.
Having a specialization also enables you to set yourself apart. Personal training is a growing field, so having a specialization helps differentiate you from other trainers. You become a standout because you have more knowledge in a specific area and offer more training services.
Specializing also allows you to charge more for your services as a fitness instructor. Why? Because if clients want results, they’re willing to pay more to get them.
Personal Trainer Specialization Options
The fitness industry is broad. This presents a variety of options for specialized fitness instructors. Here are some to consider:
- Certified Health Coach. Health Coaches provide guidance, plans, structure and motivation. They also teach clients about health, wellness and food. Help clients overcome obstacles to health and fitness, such as chronic conditions, motivation and behavior change.
- Strength & Conditioning Specialist. With this certification, you can offer more specialized athletic training. You’ll know which exercise protocol increases speed, strength, power and endurance.
- Glute Specialist. No doubt about it, glutes are one of the top areas that clients want to train. And it takes more than just extra squats. Teach clients how to activate the right muscles with specific exercises to achieve the look they want and the function they need.
- Yoga Instructor. Yoga is a great addition to any fitness program. Through yoga, you can help clients build strength, increase flexibility, find balance and more. This specialization teaches you the science, practical application and yoga theory.
- Corrective Exercise Specialist. Corrective exercise is designed to help clients with movement dysfunction that contributes to or causes pain, injury or other dysfunctions. If your clients are not moving correctly or have poor form, you can use corrective exercises to modify and fix it.
- Online Training. No matter what you do, figure out how to do it in-person and online. Online trainers and coaches are in demand because they are typically more affordable and are useful for people who don’t go to the gym or don’t have easy access based on where they live.
How to Become a Fitness Specialist
The first step to becoming a specialized fitness trainer with ISSA is obtaining your personal training certification. This provides a fitness foundation.
Next, decide which area of fitness you’d like to specialize in. One way to make this decision is to consider where your passions lie. Questions to ask yourself include:
- Are there areas of fitness I enjoy more than others?
- Do I enjoy working with a certain type of client?
- What is the one problem I’d like to help clients solve?
- Which area of fitness would I like to be recognized as an expert in?
All these questions can help you choose the best fitness specialization for your personal training career. If you aren’t sure or if you’re ready to pursue your specialty, check out all of ISSA’s specialization options. Any one of them can take your fitness career to the next level!