6 Traits of a Good Fitness Trainer
If you are passionate about helping people achieve their fitness goals and stay healthy, you may have considered a career as a personal fitness trainer. Let’s see what qualities you must inculcate to be a successful personal fitness trainer.
Creating fitness plans for clients and motivating clients to stay on track are just some of the daily responsibilities of a fitness trainer. In general, it takes a certain type of personality to make a difference in people’s lives. If you want to become a personal trainer, these six characteristics and traits will help you to be successful in your career.
Self-disciplined
You need to ‘walk the walk’ by being disciplined with their own fitness and health regimen. They need to workout regularly, eat healthy food, and commit to the fitness lifestyle. Doing so helps them lead by example and sets a standard for all their clients.
Positive Attitude
Not all of your clients are going to be extremely motivated during each session or have positive attitude about health and fitness. A personal trainer must have positive attitude that he/she can share with his/her clients to help clients get out of fitness rut, set and achieve goals, and stay motivated for the long haul. Personal trainers are essentially coaches and advisors who need to provide support in a positive and healthy way.
Patience
As a personal trainer, you will meet clients from all walks of life and with different types of goals throughout your career. Patience will be required as your work to understand the needs and goals of individual clients. It can take time to truly understand what a client is trying to achieve, what he or she may be struggling with, and what type of personality they have so you can customize plan that will help in the achievement of specific fitness goals.
Strong communication skills
Whether a personal trainer is walking clients through a new exercise routine or providing support over the phone, excellent communication skills are necessary. The personal trainer needs to be able to articulate instructions and information and should have the ability to motivate and inspire clients with words. In addition, the trainer should inquire about client’s preferred communication channels – text, emails or phone calls – in order to help establish rapport and help keep client on track with fitness goals.
High energy level
In addition to maintaining a positive attitude, personal trainers need to maintain a high energy level and be prepared to work with clients at various times of the day (or night), and in some cases, train clients in back to back appointments. As a personal trainer, this heavy activity load may require you to eat better, get enough sleep, and work that much harder to maintain a healthy lifestyle so that you can sustain a high energy level all day long.
Teaching ability
It is not necessary that fitness enthusiasts who can be an example can also ‘lead’ by example when it comes to the field of personal training. Being a fitness freak, doesn’t always mean that you can be good ‘teacher’ and ‘guide’ too. These are two different things. You have to be ‘train’ to be a trainer. You should have the ability to teach your clients the basic principles of fitness, help them understand their body better and make them exercise safely and effectively at the same time.
The best personal trainers have a strong educational background from a vocational school, academy or college that offers certified personal trainer programs. This type of background provides a solid foundation for teaching and ensures that trainer will have the knowledge and skills required to truly train and guide the clients.
