Six Reasons to Become a Personal Trainer
There is nothing better than being a personal trainer. The ability to be in a positive environment while helping people achieve their potential is the most rewarding profession EVER. If you’re considering becoming a personal trainer, whether it’s your first job out of high school or college and a career shift, let today’s blog article help you make the decision because this is the right career path for YOU. Will there be hurdles and challenges? OF COURSE, but that makes the job even better because you’ll be escaping the dreary rat race of the typical 9-5. Here are 6-reasons why YOU should highly consider pursuing your passion for fitness:
1. Help People.
As a trainer of trainers (I’ve helped over 6,500 people get their personal training certificate), 6,499 said they’re pursuing this field because they want to help people. The one outlier was an 18-year-old who said, “I want to meet chicks.” God bless his horny little soul, but that’s not a reason to become a personal trainer. We want to help people achieve heights that they never imagined. There’s something special about the client who comes in weighing 300 lbs. and 24 months later, they weigh less than 200 lbs. When someone comes in with shoulder or knee pain, being able to help them get out of pain and achieve feats that they could never imagine is the BEST! When you can help clients do their first pull-up it’s truly the greatest feeling in the world! If you have a calling to help people become better, becoming a personal trainer is the career path for you.
2. Do what you LOVE.
Do you have a passion for fitness? Maybe you have an amazing, weightless story? Or have you been diagnosed with some sort of disease or injury without given much hope from a doctor? YOU have an incredible story that needs to be told, and that passion is what drives you to become the BEST personal trainer. The number of trainers who share with me their journey from having a refrigerator crush their legs, being immobile from back pain, to losing over 200 lbs – I’ve lost track! If you’re passionate about fitness, becoming a personal trainer is 100% for you!
3. Health-Centric
Seriously, what’s better than being in a gym? Or going for a hike with ten like-minded people? Find a better community than CrossFit or Hyrox (what is HYROX, learn about it HERE.) Being a personal trainer is the single most health-specific career choice other than being a professional athlete (those odds are unrealistic), but becoming a personal trainer isn’t. The excitement of SHOWING UP to work in leisurewear is unmatched (maybe you’re like Chad Waterbury and prefer camo sweats.) Your coworkers are awesome to be around, but they also give you the perfect amount of competition to push you harder when you aren’t feeling 100%! Being a personal trainer is the best job in the world!
4. Work flexibility - AKA You're Your Own Boss
I quoted Arnold Schwarzenegger in my book, How to Become a Successful Personal Trainer (Vol 2 out in 2025), “Over 70% of people HATE their job.” (WATCH THE VIDEO HERE) The rat race of working 9-5 doing something you hate can be soul-crushing. As a personal trainer, you get to create your schedule. Let it be known that we do take the unwritten oath of training when our clients are not working (typically early in the morning and late into the evening). With the right mentorship, you’ll be able to create the best work schedule while turning your passion for fitness into a career (NEED A MENTOR? EMAIL INFO@SHOWUPFITNESS.COM w/ the subject line I NEED A MENTOR, and we will schedule a call to see which Show Up Instructor would be right for you!)
5. Market / Career Growth.
“Employment of fitness trainers and instructors is projected to grow 14 percent from 2023 to 2033, much faster than the average for all occupations.” (1). There are over 70,000 personal trainers that will be entering the workforce every year for the next 10 years! If you want to work at the BEST personal training gyms like Life Time Fitness or Equinox, being a QUALIFIED SUF-CPT sets you up for the most success as we have helped more trainers get hired at these gyms than ANY company. Maybe you don’t want to work at a gym, there are numerous other opportunities within fitness such as Corporate wellness, Management, Sales, Entrepreneurship, Non-profit, grant writing, cruise ships, wellness retreats, blog writing, and Intrapreneurship. (2.) Will AI be the next chapter within fitness? Or maybe wearable technology, the number of opportunities within health and fitness is endless (3.)
6. Potential to make 200k.
I interviewed a personal trainer in my book who makes well north of $200,000. That doesn’t mean YOU will make 200k, but with the right certification, internship, mentorship, and drive, making a sustainable income to support your family is 100% achievable. I’m not going to sit on my Porche and try to sell you some business coaching BS claiming to help online trainers make 6-figures, if you want to become a financially successful personal trainer, you need to have the business, people, and trade skills. With over 20 years of experience as a trainer, gym owner, author, and CEO, I can tell you there is no career that I would rather be part of. Within the Show Up Fitness CPT (the fastest-growing personal training certification in the world, recognized nationally and internationally) we help QUALIFIED trainers focus on the 60-30-10 revenue split. Where 60% of your revenue comes from either personal training or online training. 30% comes from the inverse (if you make 60% training private clients, then 30% should come from online and vice versa.) The last 10% can be a passion project. Too many personal trainers lost their jobs due to Covid-19 because they were not situated with these streams of revenue, don’t let that be you!
