The Top 15 Essential Personal Trainer Skills

Are you considering becoming a personal trainer but not sure if you're cut out for it? Maybe you've been in the industry for some time but don't feel like you're achieving as much as you'd like.

Wherever you are in your fitness professional career or one of the best personal trainers in the world, understanding the 15 essential skills that will make you a successful personal trainer is key. So let's see what these are!

1. Minimum Education

First, you are going to need to acquire the level 3 personal trainer qualification at the minimum to become a personal trainer. The course will give you the foundational knowledge on anatomy, nutrition principles and how to program exercises for specific goals.

You need this qualification to ensure that both you and your clients are safe when you are training them. You won't be able to get liability insurance without having the necessary qualifications either, so if you have ambitions to work as a personal trainer, shop around to see what courses are available for you.

2. Desire to Help

You are also going to need to have a desire to help.  If you’re going to be a successful personal trainer, then you have to want to help people reach their fitness goals, whatever they may be.

It’s important that you look at someone and see someone that you would love to help succeed, not just someone who is going to pay you. Firstly, because if money is your main driver in the industry, you'll soon realise that it won't fall into your lap. Secondly, people want to hire a personal trainer to help them and can easily sense if your motives don't include that.

3. Empathy for Clients

In order to see success as a personal trainer, you need to have empathy for your clients. You are going to be able to relate to them better if you have had to go through your own tough journey to get where you are and are able to share their feelings. However, it's possible to be empathetic even if that's not always the case.

It’s challenging to imagine what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes, and it’s true to say that everyone’s experiences are different. But, the ability to share and understand someone else’s emotions and show compassion will take you to great heights as a coach.

4. Business Skills

Business skills are essential for a fitness professional, especially if you'd like to go on your own and build your own brand. You need to know how to run your own personal training business, how to attract clients and what it takes to retain them will be crucial.

Sadly, many personal trainer course providers don't focus on the business management aspect of being a trainer, so if you feel you're lacking, feel free to check out business courses or go through our range of business courses on IPT.

5. Motivation Skills

Being able to motivate people is one of the things that excellent personal trainers do best. You need to be able to get your clients not to give up, even when they feel like they are at breaking point.

You need to be the voice that tells them they can, even when their body is screaming at them that they can’t. It’s down to you as the professional to provide motivation, and if you can’t do this then you won’t succeed as a personal trainer.

6. Passion for the Industry

When you are passionate about something, you'll make sure that you do everything in your power to be successful in it. You should be passionate about two things if you are serious about becoming a personal trainer.

The first is helping people which we have already covered, and the second is health and fitness as a general topic. Your passion is what is going to help you through and get you where you want to be in this market because it will show when you are helping your clients, enrolling onto CPD courses or searching ways to give back.

7. Communication Skills

How good is your communication? Remember that you are going to need to get across your points clearly and concisely. Your clients need to understand what you are saying, why they are doing what they are doing, and how it is going to benefit them.

Whether you're in London or New York, way you communicate counts not only in the gym, but while on a consultation, taking a call from a client, arranging your schedule or even talking to your audience via your social media channels or blog. Work on your communication skills if they aren’t your best assets right now.

8. Money & Finance

If you’re going to be running your own personal trainer business, then you need to be able to handle money and finance. You can’t just spend on whatever you want without consulting the budget, and you can’t underbook clients simply because you don’t want to work.

It’s important that you book the right amount of clients to keep the business going at the very least, but most people find they want more than that. Re-investing your profit into your business is going to be key for growth. At the very least you'll want to be well versed in revenue, costs and expenses, profit and everything that affects your financial stability. If you're in it for the long haul, plan for the long haul and manage your finances accordingly.

9. Marketing Skills

Do you have any kind of knowledge as to how to market a business? If you don’t, then you need to learn as soon as possible. You always hear that marketing is a waste of time and money, but we can assure you this is not true.

In fact, you need to know the marketing basics in order to attract people to your business in the first place. You can think of marketing as showing your audience the value of your services and how it will benefit them.

10. Knowledge of Systems

Learning about all the different systems available is an important part of running a business. You have got to understand how to take payments, how to run social media marketing campaigns, how to work accounting software and so on.

When you decide to make a jump and create your own training space with staff members, systems will also come handy. Creating your own systems in all areas of your fitness business will streamline your processes, make work more efficient, save you time and keep both your staff and clients happy.

11. People Skills

Now, you may not realise it yet, but personal training is a lot more about the person you are training than about exercises, workouts, gym equipment and nutrition. Being a personal trainer definitely requires you to be a people person. Whether you train people 1-2-1 or in groups, you'll need to be able to engage, communicate and manage them.

Ensure that you know how to speak to people in a professional manner, and that you know the difference between talking to an employee and a customer. If you know that your people skills leave a lot to be desired, you might want to start focusing on it ASAP.

12. Branding

Branding skills become important when you decide to launch your own fitness brand. Now, this is a skill that you might want to develop for yourself, or you can find professionals who'll do it for you based on your idea of what message you'd like to broadcast to your clients and audience. You still need to have a basic understanding of what a brand is and how to create one for your business.

13. Tech Skills

Tech skills could also be called life skills these days. From your phone to your tablet and computer, whether you are using pen and paper for client data to be recorded, eventually you'll need to be able to communicate with your clients and prospects via various gadgets. Plus taking payments, online scheduling and especially online training certainly require some tech skills.

It's worth investing your time in YouTube tutorials, combing through the Resources section on the IPT website or approaching colleagues and family members who are tech savvy to show you the ropes.

14. Understanding of Nutrition Principles

Becoming a personal trainer is about more than just fitness. You are likely also going to be asked about nutritional needs and what the best things to eat alongside their workout routines are.

You can take a nutrition course if you'd like to become a nutrition coach as well as a personal trainer. Most PT courses will require you to learn the basics, understand nutrition principles and the Eat Well Plate, but they don't prepare you for the range of problems your clients might have around nutrition.

It's perfectly understandable if you don't want to take on a whole other science, you can choose to partner up with a nutrition coach and provide a well rounded service to your clients that way.

15. Eagerness to Keep Learning

Finally, you should always want to learn new things about your industry. Learning new practices, learning new ways to engage with people, learning more about the business development.

When you’re passionate about something, you want to learn all there is to know, so keeping up to date with the latest scientific discoveries around fitness, nutrition and sports science should be imperative to any aspiring personal trainer.