Career as a Fitness Trainer

Staying active means keeping your body functioning at a high level. Regular exercise will maintain the performance of your lungs and heart to most efficiently burn off excess calories and keep your weight under control. Exercise will also improve muscle strength, increase joint flexibility and improve endurance.

Another main benefit of physical activity is that it decreases the risk of heart disease. Additionally, it can decrease your risk of stroke, colon cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. Regular exercise has been long associated with a fewer visits to the doctor, hospitalization and medication.

Exercising does not have to be something boring and dreaded. It can be something that you enjoy that helps to increase the overall happiness in your life, as well as relieve symptoms of stress, depression and anxiety. Try to find some activities that give you pleasure, or even a buddy to do them with so that exercise is a fun and enjoyable activity and one that you continue on a regular basis because it adds something good to your life.

With gyms and health clubs mushrooming all over the country, the demand for qualified instructors is going up sharply. And this spells good prospects for those aiming to pursue fitness as their career. 

Trainers with the ‘right’ qualification can teach just about anybody who can pay to be healthy and fit — from hardworking executives to the stressed-out CEOs, the politicians, the self-conscious student, the middle-aged housewife.

Careers

Ø  Aerobics instructor: They conduct group sessions of aerobic exercises like stretching, running, swimming, cycling etc.

Ø  Clinical exercise instructor: An instructor or trainer who is known to work with patients to help them recover from any physical ailments they may have.

Ø  Gym or Group trainer: One who trains clients in groups generally available in set ups like gym.

Ø  Personal trainer: One who trains individual clients on a case to case basis and applies a customized approach and program as per client’s specific requirements either at client’s home, gym or other suitable location.

Ø  Celebrity trainer: This is a kind of trainer which has recently evolved. Wherein a trainer trains individual celebrity on a personal basis with a customized approach for each celebrity.

Eligibility

Ø  Minimum 10+2

Courses

Ø  Aerobic Instructor Training Course         

Ø  Spinning Instructor Training Course

Ø  Fitness – Diet and Nutrition

Ø  Primary and Advanced Pilates Instructor Training Course

Ø  Pre and Postnatal Fitness Instructor Training course

Ø  Advanced Fitness/Gym Instructor Training course

Ø  Diabetic's Fitness Training course

The Recent Trends in Fitness Training

Among a wide variety of recent trends in fitness the most common ones are crossfit training, personal training, parkour to name a few. Let’s get a better understanding of these new trends.

Crossfit Training: A Crossfit training is a strength and muscle conditioning program which involves high intensity functional exercises in a varied form. Crossfit focuses on all aspects of physical fitness like cardiovascular, stamina, flexibility, coordination, speed, agility, power and so on. The workouts are extremely varied and of challenging nature. The intention is to not focus on the strength or functioning of a particular body but on every physical aspect of the body.

Parkour Training: Parkour is a recent trend in fitness which focuses on training your body and mind in a natural environment in an effective way. During parkour a person jumps, climbs and overcomes the physical barriers or obstacles in his path in a very efficient and swift way of movement. It is different from running in the way that, during running a person does not have to move or swing overcoming the obstacles.

Pilates Training: Pilates exercises are done on either on a mat on the floor or on exercise equipment developed by Joseph Pilates. The Pilates workout equipment generally utilizes pulleys and resistance from the participant's own body weight on the machine and graduated levels of springs.

The reformer is probably the best-known piece of resistance equipment that you will encounter at a Pilates studio.

Spinning Training: A spin class is a high intensity cycling workout that generally takes place on a stationary machine with a heavy, weighted flywheel that is linked to the pedals.

The result is a fixed gear bike (like a track bike) – your legs are constantly moving and you have to apply pressure to slow them down. You can’t simply stop pedalling and that means that every second of the available time is put to good use.

Institutes

Ø  Reebok Training centre, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, New Delhi 

Ø  Gold’s Gym Fitness Institute (GFFI), Delhi, Benglore, Pune, Mumbai

Ø  BFY (Better Fitness for You): Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmadabad, Chandigarh

Ø  Talwalkars Fitness Academy: Mumbai, Pune

Ø  K11 Fitness Academy, New Delhi

Ø  Sports Authority of India (SAI): Imparts different courses in sports and athletic coaching at various branches in India.

Ø  SAI, Netaji Subhash (NS) National Institute of Sports, Patiala

Ø  SAI, NS Eastern Centre, Kolkata

Ø  SAI, NS South Centre, Bangalore, Karnataka

Ø  Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education and Sports sciences (IGIPESS), New Delhi

Ø  Lakshmibai National College of Physical Education, Kerala

Cost of the Course

₹ 10,000 – ₹ 50,000

Careers Prospects

Today, fitness in India is a whopping ₹2,000 crore industry and most fitness centres are swanky studios offering an array of fitness regimes such as aerobics, kickboxing, yoga, pilates, cross fit, parkour, spinning, dancercise and other workouts with sophisticated machines. Moreover, be it at home or at the fitness centre having a qualified trainer has become the ‘in-thing’.

Like with any other profession fitness industry provides a whole of lot of varied career prospects for the fitness trainers. Like operating your own gym, getting into sales of fitness related products or gym equipment, getting into the design aspect of fitness equipments, be a corporate trainer, get into five star hotels, health resorts, sports clubs, spas, get into the stream of teaching or be a personal trainer or consultant and so on.

If you desire to get into a government job you may apply to the numerous government run health or sport institutions. Besides, you can also conduct specific fitness and health related sessions as guests for corporate houses or colleges or come up on the television shows.

Employment Sector

Ø  Gym

Ø  Health Resorts

Ø  Fitness Related Products or Gym Equipment’s Industry

Ø  Corporate Industry

Ø  Fitness and Recreational Sports Centres

Ø  Civic and Social Organizations

Ø  Health Care and Social Assistance

Ø  Other Schools and Instruction; state, local,and private

Income

Pay scale in this field is mainly based upon the reputation of the centre, the locality in which the fitness club is located, the clientele, number of students etc. As a beginner one can earn a salary between ₹ 5000- ₹ 7000 per month. Established trainers charge up to ₹ 1,000 - ₹ 1,500 per hour.

Personal trainers are very much in demand these days. They earn a lot more than the Group Fitness Instructors and Exercise Specialists. If you are a celebrity trainer you can earn much more. They are the most highly paid category.