Personal trainer jobs? (2023)

Can you make good money as a personal trainer?

The average income for an entry-level personal trainer is $16.70 per hour or about $34,000 per year. The average for all trainers is about $42,000, with only the top 10 percent exceeding $76,000. (Those numbers go up or down depending on where you live and work.)

The personal trainer job outlook is looking very positive in the coming years. With more and more people becoming interested in health and fitness, personal trainers are in high demand. This is a great time to become a personal trainer, as the job market is booming and is only going to continue to grow.

Yes, personal trainers can make $100,000 in a year.

However, this is not typical. The average salary for personal trainers is around $42,000 annually, with only the top 10% exceeding $76,000.

You can make good money as a personal trainer, especially working for yourself, provided you do well at your job, and you know how to market yourself.

They stopped learning after the course

Personal trainer courses are intense and require some hard work to complete. For many PTs, it's the end of their learning journey. However, fitness evolves and you need to keep your knowledge up to date.

The short answer to this question is that you're never too old. The demographics for personal trainers demonstrate just how diverse this group of professionals is: Female trainers edge out male trainers just slightly. In the group surveyed, 54.5% were women and 45.5% men.

According to our salary survey of more than 1,000 personal trainers, one in five trainers earn $75,000 or more per year. One out of every 10 trainers earn six figures or above. Those odds are slightly better than you'll find in other careers. But there's a lot you can do to improve your position.

What is the average age of a personal trainer?

Fitness coach and published author Melissa Alcantara is Kim Kardashian's personal trainer, and earns $6,300 per Instagram post. Her account, featuring 1.1 million followers, posted 105 times over the past year (notably less often than other trainers on this list), earning an estimated $678,000.

7: What personal trainer certificate is most respected? The personal trainer certifications with an option for NCCA accreditation are the most respected in the industry. The NCCA is the gold standard for third-party personal training certifications. Some of these certs include, NASM, ACE, Fitness Mentors, and ISSA.

The average lifespan of a newly qualified PT in the fitness industry is about 6 months. Some last longer than others and some end up becoming very successful. But why do some many fail within such a short period of time?

Though you can build up your personal trainer salary to up to 51K, when you start to get more PT clients, this can mean that your base level of pay can be low and you'll be expected to fulfil a lot of work on the gym floor.

If you are the kind of person that absorbs peoples' stresses and energies, personal training will likely crush you. To be able to handle this type of stress, you will need to have the skill of listening empathetically while not internalizing what your clients dump on you.

For many TRAINFITNESS graduates, being a personal trainer or fitness professional is not a full-time role – it's their fitness side hustle.

What is the hardest part of being a personal trainer?

Keeping Clients Motivated

Keeping clients motivated is one of the most underrated challenges of personal training. You can have all sorts of knowledge about training, but if clients aren't motivated, good luck getting those results to show for it.

Unfortunately, the industry has an annual personal trainer turnover rate of 80 percent, according to numbers cited by many people in the fitness industry. Imagine a chain of clubs hiring 4,000 trainers in a year and then having to rehire another 3,000 personal trainers again the following year.

First and foremost, you're not qualified to diagnose any of your clients as a personal trainer. This is something that only a medical professional can do, like doctors. Even if you think that you know exactly what it is they're describing as symptoms, you cannot diagnose your clients as they are not your patient.

You'll find it incredibly difficult to get personal training clients if no one knows about you or the services you're trying to provide. It's likely you would want your business to be on a busy high street where people actually know where you are and what you're offering.

The ACE CPT Exam is known for being one of the most difficult personal training certifications to pass. Out of the almost 800-page textbook they select 150 questions that need to be completed in a three hour time limit. This can cause major anxiety as knowing what to study can be hard to determine.

Employment of fitness trainers and instructors is projected to grow 19 percent from 2021 to 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations. About 65,500 openings for fitness trainers and instructors are projected each year, on average, over the decade.

As a beginner, you should see a personal trainer two to three times a week for six weeks to start. This helps you establish a consistent fitness routine, which is important in the beginning. It is also a good opportunity to learn new workouts and techniques and ensure you perform exercises in the safest way possible.

Seeing your personal trainer for 3 months is going to get you results as long as you show up and work out with them consistently. Getting in two sessions per week with your personal trainer is going to result in you starting to see positive results in your energy levels and your strength within 4 to 8 weeks.

The Personal Trainer Development Center states a typical hourly rate of $60 to $70, while Lessons.com puts the national average at $55 per hour. Costs can range widely, though. Find Your Trainer reports that, across the country, personal trainers charge $29 to $166 per session.

The only state that employs more is California, which has 25,160 fitness trainers. California is the second highest-paying state at $55,480 per year. The next highest-paying is Illinois. The average wage for providing fitness classes or training sessions in this state is $48,300 per year.

How long does it take to get NASM certified?

Start to finish, expect to invest at least 15 weeks to complete the NASM personal training certification (NASM-CPT).

The average number of clients seen via individual sessions is thought to be somewhere between 10 and 25.

Whether you're in your 30s, 40s, 50s or even 60s, there's nothing stopping you from becoming a PT. People change their careers into several industries in these age brackets all the time, so there's no reason why fitness should be any different.

The annual turnover rate for personal trainers runs between 80-90% on average: the optimal employee turnover rate is 10% or less.

“So, I am down to 118 [pounds] again. I got up to 120 [pounds] which was tripping me out,” the reality star, 42, revealed to her personal trainer during a new episode of Hulu's The Kardashians, which premiered on Thursday, November 10.

Over 13 years, the Kardashian-Jenner family went from being fame-adjacent to bona fide stars, all while building a booming business empire. But less than two years later, following a lucrative content deal with Hulu for just under $100 million, the family is back in The Kardashians.

Nano-influencers or those that have around 1,000 followers earn as much as $30,000 to $60,000. Micro-influencers are those that have between 1,000 to 100,000 followers. Their earnings range between $40,000 and $100,000 annually. Celebrities who are obviously more famous and have more followers earn more.

You should be prepared to complete an educational program that results in an official certification. This is not legally required. In fact, no state has a law requiring personal trainers to be certified.

So what's the answer? A certification, of course! After all, most gyms won't hire you without one. If you're independent, many insurance companies won't cover you without one.

What certification pays the most?

If you feel you would struggle with the coaching of clients and want to improve in that area, go with ACE. If you feel you want to have more knowledge of how to design an effective workout program, go with NASM. For more information on how to become a personal trainer, check out our post on that topic.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 16.9% employment growth for physical therapists between 2021 and 2031. In that period, an estimated 40,400 jobs should open up. Many doctors refer patients with physical issues from athletic injuries to neurological traumas to physical therapists.

What is a Level 4 Personal Trainer? A Level 4 Personal Trainer Course is the highest level of industry recognition, covering many specialist areas to enhance your market and earning potential. It opens new opportunities by providing specialist knowledge to expand and grow in the PT industry.

In general, there are three ways that personal trainers make money: a commission on the amount of sales, a training rate when the session is delivered, and a bonus for delivering a certain number of sessions in a pay period or quarter.

If you are the kind of person that absorbs peoples' stresses and energies, personal training will likely crush you. To be able to handle this type of stress, you will need to have the skill of listening empathetically while not internalizing what your clients dump on you.

Introverted trainers are as effective as extroverted trainers. The key is to have the right mindset, be prepared and focus on developing learners' skills. It doesn't have to be a performance, but it does have to be interesting.

According to our salary survey of more than 1,000 personal trainers, one in five trainers earn $75,000 or more per year. One out of every 10 trainers earn six figures or above. Those odds are slightly better than you'll find in other careers. But there's a lot you can do to improve your position.

What is an average work day as a personal trainer?

The majority of your clients will be working 9-5 so your schedule has to work around that. This can mean working early mornings, evenings, weekends, or all of the above.

Learn from experts in the field on how many hours a personal trainer works. As you get personal training experience, try to stick to 25-30 hours a week (max) for actual training sessions. You'll need non-training time for scheduling, invoicing, working out, promoting your business on social media, and more.

Becoming a personal trainer isn't hard, but serious work and study are required. Look at both entry-level and advanced certification programs. Personal trainers need to spend a lot of time experimenting in the gym to gain knowledge. Personal trainers must put the necessary effort into marketing.