12 Roles And Responsibilities Of A Personal Trainer
When it comes to the roles and responsibilities of a personal trainer, there’s far more to the job than you may realise.
Not only must trainers complete a set of daily tasks
to ensure the smooth running of their business, but they are leading clients on
a journey of improved fitness and self-confidence.
Want to know more about this exciting career path?
Here you’ll find the roles of a personal trainer and their responsibilities to
themselves and their clients.
Main roles and responsibilities of a personal trainer
1. Complete fitness assessments with new clients
Fitness assessments are crucial for gauging a
client’s current fitness level and help you determine an action plan for getting
them in shape.
An assessment will usually include:
Postural assessmentFlexibility assessmentMovement analysisMuscular enduranceMuscular strengthCardiorespiratory fitnessAnthropometric measures (body composition)
Testing your clients this way will allow you to
track their progress whilst training with you. This is important for maximising
your client’s results and can help to boost your personal training client retention.
Related: The Components Of A Good Fitness Assessment
2. Run one-to-one training sessions
One of the major roles and responsibilities of being
a personal trainer is leading one-to-one training sessions with your clients.
They usually last between 40-60 minutes and are
structured based on the personalised fitness programme of the client in
question.
The personal trainer will complete exercise
demonstrations during the session, count reps and sets, check exercise form,
and ultimately keep their clients motivated.
Related: How To Set Up A Personal Training Business
3. Create tailored fitness programmes
You will design tailored programmes for your clients
using the results from their fitness assessment and taking their personal
fitness goals into account.
This includes clients who have injuries, long-term
health conditions or disabilities that could affect their performance.
A reputable trainer understands that every client is
unique and strives to give their undivided attention when creating and
administering personalised advice.
Related: The UK’s 10 Best Personal Trainer Courses
4. Offer nutritional guidance
Most clients will expect nutritional advice from
their trainer to assist them with their fitness goals.
This is one of the most rewarding roles of a
personal trainer, as it involves helping clients make healthier choices that
positively impact their long-term health and fitness.
However, it’s important to remember that PTs cannot
create meal plans that directly aid clients with medical conditions. Any
recommendations you make should only aid clients with a fitness-related
goal.
As a rule of thumb, personal trainers must not seek
to:
PrescribeDiagnoseTreatCure
Only Registered Dieticians (RDs) can provide advice
that does the above.
Be careful about how you phrase your advice, and
make sure you get specialist personal trainer insurance to protect you in the event of a claim.
Related: Should Personal Trainers Give Nutritional Advice?
5. Track client progress
Another of the major role and responsibilities of a
personal trainer is tracking client progress from session to session.
By doing this, you can assess how effective the
programme is in helping your client reach their goals and make any necessary
adjustments.
It also gives your clients visibility into the value
your service is providing and encourages them to keep training with you.
Progress tracking can be done in many ways, but one
of the most popular is inputting data into a personal training app. This way,
the client can easily visualise their journey so far in the form of a map or
graph.
To maximise client satisfaction, you can also track
their mental progress.
Record how they’re feeling in each session as well
as their weight, BMI, and body fat percentage, and they’ll be able to see the
overall impact you’re having on their life.
Related: The Best Personal Trainer Apps On The Market
6. Educate and motivate clients
Transparency is key to educating your clients on how
to structure and maintain a fitness routine.
There is a lot of value to be found in teaching vs telling. Your role as a personal trainer is to ignore the urge to
simply tell your clients what to do.
Many trainers believe this will reduce their retention rates. But what they don’t know is clients will value those who explain the ‘why’ behind their programme, as understanding this will keep them motivated and ultimately help them see better results.
As you continue to educate them on advanced training
methods and their results surpass their expectations, they’ll only want you to
push them further.
They’ll realise the value of your teaching and that
they couldn’t possibly achieve what they have done alone. Plus, you will fulfil
your role as a PT in transforming their perception of fitness.
Related: How To Be A Successful Online Personal Trainer
7. Administrative tasks
What is the role of a personal trainer beyond
working with clients? It may not be what you want to hear, but admin is
necessary to ensure the smooth running of any business.
If you’re a freelance trainer, you can expect to
spend time:
Organising your scheduleFollowing up on enquiriesTracking paperworkManaging payments
Software is a great way to automate these tasks and saves freelance or self-employed personal trainers a lot of time. All Insure4Sport policyholders get 40% off an annual My PT Hub subscription—you can read more here.
Related: How To Write A Personal Trainer Cover Letter
8. Marketing
As a personal trainer, developing your marketing
skills is necessary for standing out against competitors. This is especially
true if you’re freelance or plan on taking your services online.
Targeting a niche fitness market is a great approach, as becoming the go-to expert in that
area will help you build a dedicated client base. It’ll also make your job of
marketing your services easier.
Learning social media marketing and SEO for personal trainers will also help you get ahead of the game. Ranking for keywords that those in your local area will be searching for, such as ‘personal trainer for seniors’, is invaluable to your business.
For a fantastic example of a PT that has achieved
all of the above, check out our article on How To Set Up A Personal Training Business with Nick Screeton, founder of LEP Fitness.
9. Performing risk assessments
Ensuring client safety is one of a personal
trainer’s most important roles and responsibilities.
You can do this through a thorough risk assessment
of the environment you’re training in and considering multiple factors
surrounding the participants themselves.
The process should look something like this:
Rate each risk factor (on a scale of 1-10)Record the findingsIdentify how you can reduce risks Take action to eliminate the risks
For more on how this works, check out
Insure4Sport’s Risk Assessment Tips For Personal Trainers. That way, you can be sure you’re clued up on this practice
before stepping into the world of fitness.
Roles and responsibilities of personal trainers in
2022
We’ve covered the major roles of a personal trainer
above. Still, the following points are certainly worth looking at if you want
to have a successful and long-lasting career as a fitness professional.
It’s your job to ensure that every client you cross
paths with has a positive experience, as making an impact on how others view
their fitness is what it’s all about. It’s what keeps clients coming to you and
ultimately makes fitness accessible to everyone.
10. Acting as a positive role model
Personal training clients seek your advice because
they need help with their fitness.
There can be many reasons behind this, but it’s
usually because they’re either new to exercise or struggling to motivate
themselves.
By presenting yourself as an upbeat and motivated
individual that practises what they preach, you will gain their trust and find
it much easier to keep them engaged with their programme.
You don’t have to be in peak physical shape, but it
helps if you have a healthy mindset towards training and good self-esteem, as
this will naturally rub off on your clients.
It would help if you also were selective on what you
tell your clients about your personal life and always remain professional. This
includes your behaviour on social media!
11. Encouraging self-acceptance in clients
It’s no secret that the fitness industry has been
under fire in the past for influencing people to see weight loss as the
ultimate goal.
Nowadays, the roles and responsibilities of a
personal trainer should be to discourage this mindset and instead focus on
boosting their client’s self-esteem during every step of their journey.
Your sessions should leave your clients feeling
strong and empowered, rather than resentful towards their current body.
Not only is this the best approach for your business
due to how authentic you’ll appear, but you’ll be setting your clients up for a
positive relationship with exercise and nutrition for the rest of their lives.
Related: What Insurance Do Personal Trainers Need For 2022?
12. Making inclusivity a focus
Making your services inclusive and actively showing
prospective clients that you’re open to adapting your sessions for anyone will
truly make you stand out.
In recent years, the fitness industry has taken
strides towards becoming more progressive, largely due to personal trainers
spreading awareness of various social issues on social media.
James Smith, who started out working as a regular PT
in his hometown, is a great example of this. He’s now a No. 1 Sunday Times
best-selling author and has 915k followers on Instagram.
This is largely due to his no-nonsense approach to fitness. He is well-known for spreading awareness of
how the menstrual cycle affects exercise for women, which was never widely
considered in such a male-dominated industry.
If you publicly show your willingness to make
walking into your sessions an empowering experience for everyone, you’re truly
living up to your role as a PT.
Specialist personal trainer insurance from
Insure4Sport
Now you know all the roles of a personal trainer,
you’re probably itching to complete your qualifications. But before working
with clients, you need to get insurance.
At Insure4Sport, our specialist personal trainer insurance is designed to cover you if your equipment is lost, damaged, or stolen, or if a client makes a claim against you.
Click the button below to learn more about how our specialist insurance can help you and get an instant online quote.
